Guava and Cream Cheese Pastries

Light and airy puff pastry stuffed with cream cheese and guava paste; What's not to love...

I have made these for clients on several occasions and figured it was time I did some food on here.

These are fairly easy to make with a few ingredients but they wont last long on the kitchen counter.

They have countless variations, you are only limited to what your imagination will let you stuff into them..

LETS GO!

This recipe makes 16 triangles 1 serving each

2 sheets puff pastry (I use store bought here) thawed overnight or at least a few hours

1 small package cream cheese you'll need about 16 tsp. room temp.

3 tsp = 1 tbs , 2 tbs = 1 oz , so a 4 oz pkg is plenty, those are liquid measurements but they work here,

1 small package guava paste, found by the jelly in the grocery store, room temp.

1 egg

1 tbs water

sugar for dusting

cookie sheet

wax paper

pizza cutter or sharp knife

pastry brush

preheat your oven to 375 F.

lay your pastry sheets out on waxed paper long ways up and down

trim off 1 long edge about 1 1/4 inch, Save this trim piece

then cut the sheet in half, long way

cut across those 2 pcs at the 1/2 way point and then cut those 1/2's in half again, this will give you 8 even squares or something that resembles close squares

do this to both pastry sheets. you will have 16 pcs and 2 long strips

mix the egg and the water together well, this is called an egg wash, it is glue and a glaze all in one,

we are going to use a minimal amount (I used my finger tip for this).

** note ** egg wash doesn't stick to egg wash it helps the dough stick to itself,

SO.... we are only going to wash 2 edges of each square then fold the dry edge onto the wet edge and secure them together, but lets not get ahead of ourselves..

here I moistened the 2 center edges and the bottom edges, do it any way you want but this works for me when I make large batches of different fillings for buffet lines.

so go ahead with a small brush or your CLEAN fingertip (we all know where your fingertip has been) and lightly moisten 2 edges of each square with the egg wash.

my picture of the cut dough looked real sad so I used the one that had filling on it already..

FILLING

work like an assembly line, ie: all the guava, all the cheese, all the folding etc...

OK now slightly off center towards your moistened edges you will put about a teaspoon or a little more of the guava paste, Don't overfill them, I work the paste in the packaging a little to soften it up and make it pliable. it often comes stiff and needs to be worked a little, a few seconds in the microwave helps some too but don't get it hot.

cut the corner off the package and use it like a pastry bag or cut it open and dig in, this stuff is sticky sticky sticky, did I mention it's sticky. I have a client that is lactose sensitive so I left one without cream cheese, he says butter is ok, go figure

Any way you do it, get about 1 tsp down on each square, you are going to do the same thing with the cream cheese too, right on top of the guava. it don't matter which one is on top, just don't get it on your sealing edges it will hinder you getting a good seal,

CLOSING THE DEAL

Take your dry edge and fold it over and onto the moistened edge, you may have to manipulate it a bit but that's ok, this stuff is very forgiving, lightly press the edges together to get a good seal,

let this rest about 10-15 minutes to allow the egg wash to do its thing binding the flour proteins and stuff together

KInda sounds like a daily chores list don't it.

now we will transfer them to the baking sheet

Make them fit onto your baking sheet by lining the triangles up back into loose squares, if you don't have a pan big enough or use 2 pan, keeping the pieces apart at least 1/2 inch, they don't call this stuff puff pastry for nothing, here I just lined them up because we use giant pans in a commercial oven,

if you notice that you don't have a good seal while moving them, then go ahead and crimp them a little more, just don't play with them too much.

once you have them all transferred to your cooking sheet you will lightly brush each triangle with the egg wash and sprinkle the tops with the sugar, not too much sugar, you can barely see it in the pictures, it liquefies instantly, , table sugar will burn a lot faster than the large granule (crystal) sugar you see on commercially baked goods,

bake these for about 15 minutes in the 375 oven then quickly rotate the pans 180 degrees and cook 15 minutes more or until a dark golden brown,

these will be BOILING on the inside for at least 10 minutes so let them cool for at least 20 - 25 minutes before serving them, boiling sugar burns hurt worse than grease burns especially inside your mouth, Believe me I KNOW. Enjoy

puff pastry is very versatile, it has 1000's of uses, not just for desserts, lining pans for quiche or meat pies check the web for ideas

Now for the scraps.

so you got those 2 strips you paid for and don't want to waste.

lay those strips onto waxed paper sprinkle some grated parmesan cheese over them and maybe some garlic powder if you have it, lightly press it down to seed it into the dough, cut each strip into 2 or 3 long strips then cut those strips cross ways 3 times, to give you about 4 - 5 inch strips of equal size, pick them up by each end and twist them in opposite directions, bake your spirals at 375 f. about 25 minutes until dried and crispy, (no sugar here) you can eat them in about 2 minutes, Cheese Twists -- that's a generic pic but you get the idea, those look like they used a little melted butter and cinnamon sugar

you can use puff pastry scraps by re rolling them but never ball the scraps up, lay them flat on top of each other and roll them that way, balling them up will damage the layered structure of puff pastry and you will end up with a greasy, tough and not very appetizing product

thanks for checking this one out, I know a but load about the fundamentals of cooking, if you need help with something just ask, I will probably find an answer for you, But I'm not t.v trained, cooking reality shows are hardly realistic in a home kitchen, which is probably where you will attempt this, you can probably find videos for foams and hydro frozen, cryo-cooked desserts and stuff like that on the internet, Thank You G.