Cuban Pastelitos de Guayaba y Queso (Guava and Cheese Pastries)

[ts]
We had almost forgotten about these little treats. I first had these guava and cheese pastries several years ago when JS and I, along with a couple of the gongs (our cousins), went on a trip to LA. One of our stops was Porto's Bakery. Actually, we made a few stops at Porto's, including a stop to stock up on pastelitos before flying back to to Vancouver.

Porto's Bakery (Glendale, CA)



[js]
My original plan was to grab a couple (okay, TWO DOZEN) of these pastelitos from Porto's on our way up to San Francisco (to attend the Foodbuzz Food Blogger Festival). But, as you well know, that didn't happen.

Oh well. I consoled ourselves with the thought that there's always a next time.

I didn't know that next time would be today, when TS had it in her sight to make these morsels of deliciousness. I casually reminded her that we did have guava paste in the pantry. The guava paste was a purchase several months ago, just a purchase on who-knows-what-whim.



[js]
I never expected that the guava paste would be enlisted to a higher calling.

[ts]
I rushed out of the house to buy puff pastry. Then, I realized that I wouldn't be able to make these pastries the same day because the puff pastry had to thaw! The waiting!

The next day, I prepared the cream cheese filling -- cream cheese loosened with some milk and lemon juice, and sweeteened with the smallest amount of sugar -- and the rest was basically an assembly job.

For various reasons, I had a really trying time with the whole job. I was actually very annoyed during the whole time, but I willed myself to finish because despite the annoyance, I was still very excited to eat them.



[ts]
I decided to cut each pastry sheet into 9 pieces, as I knew the more pieces there are, the better. Look at how sorry my pastry squares looked.



[ts]
I filled each square (or whatever shape these can be called) with some cream cheese filling, then some of the guava paste.



[ts]
The first 9. Look at how ugly those shapes are. The next 9 didn't fare any better. I brushed egg wash on them before placing them in the oven. When they were fairly golden, I brushed some simple syrup on them -- equal parts of water and sugar, heated until the sugar is dissolved -- and baked them some more.



[ts]
Here they are out of the oven. Almost all of them were not sealed properly and had either cream cheese or guava, or both, oozing out of them. I guess that's what happens when one greedily overfills tiny pastry squares. As I said, it was a very bad day for me and these pastelitos.



[ts]
But, no matter.
These Cuban pastelitos were fantafreakingbuloutastic!

Brushing them with simple syrup seemed to be a must, as it gave the exterior the same quality as the pastries from Porto's. I was quite powerless to resist these, stuffing my face even though I was extremely full. It was probably for the better than I only made so few. And yes, 18 small pastries is a few.

[js]
Just like the Refugiados from Porto's, I couldn't stop eating these! The filling was the perfect balance of sweet, tangy, fruity, creamy. Needless to say, we finished off our batch in a couple of hours.


interior of a pastelito

[ts]
I made sure to save some to give to the gongs. They had no trouble at all remembering these pastelitos.

Actually, gong2 almost missed out altogether! She mistakenly held out until the next day to eat one, and only managed to snag HALF of one as she caught someone taking the final pastry.



One could probably just wing it when making these pastries. But, this is the recipe I referred to. For the Love of Food: Guava Pastries

[eatingclub] Cuban
Cuban Pastelitos de Guayaba y Queso (Guava and Cheese Pastries)
Grilled Cuban Chicken
Cuban Arroz con Salchichas (Yellow Rice with Vienna Sausages)
Slow-Roast Pork Shoulder, Two Ways

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Börek with Beef Filling
Korean Pork Bulgogi (with Muu Namul, Kong Namul)
Lobster Congee from a Lobster Feast
Pork Jowl (Pork Cheeks) with Brown Sugar Rub
Beef Salpicao
Cuban Arroz con Salchichas (Yellow Rice with Vienna Sausages)
Cuban Pastelitos de Guayaba y Queso (Guava and Cheese Pastries)
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We're submitting this to Regional Recipes, a blogging event created by Blazing Hot Wok that celebrates food from all over the world.

The region for this edition is Cuba. The round-up will be hosted at Blazing Hot Wok and will be posted after November 15.

Regional Recipes information