Weekend Baking Project: Guava and Cream Cheese Pastelitos

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Maria del Mar Sacasa

Weekend Baking Project serves up popular existing recipes from our archives.

20110216-127677-Serious-Sweets-GuavaCheese-PRIMARY-thumb-518xauto-140383.jpg
Maria del Mar Sacasa

It's something I just can't seem to get over. For the first 25 years of my life, I always had spring break. (Yeah, I went straight from college to three years of grad school.) Like Christmas or my birthday, I could expect the same thing from March every year. It was a guaranteed burst of relaxation right when I thought the winter doldrums were going to drive me mad. Well, kids, real life is hard. There is no spring break. So you should stay in school. Forever.

Or else you'll become like me, who's fanatically baking everything tropically-inspired I can think of in a lame attempt to live out my spring break fantasies. Luckily, when the homemade daiquiris wear off and I realize I'm still in a sweater, these desserts stand on their own merits. And in case the 17 tropically inspired desserts we published this week weren't enough, here's an oldie but a goodie that's one of my favorites to make.

Pastelitos—literally, "little pies"—are puff pastry turnovers filled with guava paste and cream cheese. The sweet, fruity guava is balanced by the tangy cream cheese, and I love the contrast of the soft filling with the buttery, easily shattering puff pastry shell.

Now excuse me while I crank up my Beach Tunes playlist.