Guava Bars

Hi friends! Excuse my absence, I just finished a two-week stretch at work and haven’t had much time to do anything else!

Another successful Denver Restaurant Week in the books. I always have this crazy fear that I just won’t make enough desserts in time and a fire will erupt out of the blue and we’ll all go down in FLAMES, but alas, no fires, no flames, nothing bad happened at all! Just a lot of well fed, happy customers. And now we can all go back to normal life with an average of 8 hours of sleep each night! Hooray!

If you are in the Denver area and got to experience some amazing food, let me know in the comments!

Well I was at our Walmart Neighborhood Market the other day and I found some FRESH GUAVAS. In Denver. Fresh guavas (insert bulging eyes emoji).  I also found (in the freezer section) some pureed guava. This being one of my absolute favorite flavors, naturally I grabbed both to take home and dream up a new recipe.

Sadly, the fresh guavas were nowhere near ripe (or ever going to get to the point I’d want them to be in order to work with them). But thankfully, that guava puree was perfection. I decided to make guava bars by taking a solid lemon bar recipe, and just switching lemon for guava. First attempt was perfection! So without further adu, I present my guava bar. Feel free to use this recipe for lemon bars by simply switching guava to lemon juice.

Guava BarsCrustFlour 1 ¾ cupButter, cold 12 T (6 oz.)Powdered sugar ¾ cupSalt ¾ tspCold water 1 T (optional)FillingEggs 4Milk ¼ cupFlour 3 TSugar 1 cupGuava puree ¾ cupJuice of 1 limeSalt ¼ tsp Directions:Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (176 C).In a food processor, pulse together flour, butter, powdered sugar, and salt. If the dough seems too dry, add the cold water.Prepare a 9×13” baking dish with some baking spray and parchment paper, enough to come up the sides a bit.Pour crumble out onto the baking dish and press evenly all around to form your crust.Chill the crust in the freezer for 10 minutes, so the butter can firm up again.Bake the crust for 18-20 minutes, or until crust is a light golden brown. You don’t want to bake all the way through as you’ll be going back in the oven with the filling.While your crust is baking, prepare the filling.In a medium size bowl, whisk together eggs, milk, sugar, guava puree, salt, and lime juice. Then mix in the flour. Pour the filling over the hot crust and place back into the oven for another 20-25 minutes. You’re looking for the edges to come away from the sides of the pan, and the center to be firm.Let this cool at room temperature for 1 hour.Grip the paper, lift out the dessert, and set onto a cutting board. Cut into 2” squares and sift some powdered sugar over top to finish.Happy baking friends!

Print Recipe

Guava Bars

Guava custard over a shortbread cookie
Author: Saura Madani

Ingredients

Crust

• 1 3/4 cup flour
• 12 Tbsp butter, cold
• 3/4 cup powdered sugar
• 3/4 tsp salt
• 1 Tbsp cold water (opt)

Filling

• 4 eggs
• 1/4 cup milk
• 3 Tbsp flour
• 1 cup sugar
• 3/4 cup guava puree
• 1 lime, juice
• 1/4 tsp salt

Instructions

• Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (176 C).
• In a food processor, pulse together flour, butter, powdered sugar, and salt. If the dough seems too dry, add the cold water.
• Prepare a 9×13” baking dish with some baking spray and parchment paper, enough to come up the sides a bit.
• Pour crumble out onto the baking dish and press evenly all around to form your crust.
• Chill the crust in the freezer for 10 minutes, so the butter can firm up again.
• Bake the crust for 18-20 minutes, or until crust is a light golden brown. You don’t want to bake all the way through as you’ll be going back in the oven with the filling.
• While your crust is baking, prepare the filling.
• In a medium size bowl, whisk together eggs, milk, sugar, guava puree, salt, and lime juice. Then mix in the flour. Pour the filling over the hot crust and place back into the oven for another 20-25 minutes. You’re looking for the edges to come away from the sides of the pan, and the center to be firm.
• Let this cool at room temperature for 1 hour.
• Grip the paper, lift out the dessert, and set onto a cutting board. Cut into 2” squares and sift some powdered sugar over top to finish.