I was feeling so virtuous with this meal the other night, that I promptly broke down and made these puff pastry turnovers for a later-in-the-evening snack! Yikes, goodbye calorie count. But they were so easy, they made use of stuff I had lying around, and they were pretty wicked good, especially after a day of eating like a cow in a meadow…heeheehee. I think I WILL have to stop blogging about food if I am to get serious about weight loss.
At any rate, I had some puff pastry in the freezer and I took out one sheet and let it thaw for 15 minutes in the hot and muggy Manila temperatures (it says 45 minutes thaw time on the box!), then cut the puff pastry into 9 squares and into each square added a dollop of either mango jam, mangosteen jam, some pastillas de leche and even cashew butter with mango jam, then simply folded the pastry over and sealed edges (which still burst at the seams in some places and stuck it in a hot oven for say 15 minutes until cooked. You could brush the surface of the pastry with an egg wash to make a nice colored skin and even brush it with sugar syrup for gloss, but we had them plain, I am on a “diet” after all. The results? Pretty darn good if you ask me… flakey, warm, with just the right amount of hidden jam. But don’t eat these straight out of the oven, the jam gets pretty searing hot. The pastillas de leche version was particularly clever, tasty and sinful!
33 Responses
yum!!! :) that happens to me all the time too. I control what I eat all day and reward myself with a scoop (or two) of ice cream after dinner. so much for losing weight… where do you get your puff pastry? :)
I want! :-)
Ay, MM! It’s 4am and now you’re tempting me to get out the mango jam and cashew butter (no puff pastry, but I have crackers)! But what I REALLY want is the pastillas de leche one! What happened to it after baking? Does it melt, or get dry and toasted? Either way, I’m sure it’s scrumptious!
The truth is, I would enjoy nearly anything once it’s inside some flaky, buttery puff pastry… ;-)
Why diet?
Full bodied is “beautiful”.
I think it was Garfield (the cartoon cat) who said “Diet is DIE with a T”. Ay, good luck to all of us!
I note that more readers are overweight. That or many of us have some body image issue.
“We all get heavier as we get older because there’s a lot more info in our heads. So im not FAT! Im just really intelligent and my head couldn’t hold anymore so it started filling up the rest of me. That’s my story and im sticking to it!” – Garfield . . .
.hahaha i just found this in one of my e-mails. . .
Lucky you, you’re so able to whip up somethng this good! I’m so much a pastry girl(thank heavens for phyllo pastry..)I’m craving for one(just ONE…or I’ll LOSE it, he he)right now. And yeah, the pastillas de leche pastry is something novel if you ask me…way to go, MM!
Naku naman MM,this is so sarap with coffee or tea this morning….noon too and probably tonight as well. The pastillas de leche filling is a brilliant idea. I suspect one of the bakery chains will get this idea now.
I only have rasperry preserve in the fridge but that will do for now. That turnover looks so yummy!
Oh can I ask for your opinion? I’ve been wanting to make my own cheese for a long time. I found a website about 5 years ago that sells cultures etc. in order for you to make your own, different kinds cheese and the most popular one is fresh Mozarella! All you need is fresh milk from the supermarket and their kit. You can make your own mozarella or ricotta in half an hour! With Carabao milk available in the supermarket, I’m thinking maybe I could make a decent mozarella out of it. What do you think?
Here’s the website – https://www.cheesemaking.com/
and here’s the link to the Mozarella page –
https://www.cheesemaking.com/includes/modules/jWallace/ChsPgs/1Mozz/Index.html
Saw that pastillas de leche in in Market! Market! the other day.. Wanted to get one because but I stopped myself.. you know I already gained weight just from viewing this blog..
I wonder how you’re doing, MM..
Hi MM,
wow, this puff pasrty looks gooood… where did you get the puff pastry sheets…??
thanks..
Yup, they look scrumptious!!! And taken with tea or a strong brewed coffee on a rainy afternoon, SARAP!
I also want to know where to buy puff pastry and if it is expensive.
Hi MM! Isa pa ako…need to know where to get those puff pastry…it seems so easy and manageable to prepare. i ‘ll be celebrating my bday soon so…can you reply agad? sana…
Hi MM! where can I buy the puff pastry sheet?
Hi Everyone, for those searching for puff pastry, I bought my two boxes at S&R frozen section, but there weren’t many left in Taguig, alternatively, I have seen them at Santis delicatessen and at Rustans grocerys. You might try Terry’s as well. They weren’t that expensive, say about PHP300 or so for two “sets” of sheets, which means you could make 18 of these triangles for PHP300 or less than PHP20 each. And yes, super easy. But do not overdefrost, make sure your oven is hot, and watch it as it cooks… And if I only described a fraction of the work needed to do this pastry from scratch, you will understand why I would rather buy it than make it!
making puff pastry is therapeutic :)
did you brush the edge with egg wash or water to seal? i wonder why it burst? did you prick the top to let steam escape? make sure filling doesn’t go on the edge as it will prevent it from sealing properly?
sorry about all the questions, i’m doing a pastry course at the moment :)) and practising diagnosing faults with you, hehe.
btw, careful on how much you eat these… as you probably know, extremely high in fat. we’re currently using 1kg flour to 800g butter in class. i’ve made ones that are 1:1, they’re wicked!
dee bee, haha, I took the absolute lowest amount of effort and in the process messily overfilled, hence the overflow. Also, I had no idea you had to vent the steam, I thought that would help it puff up! some of the burn off was also becuase I used a soupy guava jam than ran like soup… At any rate, with your tips I can make “cleaner” ones next time! And therapeutic, yes, I understand that, BUT NOT FOR ME!!! :)
Been reading your blog for quite some time now. Your blog is really very bad for people who have to lose weight or for pregnant folks like me that are constantly craving for food and are on the inggitera side, hehe…
Where do you buy your puffed pastry??
just finished yoga class half an hour ago, now loading up on some fried bee hoon, some english tea to chug it down. :-p
agh, that would’ve been so good with this! this blog is definitely not for Garfield-esque people!!!
what happened to the pastillas de leche? I’m eager to find out, echoing Katrina’s query..
Thanks, MM! :)
Pastillas de leche melted a bit, then the stuff that escaped caramelized, and it was fantastic! Not too sweet, but wickedly rich. It was better than the cashew jam…
hi mm, sorry to sound so critical. i’ve just returned from a class where we made apple turnovers, among others. :))
some chefs ask us to prick holes, others don’t, my personal observation is that with holes, there is less pressure w/c helps prevent the edges from bursting and also, by letting steam escape, there’s less trapped moisture that may cause the pastry to become soggy.
it’s satisfying to see the beautiful layers puff up. btw, i still use commercial frozen puff pastry but they don’t taste the same.
Actually, I would prefer the “messy” ones as the caramelized, slightly burnt fillings add another taste dimension to the dessert. Sarap! Am imagining the taste of caramelized pastillas de leche!
Also, if you prick the pastry, won’t the filling also flow out of the holes, too? Same effect. For me, okay lang if it doesn’t look too “clean” as long as it tastes good!
Did you use the filo (or phyllo) dough? I buy that from Santi’s to make baklava.
When I was working in Miami the Puerto Rican lady I worked with wound buy pastellitas de guayaba from the Cuban bakery. They were amongst the best pastry I ever had.
If filo dough is used for that then I can start making my own pastellitas. I can make guava jelly or jam from scratch.
MM, you’re absolutely right! puff pastry is impossible to make in the tropics, unless you’ve got a kitchen-sized freezer. i tried making puff pastry once, and each time i folded and rolled, all the butter would ooze out the other end because it was all melted from the heat and humidity. i gave up after six folds (pretty stubborn, huh?), lay the whole thing onto a pastry sheet, threw some walnuts, chocolate chips and marshmallows on top just so it wouldn’t go to waste. turned out pretty good, but of course it didn’t puff up. I’d buy frozen anytime.
I have been eyeing the frozen puff pastry in Santi’s for a while now…you’ve just convinced me to buy some! :) This looks SO worth the diet-lapse :)
I know this doesn’t help your diet, MM, but try adding cream cheese to the jam filling. So good!
How do they make the base for otap in Cebu then? That looks suspiciously like puff pastry to me, in fact very close to palmiers which are made from puff pastry remnants.
Puff pastry is good as is sliced and baked with dusting of sugar. With the filling of mango, mangosteen and pastillas de leche will be definitely heightened its flavor focused. Yes, you need to create a vent and let the steam out for a flakier pastry. You can cut the top in an X fashion or prick it with a fork thine before brushing them with an eggwash.
MC, yes eggwash would help the final color of the pastry. Apicio, you know, you are right, otap does seem similar, though I suspect they make it with lard rather than butter… eatit1, cream cheese is in the next batch of experiments! Joey, and you can make savory snacks too… a little cheese, an olive spread, chorizos… yum! ntgerald, I bought puff pastry, slightly different from filo/phyllo, though they sell filo at Santis if you need some. CecileJ, these were definitely the “barombado” school of pastry…but with a sugar low, speed was of the essence… :)
i do this all the time since puff pastry in the armenian store near the church we go to in santa monica are cheap $1.99/dozen. sometimes i put some leftover pork giniling add some raisin and voila empanada espesyal or kaya jam filo dough too $1.99/box of 28 sheets or 1lb. made spanakopita and planning to make baklava next.
I sure would be looking for puff pastry every time I shop in the bigger stores. You think SM Hypermarket has it? S & R .. you say .. hmmmm.
I like easy … and really impressive looking, ha.
the picture of the cooked puff pastry looked exactly like Pepperidge Farm’s apple turnover.
I guess I will have to look for puff pastry next time I am in Makati.
Just judging by its picture, you can tell that it is incredibly delicious. It is nice to know that there are lots of things that you can do with mangosteen.