Passionfruit Curd And Other Delights

My eldest loves passion fruit, although she complains about the flavours that it is often paired with. It is true that it is hard to find it unaccompanied by mango, and she strongly believes that dark chocolate is too strong a flavour to put with it, preferring white chocolate. And so, despite her love of passion fruit, it is hard to find things of that flavour that she actually wants.

A while back she asked me to make some passion fruit curd so I duly obligued but we all found it a little bland. Despite using six or seven fruit, the flavour really was quite subtle so I gave up on that as an idea. However, just before Christmas, I received five passion fruits in my Odd Box delivery. It being so close to Christmas, there were other festive bakes that needed to be made so I knew we wouldn't have the capacity to eat a passion fruit dessert as well. So instead I decided that preserving them was the best thing to do and curd was the most logical option.

This time, however, I took the delicate flavour of the passion fruit into account and decided to modify my lemon curd recipe to suit and, success! A beautiful light orange curd with a distinct passion fruit flavour, if maybe a little too sweet.

With the curd made and the fruit temporarily preserved, we got on with Christmas and all that that entails. Then, on New Year's Eve I made a passionfruit cheesecake, or rather a plain cheesecake that I topped with passion fruit curd. And this weekend, I stirred some passion fruit curd into my white chocolate mousse recipe to make a white chocolate and passion fruit mousse. Surprisingly, there is still some curd left so I think next week it might make the filling of a Victoria Sandwich Cake.

Passion Fruit Curd

35g butter, melted
200g granulated sugar
2 eggs
5 passion fruit, juice/pulp only

Put the melted butter in a dish suitable for going inside a pressure cooker, then use a whisk to stir in the sugar. Add the eggs, one at a time, ensuring that it is thoroughly mixed in. Sieve the passion fruits and add the juice/pulp to the mixture and stir well. Put two cups of water into the pressure cooker then place the container on a trivet inside the pressure cooker and seal. Cook on high pressure for 15 minutes then allow it to naturally release pressure. Remove, whisk well to recombine then ladle into warmed jars and seal.

Passion Fruit Cheesecake

For the base
150g digestive biscuits, crushed
75g butter, melted

For the topping
200g white chocolate
30g butter
1/4 vanilla pod
250g cream cheese
90ml whipping cream

Passion fruit curd

For the biscuit base combine the crushed biscuits and the melted butter in a bowl then press into the greased base of a 20cm circular tin or dish. Place in the refrigerator for at least half an hour to solidify. Next, melt the chocolate, butter and the seeds from the vanilla pod in a bowl over a pan of simmering water. Leave to cool. In another bowl, mix together the cream and cheese and beat until smooth. Once the chocolate mix is suitably cool add it to the cream mix and stir thoroughly. Spoon onto the biscuit base. Return to the refrigerator to chill for a few hours or over-night then spoon on passion fruit curd on top before serving.

White Chocolate and Passion Fruit Mousse

2 gelatine leaves
200g white chocolate
300ml double cream
2 tbsp yoghurt
2- 3 generous tbsp passion fruit curd

Put the gelatine in a small sauce pan with some water and leave to soak for a few minutes. In the meantime, break up the white chocolate and melt it over a pan of hot water. Remove from the heat and squeeze the water out of the gelatine then use the residual heat of the hob to melt the gelatine in the pan. Add a little double cream to the gelatine and leave on the hob a little longer as this will make it easier to pour out of the pan later. Whisk the remaining double cream in a large bowl then stir in the yoghurt. Pour in the gelatine and then the melted chocolate and fold in. Spoon in the curd and stir through then taste, adding more curd if necessary but being cautious about making it overly sweet. Spoon the mixture into glasses or other suitable containers then refrigerate for a few hours before serving. It should make 8 servings.