Guava Cheese Pastries (Cuban Pastelitos de Guayaba y Queso)

To this day, guava and cream cheese pastries are the most iconic part of a Cuban breakfast.

I had never made pastelitos at home until I saw Marta Darby’s recipe. Living in Miami, I’m spoiled… there’s a Cuban bakery on practically every corner, each one serving up flaky Cuban pastries.

Anytime I’m on the road and need Cuban coffee, I’ll grab one with un masa real (because guava is my love language).

Other days, it’s two ham croquetas because you can’t just have one. Duh. 😉

But if you don’t have a Cuban bakery nearby, you can still make this authentic pastelitos de guayaba y queso recipe at home.

Let me show you how!

“Thank you Jamie! Like you, I can’t remember when I first tasted pastelitos de guayaba. They’ve just always been a treat. Long story short, I live in Florida but it’s so hard these days to find a bakery that makes them fresh and without all the added sugar, glaze, toppings. So I thought let me look for a recipe rather than trying to find yet another bakery to try. Never in a million years would it have occurred to me that these were so simple to make. Hope to wow the family with this recipe and say goodbye to hunting for a bakery that does them justice. Thank you so much! So glad to have found your blog!” —Gigi

Step-by-Step Instructions

The best part of this recipe? It only takes 4 ingredients. All you need for these homemade pastelitos is puff pastry, guava paste, cream cheese, and a whisked egg to seal the deal.

I usually grab Pepperidge Farm puff pastry sheets and Conchita guava paste (my go-to brand), but use whatever you can find.

👉🏼 By the way… the 2 puff pastry sheets get cut into 9 squares each, which gives you 18 total squares. Since each pastelito needs a top and bottom square, you’ll end up with 9 pastelitos total.

👀 Unpopular opinion: Cream cheese is technically optional in guava pastelitos. I usually go all-in on guava (the real star), BUT I’ll admit… adding cream cheese makes them extra rich and velvety (just like my pastelitos de queso). Either way, you can’t lose.

Recommended For This Recipe

Baking Sheets

Highly recommend these aluminum, nonstick baking sheets that provide high conductivity. Perfect for these pastelitos de guayaba y queso!

The first time I shared this recipe, my friends asked me for a care package. They know I LOVE making recipes with guava.

Funny, they can all get these guava queso pastelitos ANYWHERE here in Miami. Just goes to show, nothing beats “homemade”. 🫶🏼

I hope you make these and you LOVE them as much as I do!