Pastelitos de Guayaba

When I was in Jacksonville this past weekend with Marc we ended up buying a guava tree, even though he never had guava before. This inspired me to recreate the guava and cheese pastries of my past. My love for guava stems back to my childhood when my dad would bring home guava stuffed churros from Miami on his way back from work. My brother and I would fight over them like a bunch of rabid animals. And for my birthdays I would ask for a tray of guava and cheese pastries instead of the traditional birthday cake. Guava just tastes like my childhood, you know?

The guava tree we planted

1 package puff pastry, most brands are surprisingly vegan!
1 package guava paste, found in the Latin specialty foods aisle of the supermarket
1 container vegan cream cheese, yes- they now sell this stuff at most Publix Supermarkets!*
Almond milk, or any other preferred plant-based milk
Flour
Sugar

Preheat the oven to 375°F.

On a lightly floured surface lay out the puff pastry sheets, let them thaw out until they're soft, it may take 15 minutes if they came straight from the freezer. Cut each sheet into quarters, so you'll have eight squares as there are two pastry sheets.

You want to add about a heaping tablespoon of each the guava paste and cream cheese to the corner of each square of pastry dough. It's sort of hard to measure since it's difficult to mold as it is very sticky, but just eyeball it. The first time around (as pictured below) I didn't use enough guava or cream cheese. The second time around I cut about 1.5 inch long by .5 inch wide rectangles of guava and used a heaping tablespoon of cream cheese, which turned out perfect.

Moisten the edges of the dough with almond milk before folding into triange and crimping with a fork. Brush the tops of the pastries with almond milk and sprinkle with some sugar.

Place pastries on a greased baking sheet and back for 27-30 minutes, rotating the pan halfway through. Allow to cool slightly before eating as the inside filling will be molten-lava hot.

*If you want to skip the vegan cream cheese just double up on the guava, I've made them with and without the cream cheese and they're both great.