Tuesday, July 13, 2010

What A Tart!

pash


Today's lesson: Passionfruits that are well past their use by date sure have a lot of zing.

This morning I found five shrivelled up passionfruits in my fruit bowl. I wasn't sure how long they'd been sitting in the deep dark depths of the abyss that is my fruitbowl for...my calculations arrive at about 3 to 4 months.
Although they were looking pretty sad and sorry, they had no mold growing on them so I figured surely they must be edible. Instead of chucking the poor, ugly things away, I decided to cut 'em open and turn them into something worth noticing; a passionfruit curd, to be exact.

But, what to do with this luscious zingy delight?

...Well that thought brought me to my new madeleine tin (see below). I had been searching for an excuse to make the pretty little things and here it was. I'd decided to finally make madeleines, with a burst of tangy curd in the centre. Since I had never made madeleines before, and knew they had to be light and springy. Apprehensive of how the curd might affect the rise of the petite cakes, I went ahead with it anyways because when I get something in my head I can't resist (this is a bad attribute especially in relation to expensive shoes).

And just because I had some extra curd leftover, I decided to use up some butter puff pastry which was taking up too much room in the freezer, and make easy mini passionfruit and coconut pastries.

Passionfruit and Lemon Curd
(this makes enough to fill the madeleines and for the pastries - triple the recipe for a more substantial amount)

1/3 cup caster sugar
1 egg
1/3 cup fresh lemon juice
1 lemon, zested

3 passionfruits (preferably 6 months old, like mine...joooooking)
2 tablespoons melted unsalted butter

Whisk together the sugar and eggs until smooth, light, and fluffy. Add in the lemon juice, lemon zest and melted butter. Cook in the microwave for one minute, on a medium heat. Remove from microwave and stir thoroughly. Repear this a few times until the mixture has thickened and can coat the back of a spoon. Leave in the fridge to set and cool.



pash2



Rosewater Madeleines with Passionfruit Centre

2 eggs
1/4 cup caster sugar
1/2 cup self raising flour
3 tablespoons butter, melted
1 tablespoon rosewater (optional)
1/2 cup passionfruit curd

Preheat the oven to 180 degrees celsius. Grease a 12 hole madeleine tin well with butter. Place eggs and sugar in a bowl and whisk until thick, creamy and mousse-like. Add the rosewater. Fold in the flour and butter alternately until you end with a smooth batter.

Dollop a small amount of mixture into each madeleine hole, then dollop in a small teaspoon of passionfruit curd. Top each with the rest of the madeleine mixture until each hole is just full. Bake in the oven for about 10 minutes, taking them out when they are golden and puffed up high.



Passionfruit and Coconut Pastries

1 sheet butter puff pastry
1/2 cup desicated coconut
1 cup passionfruit and lemon curd
icing sugar

Cut out 4 squares of pastry. On each of the four squares, trace a smaller square inside, to make a 1cm border on each pastry base. Lightly toast the coconut in a hot pan. Sprinkle an even amount of coconut inside the area of the smaller square and top with a fair amount of passionfruit curd. Spread the curd evenly to the border of the pastry base.

Cook in a hot oven for 15-2o mins until golden brown and serve sprinkled with icing sugar and vanilla ice-cream. So easy and yum.

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