Guava Cheese

Guava Cheese, also called Perad, is a Goan fruit confection associated with Christmas sweet platters. This profile follows Freda Dias' ripe-guava version with sugar, lemon juice and butter.

Guava gives the sweet a concentrated tropical fragrance and tang, while sugar builds its candied richness. Lemon juice brightens the fruit and butter rounds the cooked mixture.

The finished Perad sets into dense pink-red squares or diamonds with a smooth, lightly glossy surface. Its texture is firm enough to cut but remains chewy and fudge-like rather than brittle.