Guava Roly-Poly

a rolled sponge spread with guava, sliced and baked in a sweet cinnamon syrup until soft and golden, the homely guava pudding of the South African Sunday table, served hot with custard

Origin: South Africa

From the journey of Guava.

Guava roly-poly is a homely, comforting pudding of the South African table, a local turn on the old British rolled jam pudding made instead with the country's beloved guava. South Africa grows guava widely, and the fruit, fresh or from the ubiquitous tin, is folded into the preserving pantry and the dessert repertoire as thoroughly as any native fruit. For the roly-poly a soft sponge or suet dough is spread with guava (mashed fruit or guava jam), rolled up like a Swiss roll, sliced into rounds, and the slices set into a baking dish and drenched in a sweet, buttery, cinnamon-scented syrup, then baked until the sponge drinks up the syrup and turns soft, golden, and pudding-like. Served hot with a jug of pouring custard, it is a fixture of the Sunday lunch and the winter table, a pudding of the Afrikaans and wider South African kitchen that, like tinned guavas and custard, is the taste of many a South African childhood. It is the New World guava made wholly at home in the comfort cooking of the Cape and the highveld.

Ingredients

The Sponge

2 eggs
100 g sugar
120 g self-raising flour
30 g butter, melted

The Filling

250 g guava jam, or mashed tinned/fresh guava sweetened to taste

The Syrup

250 ml water
150 g sugar
40 g butter
1 tsp ground cinnamon
1 tsp vanilla

To Serve

pouring custard, to serve

Method

Heat the oven to 180°C and butter a baking dish. Whisk the eggs and sugar until pale and thick, then fold in the flour and the melted butter to make a light sponge batter, and spread it thinly onto a lined Swiss-roll tin.
Bake the sponge for about 10 minutes, until just set and springy. Turn out onto a sugared sheet of paper, spread with the guava jam or mashed guava, and roll up from the long side while still warm.
Slice the roll into rounds about 2 to 3cm thick and arrange them, cut side up, in the buttered baking dish.
Make the syrup: heat the water, sugar, butter, cinnamon, and vanilla until the sugar dissolves and it simmers, then pour evenly over the slices.
Bake for 25 to 30 minutes, until the slices have drunk up the syrup, are golden on top, and soft and pudding-like beneath. Serve hot with custard.

Notes

A quicker version uses a bought sponge or even slices of bread; a richer one uses a suet dough. Guava jam gives a smooth filling; mashed fresh or tinned guava (the tin being a South African storecupboard staple) works equally well. Tinned guavas with custard, without the sponge, are the even simpler classic. Serve hot with custard, or with cream or ice cream.

The Gastrographer

Name: Guava Roly-Poly
Prep time: 30 min
Cook time: 40 min
Total time: 1 h 10 min
Yield: 8
Cuisine: South Africa
Ingredients: 2 eggs; 100 g sugar; 120 g self-raising flour; 30 g butter, melted; 250 g guava jam, or mashed tinned/fresh guava sweetened to taste; 250 ml water; 150 g sugar; 40 g butter; 1 tsp ground cinnamon; 1 tsp vanilla; pouring custard, to serve

Mapping Culinary History

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Journey Point Map Key

Ingredient originTrade or transit route

Became a culinary stapleColonial / trade control