Passion Fruit Meringue Tarts

Recently I have begun to really enjoy passion fruit, be it the passion fruit/chocolate macaron at Pierre Herme to the passion fruit tart I mentioned in my last post at Ottolenghi. After having the tart I immediately started thinking about trying to recreate it. I hoped the recipe would be in the Ottolenghi cookbook but alas it isn’t. It does includes a very similar lemon meringue recipe so I used that but substituted the lemon with my homemade passion fruit curd. I really enjoyed the result although they were maybe a little too sweet. Im not sure whether to put the blame on the curd or the meringue? When I make these next time I think I might fold the curd into some creme patisserie or whipped cream to lighten and tamper the sweetness a little or maybe even make a custard with the passion fruit. The lemon meringue recipe in the cookbook uses sugar heated in the oven for making the meringue but when I tried this it didn’t work. I like accuracy and this method didn’t give me the control over temperature to guarantee the egg whites being cooked so I prefer to cook the sugar and egg whites over a bain marie until it reaches 170F then whipped in a stand mixer, so thats the method I will provide.

Passion Fruit Meringue Tarts – Adapted from Ottolenghi

Sweet Pastry

330g plain flour

100g icing sugar

zest 1/2 lemon

1/4 tsp salt

180g cold unsalted butter, cut into cubes

1 large egg yolk

2 tblsp cold water

1. Put the flour, sugar, salt and zest into the bowl of your food processor or a large mixing bowl. Pulse once or twice to combine or mix with a whisk to combine.

2. Add the butter and either rub into the flour mixture or pulse in the processor until the mixture resembles coarse breadcrumbs.

3. Add the egg yolk and water and mix/pulse until the mixture just starts to come together. If you clump some in your fist the dough should stay together. If it is still too crumbly add another tablespoon of water and mix again.

4. Turn the dough out onto a lightly floured surface and knead for a few seconds just until you have a uniform dough. Flatten the dough into a disk, wrap in plastic wrap and refrigerate at least 2 hours or freeze for up to a month.

5. Brush your moulds with melted butter and refrigerate. Roll the dough until about 3mm thick. Cut out rounds of dough then line your refrigerated mould with the disks. Place the moulds in the freezer for 15-30 mins. Line the tart shells with parchment or foil and fill with baking beans or rice and bake in a oven preheated to 150C/300F. Bake for about 25 mins or until golden brown. If not browned after 25 mins remove the beans and parchment and bak for another 5 minutes until browned. leave in the mould to cool.

Meringue Topping

120g caster sugar

2 egg whites

1. Place the sugar and egg whites in the bowl of your stand mixer and set over a pan on simmering water. Whisk the mixture over the heat until the mixture reaches 170F/76C. If you dont have a thermometer once the sugar has melted you should be at the correct temperature.

2. Transfer the bowl to your mixer with the whisk attached and whisk on high speed for about 15 minutes until the meringue is glossy and has reached stiff peaks.

Assembly

1. Fill your tart shells around 3/4 full of passion fruit curd.

2. Add the meringue to a piping bag fitted with a plain tip and pipe in spikes over the curd.

3. To brown the meringue either use a blow torch or pop in the oven for a few minutes but be careful of burning (my tips were a little singed).

Passion Fruit Curd – Amended from Bill Granger

2 eggs

125ml passion fruit pulp

80g caster sugar

60g unsalted butter, softened

1. If your passion fruit were not the juiciest add in lemon juice so that it equals 125ml of liquid.

2. Place the juice, eggs and sugar in a bowl and whisk to combine. add the softened butter and set the bowl over a pan of simmering water.

3. Whisk the mixture until the butter is melted and has thickened. Pour into sterilised jars.

I realise the white balance on my pictures is off in this post but I made these very late at night with lots of multi source lights and I couldn’t correct the images properly