PASSIONFRUIT ALMOND TART

February 13, 2020

Although tropical and often associated with hot weather, passion fruit is a fruit rich in vitamin C (among others) and ideal for consumption in these winter days when we need to strengthen our immunity.

slice of passion fruit almond tart on a white plate along with fork and 2 passion fruits on background

Passion fruit is one of those fruits that are loved by everyone here at home, also because we have a purple passion fruit tree (it's already the second because the first succumbed to a mole attack ...) and although it doesn't produce that much fruit yet, those passion fruits have to be put to good use, like in this passion fruit and almond tart.

For those who buy passion fruit in the supermarket, it's good to know when it's ripe and ready to enjoy, whether simply au naturel or in desserts like this. The fruit is at its best when the skin begins to wrinkle slightly; it is not advisable to let it wrinkle a lot as it loses the juice on the pulp, and then we risk opening the passion fruit and finding only dried seeds and filaments inside.

two passionfruits side by side: one is mature and the other isn't

The Ingredients

Pie crust - for those who want to prepare the base for this pie simply mix the following ingredients: egg, butter, sugar, a pinch of salt and flour; in this case I changed the recipe and used 2 types of flour: all-purpose wheat flour and spelt flour, but can be used only wheat flour (all 250gr) or gluten-free flour (mix). You can also choose to use a store-bought pie pastry, with or without gluten.
Passion fruit - is the main ingredient, and about 12 fresh passion fruits are needed; this dessert can also be made using canned pulp (they are usually more acidic, and the seeds are also bigger).
Sugar - is used both in the pie base and in the filling; since passion fruit is an acidic fruit, it's necessary to use an amount of sugar enough to balance this acidity. In order to reduce sugar, I used in my pie (filling) only 100gr of sugar-stevia blend instead of the 200gr of regular sugar.
Eggs and Butter - are two of the moist ingredients in the recipe (the other one is the pulp), and they will provide some creaminess to the texture.
Almond flour - together with corn starch, it will help to firm up the pie filling; it's preferable to buy almond flour but if that is not possible, you can chop whole almonds (as finely as possible) on a food processor.
Vanilla - is an optional ingredient, just for an extra flavor and it combines well with that of the passion fruit.

two slices of tart, one on each white plate over a fruity decorated towel

How to make

The filling is also easy and quick to prepare, so start by beating the eggs well with the sugar and vanilla (if used) so that the sugar is well dissolved, and then you can then add all the other ingredients.
If you're not a fan of passion fruit seeds, you can always pass the pulp through a strainer to extract the seeds before adding the pulp to the preparation (they don't interfere with flavor, as the seeds only serve as a decoration and also give some crunch to the filling).
In the original recipe, only 10 passion fruits were used in the filling + 2 passion fruits spread over the preparation before placing in the oven, and this allowed the top of the pie more decorated with seeds. However, I chose to use all 12 passion fruits in the filling.