GUAVA CHEESE PASTRY RECIPES

Steps:

• Prepare the pastry: Combine the flour, confectioners’ sugar and salt in the bowl of a food processor. Add the butter and pulse until the mixture resembles a coarse meal. Add the egg yolks and cream, and pulse just until the dough starts to come together. Add more cream if necessary, but stop before the dough is too wet. Tip the dough out onto a piece of plastic wrap and form it into a ball, divide in two and wrap each half in plastic wrap. Chill for at least 2 hours.
• Meanwhile, prepare the filling: In a small saucepan, combine the figs, cherries and 1¼ cups water, and bring to a low simmer over medium heat. Cook until the figs are very soft, about 15 minutes, adding a little more water as necessary to make a moist paste. Transfer to the bowl of a food processor and add the almonds, brown sugar, rum, orange zest, cinnamon and salt, and pulse until you have a relatively smooth paste. (You should have about 1¼ cups filling.) Let cool completely.
• Line 2 baking sheets with parchment paper. Working with 1 ball at a time, roll the dough out to ⅛-inch thickness on a very lightly floured surface. Use a 2¼-inch cookie cutter to cut out circles. Transfer the circles to the prepared baking sheet. Scoop about a scant tablespoon of filling onto half of the dough circles. Brush the edges of the filled circles with a bit of cream and top with another dough circle, gently pressing the edges to seal. Repeat with the remaining dough and filling. (If the dough becomes too soft, pop it into the fridge to firm up before continuing.) You can reroll and cut the dough scraps one time.
• Chill the pies for 10 minutes. Use a fork to crimp all of the edges. (If you’d like to neaten the edges, you can go over the cookies again with the cookie cutter.) Refrigerate the cookies for at least 30 more minutes. While the cookies chill, heat the oven to 350 degrees.
• Brush the top of each cookie with cream. Bake until they’re golden and crisp, 25 to 30 minutes, rotating the sheets halfway through. Transfer cookies to a rack to cool completely.
• Prepare the glaze: In a small bowl, whisk together the sugar, almond extract and 3 tablespoons cream. The icing should be spreadable. If it isn’t, stir in another tablespoon cream. Spread a bit of the glaze on each cookie and top with sprinkles. Store in an airtight container at room temperature for up to 3 days or freeze for a month.

Steps:

• Using an electric mixer on medium-high speed or a large bowl and wooden spoon, beat butter and cream cheese until creamy and smooth. With the machine running, add sugar and salt, and continue beating until a little fluffy. Add egg yolk and beat until incorporated. (Reserve egg white.) Add flour all at once and mix just until incorporated. Halve the dough, and place each half on plastic wrap. Using the plastic wrap, press each half into a 1-inch-thick rectangle. Wrap tightly and refrigerate until firm, about 2 hours.
• When ready to bake, cut guava paste into 50 1/4-inch-thick rectangles (2 inches long, ½-inch wide). Line 2 baking sheets with parchment paper. Heat oven to 350 degrees.
• On a generously floured surface, using a well-floured rolling pin, roll out 1 dough rectangle until roughly 15 1/2 inches long, 6 1/2 inches wide and 1/8-inch thick. Trim the edges, then cut into 24 (2 1/2-by-1 1/2-inch) rectangles. (You will have 48 rectangles from the initial rolling; the final two rectangles will come from rolled-out scraps.) Transfer to a prepared sheet, spacing 1 inch apart. If the dough has gotten too soft to handle, refrigerate until firmer but still very pliable.
• Place a guava paste rectangle in the center of each piece of dough on a diagonal. (It should not extend past the dough.) Take the dough corner opposite the top of a guava rectangle and wrap it over the guava paste so that the point meets the opposite edge; press the dough corner gently to secure. Take the corner diagonally opposite to the folded one and fold over the other end of the guava paste, pressing the corner gently against the other edge. Repeat with the remaining dough and guava paste. Chill and reroll dough scraps. If the assembled dough is soft, and you’d like to decorate the tops, chill or freeze again.
• For a sparkly, crunchy and sweet top, lightly brush the top of the dough with the reserved egg white and sprinkle with sparkling sugar. (These taste just as good without any topping.) Bake, 1 sheet at a time, until golden brown around the edges, 13 to 15 minutes. (The paste may ooze out.) Cool completely on the sheets on wire racks. The cookies are best the day they’re made, but will keep in an airtight container for up to 5 days.