Guava Duff

Guava duff is the most-Bahamian dessert — a steamed sweet roll directly descended from British steamed/boiled puddings (suet pudding, jam roll) brought by British colonial settlers in the 18th century and adapted to use local guava (introduced to the Caribbean by the Spanish). The 'duff' word is a Northern English and Scots dialect pronunciation of 'dough' (attested early 19th century; the related 'plum duff' is recorded 1830s). The brown-butter-rum sauce is the Bahamian flourish. (Note: the often-cited Bacardi connection is anachronistic — Bacardi only relocated to Nassau from Cuba in 1955–1965 and closed in 2009, long after guava duff was established.)

Cut a thick wedge of guava duff — pale spiral of golden dough wound around bright fuchsia-pink guava filling, the rum sauce pooled below glossy and amber. Bite: the dough is soft, slightly sweet, faintly nutty from steaming; the guava is intensely fruity, tropical-floral, just-tart; the rum sauce is buttery-warming, brown-sugar-deep, the rum a glow at the back. With a Goombay Smash cocktail or strong coffee, this is a Bahamian wedding-and-Christmas dessert that pulls every island family to the table.

Steaming (rather than baking) keeps the dough moist and pale — the steamed-pudding tradition is what distinguishes duff from sweet rolls. The cheesecloth+foil wrap prevents water from soaking the dough. The brown-butter step is critical for the sauce — undercooked butter is bland; over-browned is acrid. The rum is added off heat to preserve its volatility.