One of our favorite stops in Los Angeles was Porto’s Bakery. Everything was fresh and delicious at shockingly low prices. I’m dreaming about them expanding to New York one day but I know that’s a long shot so I may have to recreate some of their treats for myself. One of the pastries we enjoyed was a flaky and buttery pastry with a guava and cream cheese filling. They called it the Refugiado, but I’m not sure why it’s called the Refugee. (Hey Latino friends, holla if you know. ) Those layer-y doughs are a lot of work for home bakers and so is the idea of getting fresh guava to make a jam or preserve for yourself. Don’t worry, I came up with an easier alternative.
Guava paste is going to be your new best friend. This dense brick of paste can be rectangular or circular, and lasts for months. Eaten by itself, it tastes like fruit roll-ups or fruit leather, very addicting. I first tried guava paste on a cheese platter we served at Aix (where I did my externship). I believe it was the influence of our Mexican assistant pastry chef, nicknamed Jango. While you may see guava paste these days at cheese counters or fancy groceries, the best place to buy it is at any Latin grocery. It will be about a quarter of the price. The guava paste is pretty sticky so you’ll need a sharp knife to make thin slices. It also helps to clean the knife when it gets too sticky.
My Mini Refugiados really came out wonderfully, little pockets of deceivingly light pastry with a mildly sweet and creamy inside, accented by the tang of guava. Though this is very doable for any home cook, do expect it to be more work than your average drop cookie. If you make the dough the night before, it’ll feel like less work the day you make them. Hey, it totally works on me.
Mini Refugiado: Guava Cheese Pastry
~makes 20 little pastries
Sour cream pastry
- 2 cups all purpose flour
- 1/8 teaspoon salt
- 8 ounces unsalted butter, chilled and cut into 1/4″ slices
- 5 ounces sour cream
Filling
- 8 ounces cream cheese
- 1 large egg
- 1/3 cup granulated sugar
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1/2 teaspoon finely grate lemon zest
- 20 guava paste slices (2″x 1″ x 1/4″) *try to get a little under 1/4″ thick
- 1 egg yolk and 1 tablespoon water mixed together for egg wash
Directions
1. Combine the flour and salt. Cut in the butter with a pastry blender until the mixture feels like course sand.
2. Stir sour cream in with a fork. Use your fingers to press into a ball.
3. Divide in half and flatten into a roughly square shape. Wrap each in plastic wrap and refrigerate for 4 hours up to 3 days.
4. After dough is done chilliing, process the cream cheese, egg, sugar, vanilla, and zest in a food processor until smooth. Set aside.
5. Remove one piece of dough from the refrigerator. Set aside for 10 minutes before rolling. Roll on a floured surface, into a rectangle, a bit less than 1/8 inch thick.
6. Cut the pastry into 2″x3″ rectangles. (After you cut rectangles, you can ball-up and re-roll left-over dough.) Lay half of them on a un-greased baking sheet. Place a slice of guava paste on the center of each.
7. Add a gently rounded teaspoon of cream cheese filling on top. *Note: You will have some cream cheese filling left-over but it’s hard to make smaller amounts because it’s already down to 1 egg.
8. Brush egg wash along the edges of each pastry and rest another rectangle of dough on top. Press down on the edges to seal. Use a sharp knife to make three little slits on each pastry.
9. Brush all of them with egg wash and refrigerate for 30 minutes. Now you can preheat the oven to 375 degrees F and work on the other piece of dough (repeating steps 5 through 8 with it).
10. Bake for 20-25 minutes or until lightly browned. Cool on a wired rack for 10 minutes. Serve warm.
They are fine cooled to room temperature as well but best eaten the same day. We ate them at night, just lightly toasted in a toaster oven, which was also fantastic.
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OMG, just had one of these from Portos…yours look fantastic!! Great photos as always.
Would this work with frozen puff pastry?
Ravenouscouple, I miss Porto’s =(
Soopling, yup, I think it would be great. It will be puffier but I think it will be delicious. How much is puff pastry by you? I balked at the $15 box at Whole Foods. =/
oh my goodness i make these too and have been wanting to blog about it! urs look devine! great looking pastel.
oh another thing. being Cuban, an everyday snack after dinner is guayaba con queso crema on cuban crackers! soo good. recently made it for a client and they LOOOVED it! they were like “what is this stuff?!”
hi, these look aamazing and i really want to try it. but where exactly did you go to get the guava paste…?
i live in cali and go to la/oc area so plz if you can let me know. thanks!
Hello Jessica,
Just popping round before I go on the late shift!! Grrr
I’ve never had guava, is it like apple? Your pastries look better than shop ones! We have a similar pastry here..it looks the same but inside is cheese & onion, I will give these a go if I can get hold of the guava. BTW I did the Ratatouille Terrine for our London friends last weekend..they absolutely loved it!! x
i’m not sure i like guava, but i have a feeling i could eat my fair share of your delicate, beautifully-made pastries. the crust is amazing—excellent work!
Bren, how do you make yours? Also, being Cuban, do you know why they call them Refugiado? Cracker idea is wonderful because it’s practically no work at all.
Sophia, I don’t live in LA. I’m in NYC, so I think I got it in one of the stands at the Essex Street Market.
Lesley, hmm….guava doesn’t taste like any other fruit and it’s hard to get a good one in the states. I don’t know about London…I only get to eat fresh ones when I’m in Asia. You might be able to get guava paste, puree, drinks, or stuff like that just to get an idea of guava. Thanks for stopping in…get some rest!
Grace, Lon ate too many pastries last night. =/
Wow–looks delicious!
Oh, Dios mío.
Jessica, I’ve been thinking of doing an entry on Pastelitos de Guayaba! But yours look so enticing, I may not go through with it.
You know, these were my absolute passion when I was growing up in Cuba.
…and she’s off…
There was a bakery within walking distance from school that I used to raid every morning before school started.
And I’d always walk out with a bag of warm, fresh from the oven pasteles, which I would quickly polish off on the way to school.
They sold these gems for a quarter a piece, so I’d always buy 2, blowing my entire allowance for the day on these things. But I have no regrets.
In Cuba, Pastelitos de Guayaba (Guava Turnovers) were made by wrapping a light, buttery pastry (similar to puff pastry) around sweet guava paste.I don’t recall ever seeing them filled with cream cheese while I lived in Cuba. But, I know the latter addition is very popular with Cubans residing in the U.S.
And I also wonder why they’re now suddenly called ‘Refugiados.’
But I’m guessing these pastries were renamed by Cubans who fled the island.
Marysol, thank you so much for that! 25 cents per piece, give me 100!
I’m also shocked to hear that they are traditionally made with the guava paste. I thought that was just my little cheat. haha I do hope you make your Pastelitos de Guayaba because I’d love to see how it’s traditionally made.
Wow, yum! I’ve got to find this guava paste, my daughter will love these pastries!
It’s similar to quince paste you also find in Spain. I think this is a great idea! Yum!
Yum. How do I place my order? Do you deliver? Also, when cutting sticky stuff I’ve started spraying my knife with PAM before I cut.
P.S. At our regular market when we were UES puff pastry was ‘only’ about $5/box
Kasi, good tip, I didn’t think of it when I was doing it.
I live two blocks down from Porto’s in Burbank,
and I buy these guava pastries all the time! 😀
They are to die for!
Chai, lucky you!
They look fantastic. I’ve got some quince paste might do the same when the heat wave is over. thanks for the recipe!
I used to live in Miami, and adored these. I’ve been wondering how to recreate them since 1998. Thank you!
TOO MANY USELESS PICTURES! If a picture is worth a thousand words, you have uttered thousands and thousands of USELESS, MEANINGLESS words!
A big dose of self control is in order.
Jojo – where is your holiday cheer? Why so hostile, scrooge?
I too live a few blocks from Porto’s in Burbank and have been planning to attempt these for a while. I have a cream cheese dough recipe that I think will rock with the guava. I am making a trip to Vallarta Market in North Hollywood to see if I can find the guava paste. I might also try the middle eastern market on Magnolia/Lima…I understand the paste is used in other ethnic recipes as well.
SG, OMG, if I lived a few blocks from Porto’s…send me pictures when you make your guava pastries!
I had some of these at a Cuban restaurant and wanted to make my own. I don’t live in a large metropolitan area and got my guava paste from an Asian food market that also carries latin food products.
THE GUAVA PASTE IS THE SAME YOU CAN GET AT THE VALLARTA MARKETS IN THE LOS ANGELES AREA. IT`S CALLED GUAYABATE AND IS LOCATED BY THE DEL/CHESE/HAM ATC AREA. IT`S VERY CHEAP. I JUST BOUGHT 2 SMALL PIECES TO TRY MY NEW RECIPE.
HEY I ALSO TRIED WITH FROZEN PUFF PASTRY. IT WAS GOOD, BUT I THINK ICAN MAKE BETTER SO I`M GOING TO KEEP TRYING. THANKS FOR SHARING THIS RECIPE.
Julie and Gaby, glad you found them cheap. I’m always afraid someone will over pay for this at a fancy market. Send me some pics when you make your guava pastries.
Guava paste can be found in latin specialty markets. Those of you who live in the Burbank, CA area can find 2 or 3 different brands of guava paste at the Monte Carlo Italian Deli (otherwise known as Pinnochio’s restaurant) down the street from Portos on Magnolia.
Will it taste the same if you use regular pie dough instead of puff or your sour cream recipe? Because I’m a fan of Portos’ style and I dont have the courage to make the puff.
Felicia, it’s not that similar to pie dough but you can definitely buy puff pastry and it will be similar, only puffier. Gaby (comment) said she did it with puff pastry and it came out good. Let me know and of course, share pictures!
I made these exactly how the recipe says so and they came out delicious! Thank you so much for this recipe! Everyone loved them 😀
On your Cuban Refugee question and the name of the pastry, reminded me of a quote by Madame Roland “Oh, Liberty what crimes are committed in your name.”- Madam Roland.