At the start of the year, I spent a month eating my way around Mexico City, and one thing I ate in abundance (besides tacos) were guavas. I had them in every way possible: blitzed into a juice; sitting on a cheesecake at the iconic Contramar; or as a sticky, jam-filled pastry found at nearly every bakery I visited. My favourite version also came with a layer of cream cheese, and I’ve taken those flavours and put them in biscuit form. Shop-bought guava jam is as close as I’ll get here in the UK, but these remind me of a delicious trip every time I make them.
Guava jam sandwich biscuits
Prep 5 min
Chill 1 hr 15 min
Cook 1 hr, plus cooling
Makes 9
For the biscuits
175g plain flour
50g ground almonds
80g caster sugar
¼ tsp salt
100g unsalted butter, diced
1 medium egg, beaten
For the filling
100g cream cheese
½ tsp vanilla bean paste or extract
15g icing sugar, plus extra to dust
A pinch of salt
3 tbsp guava jam
To make the biscuits, mix the flour, almonds, sugar and salt in a bowl until combined. Rub in the butter using your fingertips, until you have a fine breadcrumb consistency.
Make a well in the middle, add the egg then use a table knife to mix until it comes together into a dough. Turn it out on to a clean surface and use your hands to pat the dough into a disc. Wrap in clingfilm and chill for an hour.
Heat the oven to 190C (170C fan)/375F/gas 5 and line two baking trays with baking paper. Roll out the chilled dough between two sheets of greaseproof paper to about 2-3mm thick, then return to the fridge for 15 minutes.
Use a round or square cookie cutter to stamp out 18 biscuits (if you like, re-roll the dough offcuts to make more biscuits). Use another smaller cutter to stamp out holes in the middle of half of the biscuits (these will be the tops). Put all the biscuits on the lined trays and bake for 12-14 minutes, until the edges are very lightly browned. Transfer to a wire rack to cool completely.
For the filling, mix the cream cheese, vanilla, sugar and a pinch of salt together until smooth. Spread a little guava jam and a small dollop of cream cheese on the biscuit bases (ie, those without holes), then sandwich with the remaining holey biscuit tops. Dust with icing sugar and serve.
