Guava Turnovers

My grandpa recently visited from California and brought with him about 25 lbs of guavas for his only granddaughter. I love guavas and normally would never even contemplate changing the flavor by cooking them, however, 25 lbs. is even too much for me to eat before they go bad. I should mention I had just finished a 10 lb. shipment a couple of weeks earlier.

So, although I still very much prefer the plain fruit straight from the tree, these turnovers turned out quite well.

Guava Turnovers

Yields: 8 large turnovers

Ingredients:

·         2 Sheets of Frozen Puff Pastry, Thawed

·         2 lbs. Guavas, peeled and halved

·         ¼ C. Sugar

·         2 tsp. Lemon Juice

·         1/3 C. + 1 Tbsp. Water

·         1 Egg

Directions:

1.       Roll out 2 sheets of puff pastry to about 12” x 12”

2.       Cut each sheet into 4 squares, place on parchment covered cookie sheet, cover with plastic wrap and place in refrigerator.

3.       Combine guavas, sugar, lemon juice, and 1/3 C. water in a saucepan.

4.       Bring to a boil on medium-high heat, stirring occasionally until sugar is dissolved.

5.       Cover and reduce heat to medium-low. Simmer until fruit is tender, stirring frequently, about 10 minutes (this will vary depending on the ripeness of your guavas, mine were quite ripe already).

6.       Uncover and allow liquid to reduce, about 10 minutes, stirring frequently.

7.       Remove from heat, mash guavas, leaving small lumps.

8.       Place about 2 Tbsp. of guava mixture into center of cold puff pastry square. Fold square diagonally over mixture forming a triangle. Repeat with remaining 7 puff pastry squares. Cover and place in refrigerator while you preheat oven to 400 degrees F.

9.       Mix 1 egg and 1 Tbsp. water in small bowl to brush onto turnover.

10.    When oven is ready, take cold turnovers out of refrigerator, cut slits into the top of each triangle, brush with egg/water mixure, and sprinkle generously with sugar.

11.    Bake at 400 degrees F. for about 20 minutes or until golden brown.

12.    Cool on rack and serve at room temperature.

Mixed Berry Turnovers

So simple and so delicious. I used the last third of some puff pastry that I made and froze some time ago. I did notice a slight difference between my puff pastry and store-bought puff pastry in that it tasted more buttery. To me this is neither a plus or a minus, simply different.

Mixed Berry Turnovers
Yields 8 small turnovers or 4 large turnovers

Ingredients:
All-purpose flour for dusting
1 pound store-bought or homemade puff pastry
1/2 C. Sugar
7 ounces mixed berries, frozen or fresh
Pinch salt
2 Tbls. Cornstarch
2 tsp. Lemon juice
1 tsp. Lemon zest
1 Egg yolk
1 Tbls. Heavy cream or water
Sugar for sprinkling

Directions:

• Lightly flour your work surface, roll out puff pastry dough to 1/8th of an inch thick, approx. 17 1/2 inch x 9 1/2 inch rectangle. Trim with pastry cutter to a 16 x 8 inch rectangle. Cut into either 4 or 8 equal squares. Place squares onto parchment covered cookie sheet. Cover with plastic wrap and chill until firm, at least 1 hour.

• In a medium bowl mix together sugar, salt, cornstarch, lemon juice, lemon zest. Fold in mixed berries (if frozen, let thaw a bit). Let filling stand until juicy.

• In a small bowl whisk together egg yolk and cream or water, set aside.

• Stir filling and strain, discard excess liquid, divide equally among pastry squares. Place in the center of each square. Brush edges of squares with egg wash. Fold dough diagonally over filling to form a triangle, and press to seal. Crimp edges with a fork.

• Place filled turnovers on a parchment covered cookie sheet. Cover with plastic wrap and freeze for 20 to 30 minutes. The filled turnovers can be frozen for a couple of weeks and do not need to be thawed before proceeding.
• Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Brush tops of turnovers with the egg wash. Sprinkle generously with sugar. Bake for 25 to 35 minutes until turnovers are puffy and deep golden brown, rotating baking sheet half way through.
• Immediately transfer turnovers to wire rack to cool.

Delicious, delicious napoleons

These were so surprisingly easy to make that my waistline may never forgive me. Its basically just puff pastry, some vanilla custard thinned with whipped cream, and berries. The perfect dessert any time. I might also add that my mom even liked them. You might be thinking to yourself, of course she did, moms like everything their children do. Well, you clearly do not know my mom. Her usual response to things goes something like this..."So mom, what do you think?" "Hmmmmm," said in a disapproving tone. So, to have her compliment both how they looked and how they tasted (even though she got hers 2 days after they were completely assembled) was really fantastically awesome.

Napoleons
adapted from Martha Stewart

Yield Makes 6

Ingredients

• For Assembling
• 1 pound  puff pastry, about 1/3 recipe
• 1/2 cup sugar, for work surface
• Strawberries, cored and sliced into bite size pieces
• For the Pastry Cream
• 1 cup milk
• 1/2 vanilla bean
• 1/4 cup plus 1 tablespoon sugar
• 3 egg yolks
• 1 tablespoon all-purpose flour
• 1 tablespoon cornstarch
• 1 teaspoon unsalted butter
• 1 cup heavy cream, softly whipped

Directions

1.     Prepare the Puff Pastry.

2.     Preheat the oven to 375 degrees. Sprinkle work surface with sugar. Roll dough into a rectangle 1/8 inch thick and, using a sharp knife or a pastry cutter, cut in half. Cut each half into thirds, keeping rectangles equal sized, each approximately 6 inches by 8 inches. Water-spray two baking sheets and place pastry rectangles on them. Chill until firm, about 30 minutes. (If you only have 1 wire rack like I do and don't mind having big dents in 2 of the napoleons, you can do this on 1 baking sheet)

3.     Prick rectangles all over with fork tines (I forgot to do this and it didn't seem to make a difference). Place a wire rack over each set of pastry rectangles and bake until pastry reaches the top of the rack, about 15 to 20 minutes. Remove rack and continue to bake until golden and evenly browned, about 5 to 10 minutes more. Cool completely on racks.

4.     Make pastry cream: Scald the milk, vanilla bean, and 1/4 cup sugar. Beat egg yolks with remaining sugar until thick. Sprinkle in flour and cornstarch, and continue beating until well mixed.

5.     Remove vanilla bean from milk. Beat half of the hot milk into yolk mixture. Return this to remaining hot milk and bring to a boil quickly, whisking very fast to prevent scorching. Remove from heat and pour into a bowl to cool. Rub top of pastry cream with  teaspoon of butter to prevent a skin from forming. Cover with plastic wrap and cool completely. Immediately before using, fold in softly whipped cream with a wooden spoon.

6.     To assemble, slice each rectangle horizontally. Place each bottom half on a serving plate. Top with a 1/2-inch layer of pastry cream and berries. Place the top half on top of berries and repeat process with remaining rectangles. I added a small dollop of cream on top of the berries so that the top piece of pastry would stick. Garnish with berries and serve immediately. (Can be wrapped and refrigerated for a couple of days)

Even though these are best served immediately after assembly, these were still truly fantastic after being wrapped with clear wrap and put in the refrigerator for a couple of days. They didn't get the slightest bit soggy, which was my big fear.

Also, I had quite a bit of left over pastry cream that I covered with clear wrap and we used to dip berries in later in the week.