I still had a few passionfruit left over from the discount bulk bag I picked up last week and these passionfruit-banana soufflés looked great, so I obviously had to give them a try!

They were wonderfully easy to put together. And they rose beautifully! (Three of them also deflated dramatically pretty much instantaneously, but they still tasted good. Even if they were no longer as light and fluffy and wonderful as the ones that stayed more inflated.)

Passionfruit-Banana Soufflés

Slightly adapted from Delicious.com.au

Ingredients

• 3 large eggs, separated
• 1/2 c. sugar, divided
• 5 passionfruit (~100mL of pulp)
• 1 banana, mashed
• 1/4 tsp. cream of tartar

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 190°C (375°F).
2. Grease six ramekins and dust them with sugar.
3. Beat the egg yolks with 1/4 c. of the sugar until light and creamy.
4. Stir in the passionfruit pulp and mashed banana.
5. Combine the egg whites and cream of tartar and beat until foamy.
6. Continue beating while gradually adding the remaining 1/4 c. of sugar.
7. Beat until stiff peaks form.
8. Stir ~1/3 of the meringue into the base to loosen it.
9. Fold in the remaining meringue.
10. Gently pour or scoop the mixture into the prepared ramekins.
11. Run your thumb around the edges of the ramekins to form a small "moat".
12. Bake at 190°C (375°F) for 14-15 minutes.
13. Dust with icing sugar (if desired) and serve immediately.

I picked up a huge bag of discount passionfruit the other day! Seriously, there were probably a good dozen-and-a-half beautiful looking fruit in one of the discount produce bags for $2. Very exciting!

Of course, now I needed to figure out what to do with that many passionfruit. I found a lot of promising looking recipes. But, in the end, it came down to a choice between this posset and a banana-passionfruit soufflé. TF voted for the posset though, so that's what we went with.

I love how easy this posset is. Although, I did make it slighlty more difficult for myself by straining all the seeds out of the passionfruit when I didn't actually need to. I'd been reading so many passionfruit recipes that I just got my wires a little crossed. Whoops! Oh well... I just reserved the seeds, stirred a few back in, and saved the rest to use as a garnish. Next time, though, I'll just scoop the pulp directly into the pot and save myself a lot of time and effort.

Passionfruit Posset

Slightly adapted from Delicious.com.au

Ingredients

• 1 packet (~1 1/2 Tbsp.) unflavoured gelatin powder¹
• 1/4 c. cold water
• 2 c. heavy (35%) cream
• 160g sugar
• 1/4 c. boiling water (optional)
• zest and juice of 1 lemon
• 1/2-2/3 c. passionfruit pulp (from ~8 fruit)

Directions

1. Add the gelatin powder to the cold water and set aside to soften for ~5 minutes.
2. Meanwhile, combine the cream and sugar and heat until just barely simmering. Do not boil!
3. Add the boiling water (if using) to the gelatin and stir to dissolve, then pour it into the cream mixture. Otherwise, just add the softened gelatin to the hot cream and stir to dissolve.
4. Remove from heat and stir in the lemon zest, lemon juice, and passionfruit pulp.
5. Pour into custard cups, cover, and chill until set (at least 2 hours).
6. Garnish with additional passionfruit pulp and serve.

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¹ The original recipe called for 1/2 a sheet of "titanium-strength" gelatin. The gelatin was to be soaked for five minutes and then have excess water squeezed out. I had powder, not leaves/sheets. So I just followed the package directions on the packet. It said to soak the gelatin in 1/4 c. of cold water, then dissolve it in 1/4 c. of boiling water, then stir it into whatever liquid you were trying to set. This worked fine. That said, I think I'd skip the boiling water next time and try just dissolving it in the simmering cream directly. I'd think either way should work though, so follow your heart. ^Back

This was really, really good! The passionfruit curd was incredibly delicious. And the meringue and fresh fruit complemented it very well. I would 1000% make this again. (Although I'd try to be a bit more careful with the meringue next time. The curd burst through the side of the meringue this time and made a bit of a mess. It was still delicious, just not very aesthetic.)

Mango-Passionfruit Pavlova

Slightly adapted from Dessert of the Day by Kim Laidlaw

Ingredients

Meringue

• 4 large egg whites
• 1/2 tsp. malt vinegar
• 1 c. sugar
• 1/2 Tbsp. cornstarch (cornflour)

Curd

• 2 large eggs
• 4 large egg yolks
• 3/4 c. sugar
• 1/2 c. unsalted butter
• 1/2 c. passionfruit juice¹
• juice of 1 lime

Assembly

• 1 1/2 c. plain Greek yogurt
• 2 mangoes, sliced
• 3 passionfruit

Directions

Meringue

1. Preheat oven to 165°C (325°F) and line a baking sheet with parchment paper or a silicone baking mat.
2. Place the egg whites in a clean bowl with the vinegar and whisk until frothy.
3. Continue whisking on high speed while gradually adding the sugar (~1 Tbsp. at a time).
4. Beat until stiff peaks form.
5. Beat in the cornstarch.
6. Spoon the meringue onto the prepared baking sheet and shape into a large bowl.
7. Bake at 165°C (325°F) for 3 minutes.
8. Reduce temperature to 120°C (250°F) and bake for another hour.
9. Turn off oven and let meringue stand in hot oven for 2-3 hours.

Curd

1. Combine the eggs, egg yolks, and sugar and mix well.
2. Combine the butter and passionfruit juice over medium-low heat and cook until the butter is melted.
3. Gradually stir in the egg mixture, whisking constantly.
4. Stir in the lime juice.
5. Cook, stirring frequently, until the mixture thickens enough to coat the back of a spoon (10-20 minutes).
6. Cover and chill for at least 2 hours.

Assembly

1. Transfer the merginue to a serving platter.
2. Pour the curd into the meringue.
3. Spoon the yogurt on top of the curd.
4. Arrange the mango slices on top.
5. Cut the passionfruit in half, scoop out the pulp, and spoon it onto the pavlova.
6. Serve immediately.

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¹ I couldn't find any straight-up passionfruit juice. They had passionfruit "drink" (which appeared to be cut with applejuice) and passionfruit-mango juice (which had mango juice and mango pulp added to it along with the passionfruit juice). I decided that since it was going to be topped with mango anyway, the passionfruit-mango blend would be the better match. And I think that was the right choice! It was so, so good. Like I said, would absolutely make this again! ^Back

Between making pasta and making tiramisu, I had seven excessed egg whites that needed to be used up. I figured that some sort of pavlova or angel food cake would be the best choice. (I debated doing a dacquoise, but I opted for the simplicity of the pavlova in the end.) I've done pavlovas before, but I wanted to try a different flavour combo. So I hit up the Internet to look for ideas.

There were a few interesting contenders, but I liked the look of this cherry one. It seemed relatively light and very easy to put together. I liked the idea of topping the meringue with yogurt rather than pastry cream or custard. And I was intrigued by the passionfruit-cherry combination.

The original recipe called for "good quality passionfruit yogurt". I couldn't get any that I felt would be "good quality", so I opted for a very nice plain yogurt instead and then just added some fresh passionfruit on top. I only got one passionfruit this time as I wasn't sure what to expect from it. TM didn't feel that the passionfruit really brought much to the table and thought that it would've been just as good without it. I do think that it was pretty subtle, but I enjoyed its presence. I think if I were to do this one again I'd just double down on it: get two or three passionfruit next time!

Spiced Cherry Pavlova

Slightly adapted from Taste

Ingredients

Meringue

• 6 large egg whites
• 330g sugar
• 1 Tbsp. cornstarch (cornflour)
• 3/4 tsp. vanilla extract
• 1/2 tsp. cream of tartar¹ (optional)

Cherries

• 1/4 c. brown sugar
• 1/4 c. cointreau
• 1 Tbsp. lemon zest
• 1 (8cm) cinnamon stick
• 400g pitted cherries
• 1/4 c. lemon juice

Assembly

• 2 c. very good plain Greek yogurt
• 2-3 passionfruit

Directions

Meringue

1. Preheat oven to 120°C (250°F) and line a baking sheet with parchment paper or a baking mat.
2. Add egg whites to a scrupulously clean bowl and begin beating with clean beaters.
3. After 30-60 seconds of beating on high, add ~1 Tbsp. of the sugar.
4. Continue beating on high and adding sugar ~1 Tbsp. at a time until all of the sugar has been incorporated.
5. Beat in the cornflour.
6. Beat in the vanilla.
7. Beat in the cream of tartar (if using).
8. Beat for another minute or so. The meringue is done when it forms stiff peaks and stays in place when the bowl is inverted. If it holds its shape but slides along the bowl, it's not quite done yet. Be careful not to overbeat as it will break and go watery.
9. Spoon the meringue onto the prepared baking sheet and shape it into a circle with a deep depression in the middle. Aim for around 20-23cm in diameter. Make the depression a bit deeper than you think it needs to be.
10. Bake on the bottom rack at 120°C (250°F) for 90 minutes.
11. Turn off oven, but keep the door closed and leave the meringue in the oven overnight.

Cherries

1. Heat sugar, cointreau, lemon zest, and cinnamon over medium heat and cook for ~5 minutes.
2. Add the cherries and lemon juice and bring back up to a simmer. Cook for 1 minute more.
3. Remove from heat and set aside until ready to eat.

Assembly

1. Spoon the yogurt into the centre of the meringue.
2. Cut open the passionfruit and scoop the seeds out onto the yogurt.
3. Pour the cherry compote over this.
4. Serve immediately.

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¹ I usually add a bit of cream of tartar to my meringues, but this time I decided to use a bit of vinegar to wipe down the beaters and the bowl. This helps cut any grease residue that might be on them. Afterward, I dumped out the excess vinegar, but did not dry the beaters or the bowl. I figured the bit of acid this added would be similar to the acidifying effect of cream of tartar. ^Back