Passion Fruit Tart: Ignite Your Passion this Valentine’s Day

Valentine’s Day is right around the corner, which means it’s time to start Googling which chocolate dessert to prepare for your loved ones, right? Chocolate is a pretty sexy and delicious ingredient and typically goes hand in hand with this holiday, but this year I wanted to try something different while keeping with the passionate theme of Valentine’s Day, and made a passion fruit tart topped with meringue. My family likes chocolate, but as a whole we enjoy fruity and tart desserts even more, so this was the perfect solution!

Passion fruit originates in the tropical regions of South America, but is now cultivated all over the world. They typically have a yellow or purple skin and are the size of a plum, but there are varieties that can be as large as grapefruit. The inside of the fruit contains a thick and pulpy juice that’s refreshingly tart and is speckled with edible black seeds. It can be challenging to find fresh and ripe passion fruit in the store, so the next best and convenient option is to find the frozen pulp, ideally without the seeds. This is a great option because it’s easy to use and convenient. The only ingredient is passion fruit, which ideal for the recipe. You can also look for passion fruit puree, but be careful of any added sugars or preservatives. 

To make this impressive and Valentine’s Day worthy tart, I’m going to break the recipe down into three parts.

Part #1: The Crust

For this dessert, I like to use what’s called a hot butter pastry tart. Warm, melted butter is poured into your dry ingredients (flour, sugar and salt) and is then mixed until all of the ingredients have been incorporated. It will still look a bit crumbly, but I promise it will be easy to work with.

Pour the pastry into your tart pan with a removable bottom, evenly distribute the crumbles, and use your hands or the flat bottom of a measuring cup, to press the pastry on the bottom and up the sides of the pan.

The crust is then baked until golden brown and then cooled.

I love this recipe because it’s really easy, quick, doesn’t require any special tools and doesn’t need to be chilled. It’s not as flaky as our traditional short pastry pie dough, but it has a crisp cookie-like texture which works really well for this recipe or any other tart you like. 

Part #2: The Curd

Fruit curd can be used as a delicious tart filling or served with scones, biscuits, muffins, crêpes, pancakes or fresh fruit. It is made by combining fruit juice, whole eggs, egg yolks (save the whites for the meringue) and sugar in a saucepan.

The ingredients are whisked together over medium-low heat, and are cooked until the eggs gently thicken the mixture.

Once thick, remove the curd from the heat and whisk in the butter until fully incorporated.

Lemons are the go-to fruit for making curd because it’s refreshing and tart, but you can change it up and use any variety of fruit you like such as lime, grapefruit, orange or passion fruit. When I was shopping for the passion fruit pulp, the same brand makes many other varieties of fruit pulps such as guava, mango and strawberry to name a few. Once the curd has thickened, pour it directly into the baked crust, cover with plastic wrap to prevent a skin from forming and chill in the refrigerator. This step can be done a day or two in advance, which makes the execution of this dessert even easier! 

Part #3: The Meringue

Meringue is just a fancy word for egg whites and sugar whipped together until you achieve the desired peaks. Making meringue can be a bit intimidating if you have never done it before, but I promise you that it’s a lot easier than you think. Here are a few tips that will help your meringue come together in a snap:

• Make sure your egg whites are room temperature as this will make them whip up faster.
• If you have a stand mixer with a whip attachment, use it. The eggs will whip up very quickly and take half the time. You can alternatively use a handheld electric mixer, but it will take longer so be patient.
• Make sure there are no bits of egg yolk in your whites. The fat will weigh down the whites preventing them from whipping up. Also, make sure there are no oily residues in your bowl as this will have the same negative effect.
• Use a dash of cream of tartar. It stabilizes the bubbles in the egg whites and speeds up the whipping process.

Once your egg whites are holding stiff peaks, you can either pipe the meringue on top of the chilled curd, spread the meringue on top with a spoon or spatula, or use a spoon to make whimsical dollops.

I preheated my broiler to low heat, and slid the tart under the broiler and watched it like a hawk until the meringue was toasty. It can burn very quickly, so don’t walk away from the oven! 

To serve the tart, carefully lift up the bottom of the tart pan to remove the sides and place it on a cutting board. The crust a bit thick, so use a chef’s knife to cut the tart into your slices. 

Passion Fruit Tart with Meringue

Scroll down for a printable version of this recipe

Yield: 6-8 slices

Active time: 1 hour

Start to finish: 3 hours (includes cooling time)

For the crust:

1 2/3 cups all-purpose flour

6 tablespoons granulated sugar

1/2 teaspoon fine sea salt

10 tablespoons butter, melted

For the curd:

3 whole eggs

3 egg yolks (save the whites for the meringue)

3/4 cup granulated sugar

1/2 cup passion fruit pulp, defrosted

1 lemon, zested

1 stick unsalted butter, cut into pieces

For the meringue:

5 egg whites

1/2 teaspoon cream of tartar

1/4 teaspoon fine sea salt

1/2 cup granulated sugar

1. Preheat the oven to 350°.
2. In a medium-size bowl, mix together the flour, sugar, salt and melted butter until thoroughly combined.
3. Press the dough onto the bottom and up the sides of a 9-inch tart pan with a removable bottom.
4. Place the tart pan on a sheet tray, and bake for 25 to 30 minutes, or until the crust is golden brown. Allow to cool.
5. Once the tart shell has cooled, prepare the curd. Combine the whole eggs, yolks, sugar, passion fruit pulp and zest in a heavy saucepan, and whisk to combine.
6. Set over medium-low heat, and whisk constantly, until the curd thickens and just begins to bubble around the edges. Remove from the heat and whisk in butter until melted.
7. Pour the curd into the baked tart shell, cover with plastic so it's directly laying on top the curd. This will prevent a skin from forming.
8. Refrigerate until cold and set, about 2 hours or overnight.
9. Preheat the boiler to low and position a rack on the second shelf down.
10. To make the meringue, place the egg whites, cream of tartar and salt in the bowl of a stand mixer. Using your whip attachment, beat the whites on medium-high speed until they start to become foamy.
11. Start adding 1 tablespoon of sugar at a time, and continue to beat the whites at high speed until they are stiff and glossy.
12. Top the tart with the meringue. You can either use a piping bag fitted with a star tip, or a spoon to dollop the meringue on top for a more whimsical look.
13. Slide the tart under the broiler and broil until the meringue is golden brown and toasty.
14. Remove the sides from the tart pan, cut the tart into slices and serve.

I love this recipe because it’s so refreshing and such a crowd pleaser. If you serve this, I promise that no one will be asking for chocolate. And now you know three different baking and pastry techniques that can be used all together for this tart, or independently in other recipes. 

If you’re still looking for that chocolate experience, we’ve got you covered. Join us this Friday, February 10, for Chocolate Lover’s Paradise from 11am-1:30pm or Saturday, May 6, for Chocolate Boot Camp from 10am-4pm.

We also have a chocolate recipe collection of some of our favorite decadent chocolate desserts.