Guava Paste substitute

Best substitute

Quince Paste (Membrillo, Dulce de Membrillo)

Use the same amount by weight, cut into slices exactly as you would guava paste as the guava paste you are replacing

Best for pastelitos de guayaba

Different taste

Quince paste, sold as membrillo or dulce de membrillo, is by far the closest substitute and swaps 1:1 by weight straight into pastelitos, thumbprint cookies or a cheese plate. If all you have is guava jam or jelly, thicken it first, because a jam will run out of your pastry: simmer 1/2 cup of jam with 1 teaspoon of cornstarch slurried in cold water for two minutes and let it cool. Thick date paste or a puree of soaked dried apricots also holds its shape well, though neither tastes anything like guava.

Other guava paste substitutes

Ranked, with the exact amount to use

2Guava Jam or Guava Jelly, Thickened
Different texture
Per ½ cup jam: 1 teaspoon cornstarch slurried in 2 teaspoons cold water, simmered 2 minutes and cooled
The right flavour with the wrong texture, and the texture is fixable.
What changes
This is the best option if your shop stocks guava jelly but not the paste block.
Best for
pastelitos, empanadas, thumbprint cookies, glazes, cake filling, toast
Untreated, guava jam is the classic way this goes wrong: it liquefies in the oven and leaks out of every seam of a pastelito, burning on the tray. Thickened it holds, but it will still be softer and glossier than a paste, so it spreads into a thinner layer and the pastry is less structural. For thumbprint cookies, chill the thickened jam until firm before you spoon it in. A tablespoon of fine dry breadcrumbs stirred in instead of cornstarch works and is what many home bakers use.
3Homemade Paste From Frozen Guava Pulp or Guava Nectar
Close match
2 cups guava pulp to 1 ½ cups sugar and 1 tablespoon lime juice, cooked down until a spoon leaves a clear trail. Makes roughly 1 cup of paste.
If your shop has the frozen pulp in the Latin freezer case, or bottled guava nectar, you can make the real thing in about 30 minutes and it tastes better than the block.
What changes
Best for
pastelitos, guava and cheese, empanadas, cookies, pork glazes
It sets softer than commercial paste, which is cooked much further and pressed, so chill it in a lined loaf tin for a few hours before you try to slice it and expect it to be more like a stiff jam than a rubbery block. Nectar-based versions take longer to reduce because they start much thinner. Keep it in the fridge and use it within two weeks. Do not water-bath can it, since altering sugar and acid in a preserve changes the safety of the finished jar.
4Date Paste
Different taste
Use the same amount by weight
Thick, sliceable, sticky and holds its shape perfectly through a bake, which makes it a strong texture match and a genuinely good filling in its own right.
What changes
Best for
thumbprint cookies, empanadas, bar cookies, filled pastries
The flavour is a real change: dates are deeply caramel and malty with almost no acidity, so a pastelito made with date paste tastes rich and treacly rather than bright and fruity, and it loses the sweet-sour contrast that makes guava work against salty cheese. Stir in 2 teaspoons of lime juice per half cup to reintroduce some tartness. The colour goes dark brown rather than pink.
5Dried Apricot Paste
Different taste
1 cup dried apricots simmered in ½ cup water until soft, then blended with 2 tablespoons sugar, used 1:1 by weight
Dried apricots have both the acidity and the pectin to make a thick, tart, sliceable paste, and they are in every supermarket, which guava paste is not.
What changes
Best for
pastelitos, thumbprint cookies, cheeseboards, pork and ham glazes, cake filling
Apricot is tangier and more straightforwardly fruity than guava, without guava's slightly perfumed, almost floral edge, and the colour is orange rather than deep rose. Against a salty cheese it works beautifully because the acid is there. Blend it as smooth as you can or the fibrous bits show. Add a splash of lime if it tastes too jammy and sweet.
6Fig Jam or Fig Paste
Taste and texture differ
Use the same amount by weight for fig paste; thicken fig jam with 1 teaspoon cornstarch per ½ cup
A good cheeseboard swap and a serviceable pastry filling, mostly because fig has enough body and seed texture to feel substantial.
What changes
Best for
guava and cheese plates, baked brie, empanadas, ham and pork, sandwiches
Figs are honeyed, earthy and low in acid, so this is the least sharp option on the list and the pairing with cream cheese or queso blanco loses the tart snap that makes the Cuban original so good. It is also brown-purple and seedy where guava paste is smooth and pink. Bump it up with lime juice and a pinch of salt.

What is Guava Paste?

Guava Paste is Guava paste, sold as pasta de guayaba, goiabada or guava cheese, is guava pulp cooked down with sugar until it is so concentrated that it sets into a firm block you can slice with a knife, and that sliceability is as much its job in a recipe as the sweet-tart fruit flavour.

Cooking tips

Guava paste slices much more neatly if you chill the block first and run a thin knife under hot water between cuts. Room-temperature paste drags and tears, which is why homemade pastelitos often have a ragged filling.
For pastelitos or empanadas, use a slab of paste rather than a spoonful of anything softer, and leave a clear half-inch border of bare pastry so the seal actually seals. Paste barely spreads when it melts, which is the entire reason recipes call for it instead of jam.
The classic pairing is guava paste with a mild salty fresh cheese, most often cream cheese, queso blanco or queso fresco. If you are substituting the guava, keep the cheese salty, because the whole point of the combination is sweet-tart fruit against salt, and a bland substitute plus a bland cheese gives you nothing.
To turn guava paste into a glaze for pork, ribs or ham, melt about 1/3 cup of it with 2 tablespoons of water, a tablespoon of lime juice and a splash of dark rum, then brush it on in the last 15 minutes of roasting. Any of the substitutes above works the same way, and the acid matters more than the fruit here.
Guava paste keeps for months unopened in the cupboard and for several weeks in the fridge once cut, wrapped tightly so it does not dry out at the edges. Any paste you cook yourself is a fridge item, not a shelf-stable preserve, and should not be canned unless you are following a tested preserving recipe such as those from the National Center for Home Food Preservation (NCHFP).

Frequently asked questions

Can I use guava jelly or guava jam instead of guava paste?

Yes, but thicken it first or it will run. Slurry a teaspoon of cornstarch in a little cold water, stir it into half a cup of jam, simmer for two minutes and let it cool and set. Straight jam in a pastelito or a thumbprint cookie liquefies in the oven and leaks out, which is the single most common failure with this swap. Even thickened, expect a softer, thinner layer than a slab of paste gives you.

Is guava paste the same as guava jelly or guava cheese?

Guava paste and guava cheese are the same thing under different names, which is why you see it called guava cheese in the Caribbean and pasta de guayaba or goiabada elsewhere. It contains no dairy at all. Guava jelly is a different product: a clear, soft, spoonable jelly made from strained juice, which will not hold its shape in a pastry the way the paste does.

Can I just leave the guava paste out?

Not really, because in almost every recipe that calls for it, it is the filling and the sweetener at the same time, so leaving it out means baking empty pastry. The one place you can skip it is a cheeseboard, where you can simply serve the cheese with something else sweet and sharp. If you are making pastelitos and have nothing suitable, quince paste, thickened apricot puree or even a good thick fruit jam beaten with a teaspoon of cornstarch will all get you a real pastry.

What is the best substitute for guava paste on a cheese plate?

Quince paste, without hesitation. It slices the same way, sits next to a salty cheese the same way, and is easier to find in most supermarkets and delis. It is more floral and less tropical than guava and a little less sweet, so if you want to nudge it closer, squeeze a little lime over the slices. Fig jam and dried apricot paste are the next best options.

Does anything actually taste like guava?

Honestly, no. Guava has a musky, slightly grassy perfume alongside its sweetness and acidity that no other common fruit reproduces, and every substitute on this page is matching the texture and the sweet-tart balance rather than the flavour. If the guava taste specifically is what you need, look for frozen guava pulp, canned guava shells or bottled guava nectar in the Latin or Caribbean aisle and cook your own paste, which is easier than it sounds and better than the block.

Related substitutes

More preserves substitutes

Guava Paste substitute

Other guava paste substitutes

2Guava Jam or Guava Jelly, Thickened

3Homemade Paste From Frozen Guava Pulp or Guava Nectar

4Date Paste

5Dried Apricot Paste

6Fig Jam or Fig Paste