Guava Pastry - Pastelitos de Guayaba Options

[foodiesleuth]

Luisito asks:
wanted my fiancee to make me guava pastry like in Hialeah Gardens,Fl bakery shops-------------any good guava pastry recipe are welcome----I am homesick!

Hola Luisito;
I live about as far from Hialeah Gardens as you can get and there are no cuban bakeries here, so I make do and came up with my own solution. The following is an excerpt from an article I wrote several years ago:

PASTELITOS

The word "pastel" means pies in Spanish. Pastelitos is the diminutive and
it usually means the small round or triangular pastries with fillings.
Usually pastelitos are made with delicate, flaky puff pastry, but other
doughs can be used. I prefer the puff pastry.

Puff pastry is very time consuming, though not hard to do. I don't make my
own much any more as it needs cooler temperatures and a drier climate
than where I live; so instead, I have come to rely on store-bought sheets
of puff pastry. Pepperidge Farm puff pastry comes two sheets to a package
and I use this for small quantities. If we are doing a catering job or
for large gatherings I buy the commercial sheets from my food wholesaler.

TO SHAPE THE PASTELITOS:

When using Pepperidge Farm:
-Take the sheets of puff pastry and smooth out the folds a little bit
(do not oversmooth it)
-With a very sharp knife, make cuts across the sheets, as if you were
drawing the lines for playing tic-tac-toe. You will have 9 squares per
sheet. For larger pastelitos cut in 4 pieces.
-Place filling (about a teaspoon full - more for the larger ones) in the middle of the square.
-Fold down from top corner to lower corner to enclose the filling and
form a triangle.
-Press all around the two open edges with a fork to seal tightly.
-Place pastries on a cookie sheet or jelly roll pan, not too close so
that they can puff up without touching the next one.
-Brush the tops with a simple syrup (sugar water-same amount sugar as
water) using a pastry brush.
-Place in 350oF oven on the middle rack. Takes about 20-30 minutes to
puff up and turn golden and flaky (depends on your oven and altitude,
so keep a close eye on the first batch to test your oven)
NOTE: The less you handle the sheets of pastry the more it will puff up.

FILLINGS:

Almost anything can be used as a filling. The traditional filings are
small dabs of guava marmalade and cream cheese, "picadillo" (*) style
meat fillings, or a sweetened cream cheese filling.

Other fillings I have used succesfully:
Sweet Fillings:
-Mango pieces cooked in sugar to form a marmalade.
-Apple pie filling (I like the Comstock brand)- add a small dusting of
cinnamon after you brush tops with the sugar water.
-Cherry pie filling (same brand as above)

Savory Fillings:
-Cream cheese and fresh herbs such as basil or thyme. You need to taste
your batch as you add the herbs to the cream cheese to make sure the
taste comes through.
-Picadillo style ground beef.
-Cream cheese and ground up potted meats, such as Devil's Ham or Chicken.
Once, in a pinch, I even used Spam ground up in the cream cheese.
It worked, they were good!

Enjoy
Sonia

[rosar]

Luisito asks:
wanted my fiancee to make me guava pastry like in Hialeah Gardens,Fl bakery shops-------------any good guava pastry recipe are welcome----I am homesick!

Hola Luisito;
I live about as far from Hialeah Gardens as you can get and there are no cuban bakeries here, so I make do and came up with my own solution.  The following is an excerpt from an article I wrote several years ago:

PASTELITOS

The word "pastel" means pies in Spanish. Pastelitos is the diminutive and
it usually means the small round or triangular pastries with fillings.
Usually pastelitos are made with delicate, flaky puff pastry, but other
doughs can be used. I prefer the puff pastry.

Puff pastry is very time consuming, though not hard to do. I don't make my
own much any more as it needs cooler temperatures and a drier climate
than where I live; so instead, I have come to rely on store-bought sheets
of puff pastry. Pepperidge Farm puff pastry comes two sheets to a package
and I use this for small quantities. If we are doing a catering job or
for large gatherings I buy the commercial sheets from my food wholesaler.

TO SHAPE THE PASTELITOS:

When using Pepperidge Farm:
-Take the sheets of puff pastry and smooth out the folds a little bit
(do not oversmooth it)
-With a very sharp knife, make cuts across the sheets, as if you were
drawing the lines for playing tic-tac-toe. You will have 9 squares per
sheet.  For larger pastelitos cut in 4 pieces.
-Place filling (about a teaspoon full - more for the larger ones) in the middle of the square.
-Fold down from top corner to lower corner to enclose the filling and
form a triangle.
-Press all around the two open edges with a fork to seal tightly.
-Place pastries on a cookie sheet or jelly roll pan, not too close so
that they can puff up without touching the next one.
-Brush the tops with a simple syrup (sugar water-same amount sugar as
water) using a pastry brush.
-Place in 350oF oven on the middle rack. Takes about 20-30 minutes to
puff up and turn golden and flaky (depends on your oven and altitude,
so keep a close eye on the first batch to test your oven)
NOTE: The less you handle the sheets of pastry the more it will puff up.

FILLINGS:

Almost anything can be used as a filling. The traditional filings are
small dabs of guava marmalade and cream cheese, "picadillo" (*) style
meat fillings, or a sweetened cream cheese filling.

Other fillings I have used succesfully:
Sweet Fillings:
-Mango pieces cooked in sugar to form a marmalade.
-Apple pie filling (I like the Comstock brand)- add a small dusting of
cinnamon after you brush tops with the sugar water.
-Cherry pie filling (same brand as above)

Savory Fillings:
-Cream cheese and fresh herbs such as basil or thyme. You need to taste
your batch as you add the herbs to the cream cheese to make sure the
taste comes through.
-Picadillo style ground beef.
-Cream cheese and ground up potted meats, such as Devil's Ham or Chicken.
Once, in a pinch, I even used Spam ground up in the cream cheese.
It worked, they were good!

Enjoy
Sonia

Sonia,
I tried making guava pastries with guava marmalade and the filling spills out every time. Is their something I'm not doing right? What do you recommend I do the next time? I've also used guava paste and it doesn't look creamy. HELP!!
Rosa

[foodiesleuth]

Sonia,
I tried making guava pastries with guava marmalade and the filling spills out every time.  Is their something I'm not doing right?  What do you recommend I do the next time?  I've also used guava paste and it doesn't look creamy.  HELP!!
Rosa

Hola Rosa;

I should have specified not to use marmalade unless it was really thick.
I usually use the guava paste 'en barra' from Goya that I can find here in only one market in Hilo, the largest city to where I live. It does sort of melt inside the puff pastry while baking. Maybe if you add a little piece of cream cheese that should make it a bit more creamy for your taste.

For another great filling I also love using a very chunky mango marmalade I make with the frozen mango I can buy at Costco during the off season.

Good luck
Sonia

[wilson1]

go to foodnetwork.com.. there is a good recipe there for the pastry part.. they use the guava shells cooked and reduced on the stove.. they taste a little bitter to me.. a friend suggested adding 1 teaspoon of white rum to cut the bitter taste.. there are places that sell frozen guava marmalade but it is really expensive.. and costly to ship..

Luisito asks:
wanted my fiancee to make me guava pastry like in Hialeah Gardens,Fl bakery shops-------------any good guava pastry recipe are welcome----I am homesick!

Hola Luisito;
I live about as far from Hialeah Gardens as you can get and there are no cuban bakeries here, so I make do and came up with my own solution.  The following is an excerpt from an article I wrote several years ago:

PASTELITOS

The word "pastel" means pies in Spanish. Pastelitos is the diminutive and
it usually means the small round or triangular pastries with fillings.
Usually pastelitos are made with delicate, flaky puff pastry, but other
doughs can be used. I prefer the puff pastry.

Puff pastry is very time consuming, though not hard to do. I don't make my
own much any more as it needs cooler temperatures and a drier climate
than where I live; so instead, I have come to rely on store-bought sheets
of puff pastry. Pepperidge Farm puff pastry comes two sheets to a package
and I use this for small quantities. If we are doing a catering job or
for large gatherings I buy the commercial sheets from my food wholesaler.

TO SHAPE THE PASTELITOS:

When using Pepperidge Farm:
-Take the sheets of puff pastry and smooth out the folds a little bit
(do not oversmooth it)
-With a very sharp knife, make cuts across the sheets, as if you were
drawing the lines for playing tic-tac-toe. You will have 9 squares per
sheet.  For larger pastelitos cut in 4 pieces.
-Place filling (about a teaspoon full - more for the larger ones) in the middle of the square.
-Fold down from top corner to lower corner to enclose the filling and
form a triangle.
-Press all around the two open edges with a fork to seal tightly.
-Place pastries on a cookie sheet or jelly roll pan, not too close so
that they can puff up without touching the next one.
-Brush the tops with a simple syrup (sugar water-same amount sugar as
water) using a pastry brush.
-Place in 350oF oven on the middle rack. Takes about 20-30 minutes to
puff up and turn golden and flaky (depends on your oven and altitude,
so keep a close eye on the first batch to test your oven)
NOTE: The less you handle the sheets of pastry the more it will puff up.

FILLINGS:

Almost anything can be used as a filling. The traditional filings are
small dabs of guava marmalade and cream cheese, "picadillo" (*) style
meat fillings, or a sweetened cream cheese filling.

Other fillings I have used succesfully:
Sweet Fillings:
-Mango pieces cooked in sugar to form a marmalade.
-Apple pie filling (I like the Comstock brand)- add a small dusting of
cinnamon after you brush tops with the sugar water.
-Cherry pie filling (same brand as above)

Savory Fillings:
-Cream cheese and fresh herbs such as basil or thyme. You need to taste
your batch as you add the herbs to the cream cheese to make sure the
taste comes through.
-Picadillo style ground beef.
-Cream cheese and ground up potted meats, such as Devil's Ham or Chicken.
Once, in a pinch, I even used Spam ground up in the cream cheese.
It worked, they were good!

Enjoy
Sonia

[foodiesleuth]

.. there are places that sell frozen guava marmalade but it is really expensive.. and costly to ship..

I find that if I use the guava paste that comes in 'barras' - like the one from Goya or similar brands, it works better than with marmalade or cascos (shells)
It holds better, and it will 'melt' some without oozing, if you crimp your edges tight.

Sonia