Passion Fruit Curd

My love affair with passionfruit continues.  We had a vine in our backyard when I was younger and I loved grabbing a passionfruit and scooping the pulp over vanilla ice cream.  One of my favorite summer treats when I was growing up was going to get an ice cream cone.  Our corner milk bar always had a choice of three flavors of ice cream - vanilla, chocolate, and passion fruit.  They didn't even bother asking which flavor I wanted as it was always passion fruit.  Later they added strawberry to the roster but it made no difference to my choice.  Having passion fruit as a choice seems strange now that I think back, but it has always been a popular flavor in Australia.

The pulp of a passionfruit has a tart-sweet taste and lots of crunchy black seeds.  It is commonly known here in Hawaii as lilikoi and there are a couple of different varieties - a yellow skinned and a light purple skinned (the purple tends to be slightly sweeter).  It is lilikoi time right now so I suspect there may be a few posts that include them in the near future :) .

Surprisingly, passion fruit can be hard to find here in Oahu, but if you are lucky you can buy it at the Farmers' Market, or sometimes you are fortunate and find a vine growing wild.  When Whole Foods first opened in Kahala they sold it, but unfortunately I haven't seen it there since that time. Lucky for me I was able to find some recently and decided I really wanted to make some passion fruit curd.  I love it on my toast on the morning, but it also makes a wonderful filling for cakes, a delicious topping for ice cream, and can be enjoyed with scones rather than using jam.

Passion Fruit Curd
(Printer Friendly Recipe)

Ingredients

• 6 large eggs
• 125g butter
• 1 cup of sugar
• 1 cup of passion fruit pulp (strained of seeds, whole, or a mix) 

Preparation

1. Heat the juice, butter and sugar in a heavy based pot until the sugar has dissolved and it reaches boiling point. 
2. Remove from the heat and allow it to cool slightly for about 4 minutes. At this point I actually strained the mixture into a separate bowl, reserving about 3 tablespoons of the seeds which I added back in - this is optional.  Place back into the pot and allow to cool.
3. Beat the eggs in a bowl,  add a small amount of the hot juice mixture to temper the eggs (and prevent curdling), making sure you continue to whisk.  Add this mixture back into the pot.
4. Place the pot back on the heat and whisk constantly until the mixture becomes thick, about 10 minutes. 
5. Cool the mixture in the pot which allows it to thicken a little more, then transfer to a sterilized jar(s) and store in the refrigerator. 

This recipe makes approximately three 8 oz jars.

Recipe adapted from Drizzle and Dip.