A buttery flaky dough is piled high with a tropical creamy guava cheese filling. It’s like a mini caribbean vacation in your mouth. Now where is that cabana boy with my piña colada?
My Moonbug has the cutest pair of baby hands. At 6 years of age her hands are freakishly tiny. I kid you not; she has itty bitty toddler hands. What’s crazy is I didn’t notice it until she was in preschool.
I’d walk my daughter every day to school, holding her tiny hands and thinking holding hands with your kid is the best thing in the world. We’d get to her classroom and like a lot of three year olds; every so often she’d throw a tantrum of massive proportions. It would get ugly, people. Calming her down would take anywhere from 2 or 30 minutes. Her teacher would make me sneak out after 5 minutes, otherwise I’d be there all day.
One particular morning, as the Moonbug was having one of her massive tantrums, her teacher asked one of her little friends to try and calm her down. The cutest little girl walked up to her and holds out what looked like a tiny mitt for a hand. I was like, holy crap – That kid has a HUGE ASS HANDS! I mean, it was a freaking baseball mitt strapped to the wrist of a three year old girl. It was weird.
I thought about that kid’s freak mitt hand ALL day. ALL DAY. Then during my commute home I started noticing the hands of other children; children my daughter’s age and younger. And that’s when I realized: My Moonbug is the kid with the freakishly tiny baby hands.
And it made me laugh hysterically. Her hands are really cute. When she makes a fist it’s like she’s holding two caramel colored golf balls. Watching her threaten to punch her brother ends all conflict right then and there. We give her drinks in tiny glasses and they’re the perfect size for her tiny hands. It’s comical as hell. She insists her hands are growing, and I’m sure they are; however, they are still the tiniest, daintiest hands on a 6 year old you’ll ever see. And I love every single tiny finger.
Now, allow me to segue into something related; totally different but the same. Kinda.
The Superbowl. And mini guava pie bites. See what I did there?
In a few weeks all of America, from the Plain States to the Purple Mountain Majesties will be watching the Superbowl. Real talk? I have no idea who the hell is playing. And I don’t care. I watch for the commercials – And to eat Superbowl food. I haven’t decided whether or not I plan to host a Superbowl party this year, but from here to the Superbowl there will be loads of appetizer situations on M.O.B. to enjoy come the big day.
You guys know I’m Dominican, right? And at least for this Dominican the celebration is not complete without a lil’ guava somethin’ somethin’. The idea for these started out at as a guava coconut cheesecake dessert shooter, but then I realized guava needs a pastry to carry into my very eager waiting mouth. So I used the same buttery pie dough from my Strawberry Cheese Mini Pies and cut mini pies with a fluted cutter which I placed in mini muffin tins. You know, to make itty bitty pie shells. I made a filling with guava paste, cream cheese, confectioners’ sugar, and vanilla extract, then piled it high inside those itty bitty pie shells.
What I got was 48 itty bitty pie bites, PERFECT for all your Superbowl mini dessert needs. The dough can be made weeks in advance and frozen (start now), and the filling can also be made at least 2 days in advance. Come Superbowl time all you’ll need to do is quickly roll out pie dough, stuff them into mini muffin tin cavities, and bake for 12 minutes. Allow them to cool and fill. This shouldn’t take longer than 30 minutes, if that.
I mean, seriously – It’s easy like a mofo.
Impressive as hell.
Tasty as I don’t even know what.
And almost as addictive as crack.
All of that in a tiny little bite.
Get to pie dough makin’, yo.
[purerecipe]
Ingredients
For the pie crust
- 2 cups all-purpose flour scooped then leveled
- 2 ½ tablespoons granulated sugar
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 1 cup 2 sticks, 8 ounces unsalted butter, cold and cut into cubes
- 1 large egg
- 2 tablespoons whole milk
- 1 large egg beaten (for brushing the dough)
For the guava cheese filling
- 8 oz. 1 package full fat cream cheese
- 1/2 - 3/4 cup guava paste
- 1 1/2 cup confectioners' sugar or more as needed
- 1 scant teaspoon vanilla extract
Instructions
- Make the pie crust:
- In a bowl of a food processor, add the flour, sugar, and salt. Add the cubes of butter and pulse about 8-10 times until the flour is incorporated with the butter, and the butter is in pea sized pieces. It is totally cool if the butter pieces are larger than pea size.
- In a separate bowl, beat the egg with the milk, and then add them all at once to your dry ingredients. Pulse a few times until the flour is moistened. This will take about 7-8 pulses and you'll be left with a very wet looking dough which will resemble sugar cookie dough. This is fine.
- Turn the dough over a lightly floured surface and gently knead a couple of times. Divide the dough in 2 and gather the dough pieces in a rough square. Lightly sprinkle flour over top of the dough and wrap in plastic wrap or place in a zip lock bag. Place in the freezer for about 30 minutes. While the dough is chilling, make the filling.
- Make the filling:
- In a bowl of an electric mixer fitted with a whisk attachment (you can also use a hand mixer or a whisk and some serious arm strength), combine the cream cheese and guava paste. Mix over medium/high speed until combined. Turn off the mixer, scrape to combine, and add the confectioners' sugar. Turn the mixer speed to low and add the vanilla extract. Mix on low speed until the confectioners’ sugar is mostly combined with the guava/cheese mixture. Raise the speed to medium/high and mix until the ingredients are fully combined and the filling is light and fluffy. If you prefer a stiffer filling, feel free to add more confectioners’ sugar. A good rule would be to add 1 tablespoon at a time until you get the desired thickness. Wrap the surface of the bowl in plastic wrap and place in the refrigerator until ready to use.
- Bake the pie shells:
- Lightly spray 2 24-cavity mini muffin tins with cooking spray and preheat the oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit.
- Remove one piece of dough from the freezer. Turn the dough onto a lightly floured surface and roll out a 9x12 inch rectangle to about 1/8 of an inch in thickness. If you are unable to get a 9x12 inch rectangle get as close as you can. Trim the very edges of the dough with a pizza cutter or a knife to make a nice rectangle (If you end up with a square I won’t judge you)
- Using a 2 inch fluted biscuit cutter or a round cutter, working quickly cut dough circles. Gather the excess dough into a rough square and freeze for a few minutes before you re-roll and cut once more. Place the cut dough circles into the muffin cavities and press lightly to cover the entire cavity, lightly pressing on the bottom. It doesn’t have to be perfect. This dough is very buttery, so you may not end up with pretty mini pie shells and that’s OK. Plus they’ll get filled later. Place the muffin tin in the freezer to chill. Repeat with the second piece of dough. Place the second muffin tin in the freezer to chill for at least 5 minutes.
- Remove both mini muffin tins from the freezer. Brush the surface of the dought with beaten egg and place in the oven. Bake for 10 to 12 minutes until the tops are golden brown. Remove from the oven and allow to cool completely before filling.
- To fill the mini pie shells:
- Remove the filling from the refrigerator. Fill a piping bag fitted with a round or star tip with the guava cheese filling and pipe that situation as high as you’d like. Alternatively, you can spoon the filling into the mini pie shells using a cookie scoop or a teaspoon. Top with little guava pieces for garnish.
