As you can probably tell from the list of posts under the “food” topic on this site, I’ve been on a little bit of a baking kick recently. It’s something I haven’t done a lot of: until recently, I was living with multiple fantastic bakers, and was one of the better improvisational cooks, so I didn’t really feel the need to explore the world of baking much. I’ve been slowly changing that, though, partly because I’m only cooking dinner one night a week, now, and I’ve always been more of a lunch and dinner cook than a breakfast cook.

Not to be too sappy about it, but I think this tart is one of the more baker-y things I’ve baked–even though, in typical mossbeasts fashion, it started out as one thing (lemon bars) and quickly turned to another.

Mossbeasts’ Passionfruit Tart

Stuff you’ll need

• Bowls for mixing (2-4; 2 minimum, but you’ll have to wash them partway through)
• Tart pan, cheesecake pan, or brownie tin. A cheesecake pan would work the best; I used a brownie tin and had to kind of chip the tart out in chunks.
• A small saucepan.
• a sieve/strainer

Food you’ll need

Crust

• 1.5 cups flour
• 3/4 cup sugar
• 3/4 tsp salt
• 3/8 tsp baking powder
• 3/4 cup melted butter

filling

• 8ish ripe passionfruit*
• 2/4 tsp cream of tartar
• 1 tsp salt
• 4 whole eggs
• 2 egg yolks
• 3-4 limes, depending on how juicy they are
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 2 tbsp butter

cream

• heavy whipping cream
• another lime
• sugar to taste
• salt to taste

Putting it together

The crust

1. Melt the butter
2. Combine everything but the butter in a bowl, stir it together.
3. Add the butter, stir. At this point, it won’t really look a lot like dough, and it’ll be a little grainy from the sugar. Stick with it.
4. Grease your baking pan, pat the dough into it, as thick as you want the crust to be. Keep in mind that a thicker crust will be easier to cut/hold, but also risks overpowering the filling.
5. Put it in the oven (without any filling; you’re not missing a step), bake ‘til it’s a little less golden-brown than you’d like to eat
6. Take it out, let it cool.

The curd

1. Seperate the two eggs that need seperating. There are a lot of ways to do this; I wash my hands and then crack them into my hand, so the yolk site in my fingers and the whites run through them (into a bowl, of course). You might find this gross; do it another way if you do.
2. Cut your passoinfruit in half. You’ll want a serrated knife for this. Scoop out the insides, and run them through your strainer to get the seeds out. You’re not going to get all the juice, and that’s okay. Save the seeds and any pulp stuck on them for the cream.
3. Mix together the wet ingredients of the curd in your sauce pan - except for the butter - and then add in the dry ingredients. It’ll still be a liquid. Don’t worry, it’ll set in the next step.
4. Transfer your saucepan to the stove. Turn the heat on low (or low-ish, if you, like me, cook with a stove that doesn’t really do low heat). At this point, you want to be stirring constantly to make sure that your filling doesn’t burn. When it thickens, take it off the heat, add the butter, and stir until the butter is melted into it. Set it aside.

Assembly (Part 1)

1. Pour the curd into the tart, put it into the oven. Bake at 350F for 5-10 minutes covered, then uncover it and bake at 325F until the curd is set. Take it out, put it in the freezer. While it’s in the freezer, make the cream for on top.

The cream

1. Make whipped cream. I assume you know how to do this. If not, beat the cream until it’s the texture of whipped cream. You can’t do this with milk - even whole milk. You need actual heavy whipping cream.
2. Squeeze in the lime juice.
3. Add the leftover passionfruit bits from the curd, including the seeds. Stir.

Assembly (Part 2)

1. Go check on your tart in the freezer. If it’s set and completely cool, you’re good to take it out. If it’s not, wait until it is. Chilling it now means that the curd will set better, which makes it easier to eat and easier to cut. It also means that the whipped cream won’t immediatly melt all over it.
2. Spoon the cream over the tart. If you want to be fancy, I’d put a ring of dollops around the outside, and then kind of swoosh them towards the middle. I didn’t want to be fancy today, so I just globbed it on top.

Notes

Passionfruit: I made this with fresh passionfruit, since I had some on hand. I’m 99% sure that you can do it with puree, too; you’ll want about 2/3rds of a cup.

Cream: If you’re feeling lazy, feel free to leave out the cream. If you do, I’d top the tart with some powdered sugar, like a lemon bar.

Enjoy!

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