Make your guava jam

High quality guava jam is not easy to find in stores but very simple to make. Guavas are amazing because they can be consumed as a fruit, candy, snack, or paired with cheese for an appetizer or dessert. I grew up eating  a lot of guavas; we had two trees behind our house in Los Angeles and even more trees in our winter escape to Mexico.

Since my family is from Mexico our #1 way to consume guavas is as a candy; guavas are boiled with sugar and molded into a block or rolled. And mostly dusted with granulated sugar on the outside like below.  

My Colombian friends like to eat the guava blocks with hard white cheese, they call this bocadillo con queso.  They also use their sanwichera to make guava and cheese hot sandwiches. It is also very common to see guava and cream cheese pastries in Latin bakeries.  My favorite way to enjoy this jam is to spread it on a buttermilk biscuit for breakfast or on a baguette with goat cheese for lunch. There is no wrong way to use this jam.

If this same mixture was boiled less and left as a thick guava syrup, you would get almíbar de guayaba; a heavenly topping used for shaved ice or raspados -see my post on why you need raspados in your life.

My friends and family send frozen guavas to me all the time from their Los Angeles trees and you cannot tell the difference when you use fresh or frozen. So if you happen to have many guavas and don’t have time to make them into a jam, just freeze them until you are ready. When the guavas are ripe they seem to all be ripe at the exact same time, too many to consume fresh so most people freeze or preserve the extra. If you don’t know anyone in Los Angeles, use canned guavas or buy them at the farmer markets. 

Most guavas consumed in Mexico are white and they end up making a brown candy. In most of South America the guavas are pink and therefore produce a pink candy. In Brazil, guavas grow wild and line the streets of São Paulo.

Rinse all of your guavas and cut in half, boil in water until they are soft, remove from heat, allow to cool, remove seeds manually or blend and strain. Bring to a boil again and add sugar. Boil until you have the consistency you desire for jam.  

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