Guava Cheese Turnovers

I'm once again participating in Brenda from Meal Planning Magic's Eating the Alphabet Challenge.  This month's letters were G & or H.  I metioned in a previous post that I thought about using the Grapefruit Avocado Salad.  However, I'm really trying to challenge myself with this challenge and wanted to try a fruit/vegetable/legume that I hadn't tried or cooked with before.  So, I finally decided on guava.  Now, when I was looking for recipes, most recipes did not use fresh guava.  After a stroll through my local grocery store, I couldn't even find fresh guava!  Most recipes either called for guava nectar or guava paste.  After doing a precheck at the grocery store I saw that both were available.  So, I went with trying these Guave Cheese Turnovers, which uses guava paste.  In case you don't know, guava paste is found in a round tin, similar to a tuna fish can, but much larger!  The one that I bought was made by Goya and came in a 21 oz. can. (Now I need to figure out what to do with the rest of it, since I only needed 4 oz.!) These turnovers were easy enough that my 3 and 6 year old children helped me.  I set them both up on opposite ends of our large cutting board.  After giving them each a square of pastry puff, they put in the cream cheese, guava paste, and brushed the dough with the egg.  I helped my son fold and crimp the edges with a fork, but my daughter was doing hers just fine.  She also helped make the glaze.  After they were done cooking and we put the glaze on, the kids and I were all excited to try our guava creations.  They were surprisingly good!  My son gobbled his all up.  My daugher liked the dough with glaze, but wasn't a big fan of the guava/cream cheese filling.  These were different, with the guava paste giving them a kind of tart taste which complemented the cream cheese.  These aren't something that I'd make a lot but I'm glad that I was able to try guava (really guava paste!) and make something new!

Guava Cheese Turnovers
from foodnetwork.com - courtesy of Daisy Martinez from Viva Daisy!

Yield:  8 turnovers
Prep Time: 20 minutes
Cook Time:  20 minutes

Ingredients:
1 (1-pound) package frozen puff pastry, thawed
1 tablespoon granulated sugar
1 (8-ounce) package cream cheese, cut into 8 equal pieces
8 (1 by 1-inch) squares guava paste (about 4 ounces)
1 egg, beaten with 1 teaspoon water
1/4 cup confectioners' sugar
1 teaspoon milk
1/4 teaspoon vanilla extract

Directions:
Preheat oven to 400 degrees F.

Sprinkle the sugar on your work surface to prevent the dough from sticking. Roll out each sheet of puff pastry to an 8 by 8-inch square. Using a pizza cutter or sharp knife, cut each sheet into 4 squares.

Make the turnovers: Set a pastry square in front of you with 1 of the corners pointing toward you. Place 1 piece of cream cheese diagonally over the center of the bottom of the square. Top with a piece of guava paste. Brush the edges of the square with beaten egg. Fold the upper half of the square over the filling to make a neat triangle. Crimp the edges with a fork. Repeat with the remaining turnovers, placing them on a parchment paper-lined baking sheet as you go.

Bake for 20 minutes or until golden brown and puffy.

While the turnovers are baking, mix the confectioners' sugar with the milk and vanilla, stirring to dissolve any lumps. Set aside.

Cool the turnovers on a rack for 10 to 15 minutes, then drizzle the glaze over them. Serve warm or at room temperature.

Family Rating:  1 thumb up.