A trio of pastries

In Guyana, when we talk about pastry, we mean the rich short crust pastry dough that's converted with fillings to make some melt-in-your mouth delicious-can't-just-have-one pinetarts, patties and cheese rolls. The filling for the patties are a variety, you can have ground meat, ground chicken or vegetables. Each filling is sauteed and seasoned with fresh herbs, salt & pepper.

Pinetarts are sweet, flavourful pineapple jam that's encased in a perfect triangular casing of pastry.

Cheese rolls are made with a sharp cheddar cheese that's seasoned with salt, hot pepper, grated onions and mustard, all mixed into a paste. A heaping tablespoon is lined along the edge and rolled, encasing the paste. Brushed with an eggwash and baked in a 350 degrees F oven for 20 - 25 minutes and I swear that you will want to eat these things everyday! :) No kidding.

Look at this picture, tell me you are not moved by those layers and tell me you can't imagine the joy in your mouth :)

This trio of pastries is the subject of this week's column. Come with me as I take a trip down memory lane and go into the kitchen to recreate these beauties. Click here.

This recipe for a rich short curst pastry dough is fool-proof and I highly recommend it. Click here and I'll send you the recipe(s) for the patties, pine tarts or cheese rolls.

Since I was going to be baking and I was into pastry mode, I thought that'd make some phyllo cups and fill them with whatever I like. So I made a sweet and a savoury filling.

Sauteed chicken tenders with tomatoes and onions filled one set of cups and another set were filled with some slow and low cooked Granny Smith apples with brown sugar and spiced with cinnamon and all spice.

Don't forget that you can read the column here. Also, Latha of The Yum blog has asked me to remind everyone of the event she is hosting - Festival Cooking Series. Just click on the links to get there.