Bridezilla Bakes

Welcome to the second installment in our Monday series of Puerto Rican food! But first, I think I owe you all a mini-update from the fantastic Chicago Food Blogger’s Bake Sale for Share our Strength, which was FANTASTIC! I was so honored to work with such amazing bloggers and bakers from all over Chicago… seriously, these women have mad baking skills (and really cute aprons). It’s amazing how much a love of food and baking can bring people together Our goal was to raise $500 — and we raised $885!!

Check out this post from Maris at In Good Taste — she has great pictures as well as a list of the bloggers who were there and links to our recipes! As for the Chocolate and Peanut Butter treats that I taunted you with on Saturday, hang in there — I’ll post that recipe soon!

Aaaaaaand…… here’s Courtney!

In Old San Juan, where I work and live, there is this white van that drives through the streets every afternoon.  The speakers blast with a man’s voice saying, “La gua-guita de los dulces…looossss duuuulllceesss, tenemos quesitos, donas rellenas, mallorca…”  Literally translated it means “the little pastry van, we have cheese pastries, filled doughnuts, sweet bread…” and the list goes on for what they sell in the back of the truck.  However, in my head it translates as “Cooourrrtneeyyy, come and eat my sweet pastries made just for you!”  I seriously feel like a little kid hearing the ice cream truck when I hear that man’s voice over those speakers.  My first instinct is to tell myself, “I NEED a quesito!”  And I have gone out running after him to buy one of these sweet delicious pastries.

Quesitos are a very traditional pastry here and sold pretty much everywhere.  They have them at bakeries, grocery stores and even sell them at Starbucks, Wendy’s, Subway and other fast food restaurants.  It is a simple pastry with a sweet cream cheese filling wrapped in a buttery flaky crust.  On top there is sugar that has been caramelized, so you when you bite into it, it is sweet and crunchy on the outside and flaky, cheesy and soft on the inside.  When looking for a recipe to make these I came across The Noshery’s version, which has the same cream cheese filling but has guava too.  In Puerto Rico guava is a common ingredient used in savory dishes, for example chicken with guava sauce, as well as in desserts.  The easiest way to buy it is in the form of pasta de guayaba (guava paste) which is packaged in a flat tin.  It is in between the consistency of dried fruit and a jelly, and can be used to pair with cheeses (I have done this as an easy dessert, eat slices of the guava paste with slices of white cheese), in savoury dishes and in this quesito recipe!  I have seen guava paste sold at many grocery stores in Chicago, so it should not be hard to find it there, and it is inexpensive, another plus.

Since the recipe from The Noshery recipe didn’t have the crunchy crust I was looking for, I looked around for another recipe that did.  It suggested brushing the outsides with egg whites and sprinkling them with sugar, and it turned out great.  What I liked about making my own quesitos was that I could put in as much cream cheese filling and guava as I wanted.  You know how sometimes when you buy a really good looking filled pastry only to bite into it and find out that really it’s filled with more air than filling?  Well with making your own you can stuff them with cheese and guava to your heart’s desire.  In the case that you can’t find guava paste, or you just don’t like guava, I am sure you can swap it out for your favorite jam and it will taste just as delicious.

These little pastries are really easy and quick to make and are something different from your everyday American dessert with the guava paste.  I took them to work with me the next day to share, and by the end of the day they were all gone and I got a lot of compliments.  So if the Puerto Ricans I work with loved them, then you will too! ¡Buen Provecho! (Bon Appétit)

Quesitos con Guayaba

• 2 puff pastry sheets, thawed
• ½ tin guava paste cut into small pieces
• 12 oz cream cheese, softened
• ¾ cup powdered sugar
• 1 egg white
• Sugar for sprinkling

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees

To make the filling, whip together the cream cheese and the powdered sugar until smooth.

Roll out the pastry sheets on a floured surface and cut them into 4 x 4 in squares (you really can make them as big or little as you want.  Jumbo quesito anyone?)

Spread about 2 Tbs of cream cheese filling diagonally on each square.  Top with about 1 Tbs of diced guava paste.

Wet the edges of the puff pastry and wrap the two corners without the filling near them around the filling, like little sweet burrito, and pinch it shut.  Place the pastries on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper.  Brush the pastries with the egg white and then sprinkle them with sugar.

Bake for about 15 minutes or until puffy and golden brown.  Keep a good eye on them though, as they can brown up and burn quickly.