Guava Bars Recipe
In these tropical bar cookies, a buttery shortbread base is topped with sweet guava paste, then finished with a lightly crunchy oat topping. When you have multiple tins of guava paste, you realize that guava-filled pastelitos are only the beginning of the fun. Take for example, these guava bars. The base is a simple shortbread crust that's pressed into a 13- by 9-inch pan then toped with slices of sweet, fruity, oh-so-delicious guava paste. Many guava bars are topped with a second layer of shortbread, but guava paste is pretty rich. I thought that a crumbly oat topping would lighten the feeling of the bars by adding a bit of crunch. You can still easily get 24 bars out of this pan (or 12 if you're feeding ambitious eaters). They're fruity, crunchy, and totally worth the bus ride—though I'm still looking into a bike.
Ingredients:
For Crust:
- 16 tablespoons (1 cup) unsalted butter
- 1/2 cup (3 1/2 ounces) sugar
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 2 cups (about 10 ounces) all purpose flour
For Topping:
- 16 ounces guava paste, sliced to 1/4 inch thick slices
- 1 cup old fashioned oats
- 8 tablespoons (1/2 cup) unsalted butter, diced
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 1/2 cup light brown sugar
- 1 cup (about 5 ounces) all-purpose flour