Sweet Plantains with Quince Paste and Cheese

It is about high time that I finally introduce a recipe with plantain on my blog. Plantains are soooo versatile, they are often used as a side if green and are treated like potatoes. Once they are ripe and yellow, they are often used in desserts or as a sweeter component. Today I am going to show them as a sweet dessert with quince paste and melted cheese or in Spanish “platanos con queso y bocadillo.” It is a super simple dessert, which is etremely popular in Colombia. Normally you would use guava paste, however, as this is close to impossible to get in Germany, we will use quince paste instead. My Colombian friends revealed to me that it is close enough to revoke the sweetest memories.

I know for a fact that Germans find it super unusal to combine anything sweet with cheese. Colombians, on the other hand, are obsessed with cheese, there is no other way of saying this. A lot of Colombian dishes are prepaed with cheese. For example, you will find baked cheese balls or pandebonos as well as fried cheese balls named buñuelos, or arepas aka corn flatbread filled with cheese. Yes, above snacks are all savory, but Colombians also love the combination of cheese and guava paste. One of the simplest desserts is cutting a slice of cheese and guava paste and just eat that. This is also common in Uruguay where I was born. The only difference is that instead of guava quince is used, this is called “dulce de membrillo.” How to make quince paste, I do explain in this blog post.

Whereas Germans like to fill and grill their bananas with chocolate and/or nutella, Colombians go for guava paste and cheese. Originally I was a bit hesitant when I tried it for the first time, but now I have to say I really like it a lot. You just need to be open to it and give it a try. The good thing is that you won’t get a sugar shock when you eat this dessert.

Print Recipe

Sweet Plantains with Quince Paste and Cheese

Prep Time: 5min – Cooking Time: 25min – Total Time: 30min

These sweet plantains are filled with quince paste and covered in melted cheese.

Ingredients

• One ripe and yellow plantain per person
• About 20 grams of quince paste or quince jam
• About 30 grams of mozzarella or similarly mild cheese per person

Instructions

1

The plantains need to be yellow and ripe. They may have already a few black specks, that's fine. If yours are still green, wrap in newspaper for a few days to speed up the riping process.

2

Preheat oven to 200 degrees Celsius and line a baking sheet with parchment paper.

3

Then cut off the ends of the plantains and peel carefully. Slit them lengthwise without fully cutting through. Cut the quince paste in longe and thin stripes and place inside the plantain, see pictures. Then grate as much cheese on top as you dare.

4

Bake for about 20 minutes on middle rack until plantains are browing. You can add futher cheese towards the end for the last few minutes.

5

Be careful not to burn yourself with the cheese when eating.