Guava Custardflan Recipes

GUAVA FLAN

Steps:

• PREHEAT oven to 350°F Place 1 cup of the sugar in small heavy saucepan; cook on medium heat until sugar is melted and deep golden brown, stirring constantly with wooden spoon. This should take about 10 minutes. Remove from heat. Immediately pour into 9-inch round baking pan; tilt pan to evenly cover bottom of pan with syrup. Set aside.
• PLACE milk and cream cheese in blender; cover. Blend until smooth. Add remaining 1 cup sugar, the eggs, vanilla and salt; cover. Blend just until smooth; add guava paste and pour into prepared baking pan. ( I found that sprinkling the cubes of guava paste across the top of the raw custard helped to keep them from globbing up in the middle- Next time I might try blending the guava paste in blender with the rest of the ingredients) Place filled baking pan in larger baking pan; add enough hot water to larger pan to come halfway up side of smaller pan.
• BAKE 50 minute to 1 hour or until knife inserted near center comes out clean. Cool. Carefully remove flan from water. Cool on wire rack.
• REFRIGERATE several hours or unti chilled. When ready to serve, invert pan onto serving plate to unmold flan. (Some of the guava cubes stuck to the caramel and I just took them off with a fork and stuck them back in the top of the flan where they came from!) Store any leftovers in refrigerator.

GUAVA AND CREAM CHEESE TWISTS

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.

GUAVA CUSTARD/FLAN

Steps:

• Make sure all ingredients are room temperature!
• Preheat oven at 350 degrees.
• Place brown sugar, water and lemon juice on a small pot andd cook at medium heat until sugar changes to golden brown.
• *Don't skip the lemon juice, it will prevent lumps on the caramel*.
• Cover a 9-inch round cake pan with caramel; tilt and swirl to cover bottom and sides.
• Let cool aside.
• Mix eggs, guava paste, cream cheese and the rest of the ingredients in blender. Mix until smooth.
• Once caramel is hard or a bit cracked; pour the mixture into pan.
• *Tap pan into the counter to remove air bubbles.*.
• Place mixture pan into a larger shallow pan and fill the larger pan with hot water. Make sure it comes about halfway of the mixture pan.
• *DO NOT COVER*.
• Bake at 325 degrees for 50 minutes to 1 hour.
• Flan will be done when knife inserted in the center comes out clean.
• Remove from oven, put on a cool rack for about 2 hours.
• Cover and refrigerate.
• To serve, insert thin knife around the edges of the flan, cover with a shallow dish and flip pan over.

GUAVA CHEESE FLAN

Steps:

• Preheat oven to 350°F
• Place sugar and water in 9-inch round cake pan.
• Stir until sugar is slightly dissolved.
• Place pan on stove on medium heat.
• Cook sugar about 10 minutes, without stirring, until sugar turns a golden to golden brown color.
• Use oven mitts to swirl pan, coating bottom and sides with caramel.
• Place pan on wire rack to cool and harden caramel slightly.
• Meanwhile, place remaining ingredients in blender container; cover.
• Blend until smooth.
• Pour mixture over cooled and hardened caramel in pan.
• Cover with foil.
• Place a large shallow baking pan in oven.
• Place cake pan in baking pan.
• Carefully pour hot water into baking pan so it comes halfway up side of cake pan.
• Bake 1 hour or until knife inserted in center comes out clean.
• Remove cake pan from water bath.
• Cool on wire rack.
• Carefully loosen sides of custard from pan with a knife.
• Cover and refrigerate 3 hours or until chilled.
• May be chilled overnight.
• To unmold, invert pan onto a large shallow plate or pie dish.
• Garnish with mango and kiwi slices, if desired.
• *Guava paste is available in the international aisle of grocery store, it is sold in bars.

PASTELITOS (GUAVA AND CREAM CHEESE PASTRIES)

Steps:

• Heat the oven to 375 degrees. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper and set aside.
• Prepare an egg wash: In a small bowl, beat the egg with a pinch of salt and set aside.
• On a lightly floured surface, roll one sheet of puff pastry into an 8-by-12-inch rectangle roughly the size of a standard sheet of paper. (Keep the other puff pastry sheet in the refrigerator.) Dust off any excess flour and lay the rolled pastry sheet on the parchment-lined baking sheet. Dip a pastry brush into the egg wash, and paint a line in lengthwise along the center of the pastry sheet, followed by three crosswise lines, evenly spaced, forming a grid of 8 rectangles, each approximately 3 inches wide and 4 inches long. Brush edges with egg wash. Lay a slice of guava paste in the center of each rectangle (or dot with dollops of jam or preserves, if using). Spread some of the cream cheese, if using, on top of the guava paste (about 1 1/2 tablespoons cream cheese per pastry).
• Remove the second sheet of puff pastry from the refrigerator, and roll it out into an 8-by-11-inch rectangle, dusting with flour as needed to prevent sticking. Lay the second sheet of puff pastry on top of the first. Using the side of your palm, press around and between the mounds of filling, pressing out any excess air, and to glue the top pastry to the bottom, creating 8 even, rectangular pockets. Paint the top sheet of puff pastry with egg wash. Sprinkle the surface with sugar.
• Using a knife or bench scraper, cut out and separate the 8 pastelitos following the original grid in between the indentations in the dough. Trim the perimeter to neaten the rectangles. The dough should still be cool to the touch; if it is warm, return the pastelitos to the refrigerator on the baking sheet for 10 minutes to firm up before baking.
• Bake pastelitos until puffed and golden brown, about 15 minutes. Serve warm or at room temperature.