Blurb: My Dad’s mother, my Abuelita, made these, although she usually used a dough that was not puff pastry, but rather resembled a sweet empanada. My Dad, Carlos Antonio Carreras-Martorell liked both guava and mango paste, although I have not been able to find the latter in New England. Often, he just ate a little guava paste and cream cheese on a cracker. My Mum, always up for a culinary adventure, made a similar recipe for my dad, but she was more apt to bake something from her tradition. So, Dad often was stuck with his cracker concoction. I’ll be honest, I am not a fan of guava but in trying to find something from my dad’s side of the family other than flan there really aren’t many baked goods. What I do have are a lot of rice and meat recipes but that is not what this event was about. KCH
Ingredients:
- Two small packages of guava or one larger package
- One package of cream cheese
- Dough (puff pastry works well)
- 1 Egg
If Making Your Own Dough:
- 3 cups flour
- 2 tablespoons powdered sugar
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 3 ½ sticks of butter
- 1/3 to1/2 cup sour cream
Instructions for Own Dough:
- Cut butter into the flour, powdered sugar and salt mixture.
- Knead dough slowly adding sour cream.
- Roll dough into a ball and cut into two pieces.
- Take a parchment sheet and lay the dough on it on top.
- Take another parchment and put on top.
- Roll dough into a rectangle approximately ½ to ½ inch thick.
- Continue with all the dough.
- Take one parchment with dough out at a time.
- Unwrap the top layer of parchment and make a trifold by taking the right side of the dough and folding it ⅓ of the way to the center.
- Then, take the left side and fold over the first fold. You should end up with a smaller rectangle.
- Cover the dough with the parchment paper.
- Repeat with the other half of the dough.
- Place it in freezer for 15 minutes.
- Once chilled and slightly hard, roll out each folded dough again to a larger rectangle that measures around 12 x 7 inches and trifold it again.
- Then chill in the freezer for 15.
- Repeat one more time before making pastries.
If Using Bought Dough:
- Use puff pastry dough. I highly recommend DuFour, although there are others like Pepperidge Farm on the market.
Putting It All Together:
- Pre-Heat oven 400 for homemade recipe, or whatever degree level the store bought puff pastry calls for.
- Take each un-thawed (bought or homemade) but still cold rectangle of puff pastry and cut into six to eight pieces, depending on the size of the rectangle.
- In each bottom piece put one small square of cream cheese and on top of this cut one small square of guava.
- Score the top piece with three slits and put the top piece on the bottom piece.
- You can pinch the ends as well.
- Do this with all the squares.
- Brush each pastry with egg.
- Bake about 15 – 20 minutes. The tops should be golden brown.
