Recipe
🍰 DESSERT
Guava Duff
A boiled sweet dough rolled around ribbons of ripe guava, sliced into spirals and drowned in a warm rum-butter sauce.
Bahamian · medium · serves 8
prep 30 min · cook 75 min
~401 cal · 6g protein · 62g carbs · 13g fat · 1g fiber · 26g sugars · 8g sat fat (estimated, per serving)
↓ Jump to Recipe
AI-generated illustration
Guava duff is the crown of Bahamian desserts, a showpiece brought out for Sundays, holidays, and any occasion worth celebrating. It descends from the boiled puddings of British tradition, the same lineage as spotted dick, but the Bahamas made it wholly its own by folding in the fragrant pink guava that grows across the islands.
Making a duff is a labor of love. A sweet, enriched dough is rolled out, spread with mashed ripe guava, rolled up like a jelly roll, and then wrapped tightly in cloth and boiled slowly for over an hour until it steams into a dense, cake-like pudding shot through with spirals of fruit. Sliced, it reveals its beautiful marbled interior.
What seals its reputation is the sauce: butter and sugar creamed together and loosened with rum and a little of the guava, poured warm over each slice. Rich, boozy, and deeply perfumed, guava duff is the Bahamian answer to a grand dessert, and no bakery or grandmother's kitchen is judged complete without it.
Saved recipes and passport stamps are kept on this device. Sign in to keep them across your devices and leave reviews.
Make it yours
✓ Naturally vegetarian and nut- and pork-free. No swaps needed.
Toggle a diet and the ingredients rewrite themselves with regional substitutes.
🥕 Vegetarian
🌱 Vegan
🌾 Gluten-Free
🥛 Dairy-Free
🥜 Nut-Free
🥚 Egg-Free
🐖 Pork-Free
Dietary labels are a cooking guide, not allergen-safety advice. We track dairy, egg, gluten, tree nuts and peanuts (we count coconut as a tree nut, following FDA labeling), fish, and shellfish; we do not screen for sesame, soy, mustard, celery, or sulphites. If you have a food allergy, read the label on every product you use, and note that a kitchen can cross-contaminate in ways a recipe cannot control.
Ingredients
US
Metric
Serves 8
3 cups flour
1/2 cup butter, softened
1 egg
1 cup sugar
2 cups ripe guava, peeled and mashed
2 tsp baking powder
1/4 cup dark rum
Instructions
1
Rub half the butter into the flour with the baking powder and half the sugar, then bind with the egg and a little water into a soft dough.
2
Roll the dough into a rectangle, spread with the mashed guava, and roll it up tightly like a jelly roll.
3
Wrap the roll snugly in a floured cloth or several layers of parchment and foil, tying the ends so it holds its shape.
✎ Chef’s note
Leave a little slack in the wrapping; the duff swells as it cooks and a too-tight parcel will burst.
4
Lower it into a pot of gently boiling water and simmer, keeping it submerged, until firm and cooked through, about 75 minutes.
5
Meanwhile beat the remaining butter and sugar until creamy and stir in the rum and a spoon of guava to make the sauce.
6
Unwrap, slice into spirals, and serve warm with the rum-butter sauce poured over.
Bahamian Sunday tradition.
Ratings & reviews
Cooked it? Rate this dish:
No account needed. Sign in to leave a full review with a comment.
Cooked it?
Kept on this device, no account needed. Sign in to leave a review and keep your passport across your devices.
No reviews yet, be the first to cook it.
🌏 While it simmers, know your destination
📍
Nassau. Guava duff takes about three hours. A sheet of dough is spread with guava, rolled and steamed in a cloth until it sets, then sliced and served under a butter and egg sauce usually spiked with rum. Peas and rice, made with pigeon peas, is the standard side and is a different dish from peas and grits.
🗺️
Bahamas. Bahamian food is all about conch, cracked, in fritters, and in fresh salad, plus rock lobster, peas and rice, and tangy souse. Bright, coastal, and lime-forward, it's the taste of the shallow Caribbean seas.
🌍
North America. Almost every regional cooking here records who arrived and on what terms. Enslaved West Africans brought rice, okra, black-eyed peas and the techniques behind Lowcountry and Creole food; Chinese railway labour and later Italian, Jewish, Mexican and Vietnamese arrivals built the way the cities eat; and Indigenous foodways sit underneath all of it.
The story behind this dish is up top, worth a read while the pot works.
More from Bahamas
Bahamian Stew FishFish simmered in a dark browned-flour gravy with tomato, thyme, and lime, a Bahamian breakfast-to-dinner staple.
Boiled Fish and Johnny CakeA light, limey grouper broth with potatoes and onion, served with a slab of sweet Bahamian johnny cake for dunking, a true island breakfast.
Bahamian Conch SaladFresh conch diced and cured at the table in lime and sour orange with sweet peppers, tomato, cucumber, and fiery goat pepper.
Browse all Bahamas recipes →
Good to know
You’ll need: Pot or saucepan.
Storing it: Keeps 2 to 3 days refrigerated. Resteam or warm through gently to serve.
Make it a Bahamas meal
Cracked ConchDinner
Sky JuiceDrink
Similar dishes from around the world
Ngalakh (Baobab & Peanut Millet Cream)Senegal
DucanaAntigua and Barbuda
ConkiesBarbados
Thayacha (Andean Frozen Oca)Bolivia
TufahijeBosnia & Herzegovina
Nian Gao (New Year Rice Cake)China
Cuisine
Diet
Frequently asked questions
What is Guava Duff?
A boiled sweet dough rolled around ribbons of ripe guava, sliced into spirals and drowned in a warm rum-butter sauce.
Where does Guava Duff come from?
Guava Duff is a Bahamian dish from Nassau, Bahamas.
Can Guava Duff be made vegan, gluten-free, or dairy-free?
This Guava Duff recipe includes substitution suggestions for vegetarian, vegan, gluten-free, dairy-free, nut-free, egg-free, and pork-free versions, including several at once such as gluten-free and dairy-free together. Treat them as a starting guide rather than a guarantee, and see the allergen note below.
Is Guava Duff safe for people with food allergies?
Our dietary labels and substitutions are a cooking guide, not medical or allergen-safety advice. We track dairy, egg, gluten, tree nuts and peanuts (we count coconut as a tree nut, following FDA labeling), fish, and shellfish, but we do not screen for sesame, soy, mustard, celery, or sulphites. If you have a food allergy, always read the label on every product you use, and remember a home or commercial kitchen can cross-contaminate ingredients in ways a recipe cannot control.
How long does Guava Duff take to make?
About 105 minutes total (30 minutes prep, 75 minutes cooking), serving 8.
Get the Sunday Spin
One dish from somewhere in the world, in your inbox every Sunday. No spam, just dinner inspiration you can cook that day.