Bahamas

BAHAMAS: Guava Duff 

A huge thank-you to Heather Cover-Kus for sharing her grandmother’s recipe. A few observations. This is a very involved recipe, so make sure you have time. It reminds me of an old fashioned jam rolley-polley or “spotted dick” as it’s a steamed pudding. Served with a rum-butter sauce, this Is truly epic and I understand why Bahamians love it so much. The guavas I bought were quite under-ripe, so I boiled them to soften them up a bit.

INGREDIENTS:

Duff ingredients:

10 large guavas
3 cups flour
½ cup margarine or butter
1 cup sugar
3 tsp baking powder
½ tsp salt
1 cup Milk
1 Beaten egg

Sauce ingredients:

1 cup Butter
3 cups Sugar
½ cup Rum
Pulp of Guavas

DIRECTIONS:

Peel guavas. Scoop out seeds and keep for sauce. Cut guava shells into small pieces and set aside. Blend dry ingredients together. Cut in margarine or butter. Add milk and beaten egg and knead until smooth (about 50 strokes). Roll out into a rectangle about 15 X 12 inches. Spread with cut up guavas and roll as a jelly roll. Seal in foil that has been sprayed with Pam (two wrappings of foil are best). Place in large pot of boiling water. Cover and cook for 1 ½ to 2 hours. Remove from foil and slice. Cover with sauce.

Sauce
Soften seeds and pulp in blender and then strain out seeds. Set aside. In a mixer, cream butter and sugar. When fluffy, add pulp of guavas and rum.