Authentic Puerto Rican Quesitos (in 30 minutes!)
Today we’re making Quesitos, an iconic Puerto Rican treat made with puff pastry, cream cheese, and finished with a simple syrup. These bite sized pastries come together in 30 minutes and are perfect served hot with a cup of café con leche for breakfast or dessert.
This popular Puerto Rican dessert is the best combination of perfectly cooked puff pastry and creamy, decadent cream cheese.
There are many different recipes for quesitos floating around the internet, with all kinds of delicious variations on how to make these sweet treats.
However you like to prepare them, make sure to try your quesitos with a cup of café con leche and thank me later!
Ingredients
Directions
Tip: puff pastry cooking temperature and time can vary depending on your oven. Make sure to keep a close eye on your quesitos to make sure they don’t burn!
Alternative Fillings & Toppings
Because this recipe is so simple in nature, the options are pretty endless when it comes to creating variations.
Here are some easy ways to mix up your quesitos:
- Powdered Sugar – dust with powdered sugar instead of brushing with the simple syrup mixture for an easy substitute
- Guava – add a bit of guava paste to the flaky dough and cream cheese before baking to create Pastelillos de Guayaba
Buen provecho!
Authentic Puerto Rican Quesitos (in 30 minutes!)
- Prep Time: 10 minutes
- Cook Time: 15 minutes
- Total Time: 25 minutes
- Yield: 8 quesitos 1x
- Category: dessert, breakfast, snack
- Method: baked
- Cuisine: Puerto Rican, Latin
- Diet: Vegetarian
Description
Today we’re making Quesitos, an iconic Puerto Rican treat made with puff pastry, cream cheese, and finished with a simple syrup. These bite sized pastries come together in 30 minutes and are perfect served hot with a cup of café con leche for breakfast or dessert.
Ingredients
- 8oz (1 block) cream cheese, softened to room temperature
- 1 sheet puff pastry, thawed according to package directions
- 1 egg
- 1 tbsp + 1/4 cup water
- 1/4 cup corn syrup
- 3 tbsp granulated sugar
Instructions
- Prep the oven and egg wash. Preheat oven to 350 °F. Prep your egg wash by beating your egg in a small bowl with a tablespoon of water. Set aside.
- Prep the puff pastry and cream cheese. Lightly roll out the sheet of puff pastry. Using a knife or pastry cutter, cut the sheet into 8 equal sized rectangles. Next cut the cream cheese into 8 slices. Lay a slice of cream cheese in the center of each puff pastry rectangle.
- Fold, brush, and bake. Fold in two opposite corners of each piece of puff pastry over of the cheese and brush the pastry with egg wash. Bake on a parchment lined baking sheet for 10-15 minutes, or until golden brown and cooked through.
- Prep the simple syrup and brush. While the quesitos cook combine remaining water, sugar and corn syrup in a saucepan. Cook over medium heat until the sugar has dissolved and a simple syrup forms. Brush this syrup over the quesitos fresh out of the oven, cool and enjoy!
Notes
See images above for help with cutting and folding your quesitos.
That’s my favorite part too! Thank you for the comment and review Steve.
This recipe was great. These little guys are soooo good 😊
After spending a week in Puerto Rico I have been craving these! This recipe is so easy and they turned out exactly how I wanted.
Excellent thanxs