Destination
Puerto Vallarta
The story
Pastelitos are the small filled pastries that show up in every Mexican bakery counter and mercado sweet stall: buttery, laminated pastry squares or half-moons, filled with a fruit paste (usually guava, sometimes pineapple or membrillo), a spoon of dulce de leche or a knob of sweetened cream cheese, and topped with a scatter of chopped pecans or a dusting of icing sugar. Sold from glass display cases at panaderías (bakeries) across the country, especially in Mexico City, Puebla, Guadalajara and Veracruz, and eaten in the mid-afternoon with a cup of Mexican coffee or a glass of milk. Every panadería has its own version; every region has its favourite filling.
Method
Preheat oven to 200C. Line two large baking sheets with baking paper.
Lightly flour a work surface. Roll the puff pastry out to a rectangle about 3mm thick, roughly 40 x 30cm. Cut into 12 squares, 10 x 10cm.
In a small bowl, whisk together the cream cheese, sugar, vanilla and lime zest until smooth.
Working with 6 squares: place a small square of guava paste in the middle of each. Top with a heaped teaspoon of the cream cheese mixture. Fold the pastry over the filling diagonally to make a triangle. Press the edges together firmly with a fork.
Working with the other 6 squares: mix the dulce de leche with the chopped pecans and salt. Spoon a heaped teaspoon into the middle of each square. Fold over into a triangle. Press edges with a fork.
Arrange the filled pastelitos on the lined baking sheets, spaced 3cm apart. Brush each with egg wash. Sprinkle with turbinado sugar.
Bake 20 to 22 minutes until deeply golden and puffed. Rotate the trays halfway through for even colour.
Cool on the trays 5 minutes, then transfer to a rack. Dust with icing sugar. Serve at room temperature, or the same day within 6 hours.
Tips
- All-butter puff pastry. The margarine kind is a false economy — the buttery flavour is half of what makes a pastelito. Look for Dorset Pastry, Jus-Rol All-Butter or a good bakery-brand pastry.
- Seal the edges. Any gap and the filling leaks out and burns onto the tray. A firm fork-press along all edges is essential.
- Guava paste, not jam. Guava paste (pasta de guayaba) is a firm, sliceable, deeply-set fruit block sold at Latino grocers and now many supermarkets. Guava jam is too soft — it runs out.
- The two fillings look the same after baking. Mark them: fold guava-cream cheese into triangles, fold dulce de leche into rectangles (or vice versa). Otherwise your guests won't know which they've picked.
- Best on the day. Pastelitos are at their peak within 6 hours of baking. Overnight in an airtight container is still good; day two they've lost their crispness.
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