Passionate About Passion Fruit

Baking with lilikoi

Two green passion fruit globes on a vine. When they turn yellow they’ll be ready to pick.

My love of passion fruit began way back in the late 1980s when Dorothy and I spent a few days on Kauai. In Hawaii, passion fruit is called lilikoi. I cannot imagine a more beautiful sounding name. I do not remember what I was eating that first time, but lilikoi grabbed me by the taste buds and I yelled “Wow!” Was it a dessert, a tea sipped at lunch, or an ice cream? All of that doesn’t matter now because lilikoi’s alluring floral aroma and unidentifiable tanginess imprinted themselves on me for life. Passion fruit indeed!

Through the forty-plus years since meeting lilikoi for the first time--before Dorothy and I began living on Kauai—I kept in contact with lilikoi by ordering bottles of passion fruit juice from Aunty Lilikoi. I’ll tell you more about that later.

Lilikoi grows on a vine. See the picture above. The fruit casing is hard, but it’s easy to cut open with a knife.

Inside you’ll find the seeded fruit encased in an orangy pulp. Both seeds and pulp are edible, but in desserts the seeds are removed and only the juice is used.

Removing the seeds is easy. Scrape the seeded pulp into a blender and pulse about ten times with very quick on/off bursts of power to liquefy the pulp. The seeds pretty much stay intact. Straining the contents of the blender gives you pure lilikoi juice that’s ready to use. And that’s it.

The juice keeps well in the refrigerator for up to a week, but it’s best to freeze it for longer storage. In the freezer lilikoi juice will keep its potency for up to one year.

I’ve made cheesecake, chiffon pies, tarts, and lilikoi curd. Why use lemon juice when lilikoi is at hand? The curd can also be frozen.

The dessert I make most often with lilikoi is Lilikoi Dessert Bars, my riff on the classic lemon bars.

Here are a few photos to illustrate the steps.

Whole and cut passion fruit. The ripe fruit tends to be a bit wrinkled. When I buy lilikoi I heft each and select the heaviest ones. Farmers charge $1 to $2 each depending on their size.

My blender jar with the innards of about a dozen passion fruit. About ten split-second pulses frees the pulp from the seeds.

Passion fruit pulp and seeds ready to be strained.

The strained lilikoi juice. It’s ready to add to a recipe. For the passion fruit bars you need 3/4 cup of juice.

The crust mixture for the lilikoi bars. Note the larger pieces of butter. You press the contents of the bowl directly into the pan and bake it for 20 minutes before topping it with the lilikoi filling.

This pan of uncut lilikoi bars was baked by my friend, Cindy Klotz, in Brooklyn, NY. She has generously allowed me to use her photo. Cindy had ordered frozen passion fruit juice online and says it’s great. (See below for sources). She and her partner, Gary, ate the whole panful!

My lilikoi bars. I usually serve them this way, without a confectioners’ sugar topping. Please feel free to give them a dusting of confectioners’ sugar if you like, but just at the last minute before serving. The moist filling causes the sugar to dissolve rather quickly.

Mail order sources for passion fruit juice are at the end of this recipe. Happy Baking!

LILIKOI DESSERT BARS

Makes 24 Bars

These treats are best served cold. Store the pan of baked bars in the refrigerator and cut and dust them with powdered sugar just before serving. If you want to make lemon or lime bars, substitute either for the lilikoi juice.

Ingredients

Brown Sugar Shortbread Crust

• 2 cups unbleached all-purpose flour; spoon flour into dry measuring cups to overflowing and level off with a straight-edge ( 8 1/2 ounces by weight; 240 grams)

• 1/2 cup firmly packed dark brown or muscovado sugar (100 gram)

• 1/4 teaspoon table salt

• 1 1/2 sticks ( 6 ounces; 170 grams) cold unsalted butter sliced into 12 to 15 pieces

Passion Fruit (Lilikoi) Filling

• 4 large eggs, cold is okay

• 1 1/2 cups granulated sugar

• 3/4 cup fresh passion fruit juice

• 1/3 cup all-purpose flour

• Powdered sugar for dusting

Instructions

1. Adjust an oven rack to the center position and preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Have ready a 13 x 9 x 2-inch ungreased baking pan.

Crust

1. For the shortbread crust, in a large bowl, whisk together the flour, brown sugar, and salt and add the butter slices.

2. Work the butter into the dry ingredients with your fingertips or a pastry blender until the butter is broken up into medium-size pieces, about ¼-inch. If your kitchen is warm and you find the butter getting too soft while you work it, put the bowl into the freezer for 10 to 15 minutes.

3. Pour the crumbs into the ungreased baking pan.

4. Press firmly and evenly on the bottom to make a compact layer. You’ll see pieces of butter here and there.

5. Bake for 20 minutes, until the crust is golden brown.

Filling

1. While the crust bakes, whisk the eggs in a medium bowl to combine well. Add the granulated sugar and whisk in well. Add the lilikoi juice and flour and whisk until smooth. Try not to create large bubbles. Pour over the hot crust and return the pan to the oven. Reduce the oven temperature to 300 degrees and continue baking until the filling is set, about 30 minutes.

2. Any odd spots here and there are from large bubbles that popped during baking. Not to worry, they’ll be hidden under a dusting of powdered sugar if you choose to do so.

3. Cool the pan completely on a wire rack, then refrigerate for an hour or two until cold. If you want to serve the next day, cover the pan tightly with foil and refrigerate.

4. Loosen the sides of the dessert with the tip of a sharp knife, going around the pan more than once if necessary. The top of the filling is sticky. To make cutting easy, I rub soft butter on the blade of my knife. It cuts through the bars without tearing.

5. Remove bars from the pan, dust with powdered sugar, if you want, and serve.

How to order passion fruit juice:

1. www.auntylilikoi.com.

This site offers many excellent products containing passion fruit juice in addition to bottles of unsweetened passion fruit juice. Made from concentrate, I have had excellent results with it. A 10-ounce bottle costs $12.00 plus shipping. If you are on Kaua’i visit their store in Waimea. The address is on their website. For telephone orders call 1-808-338-1296.

2. Amazon.com. You will find many sources. Always make sure you are buying passion fruit juice with no added sugar. My friend, Cindy Klotz, is delighted with her purchase of Mazzoni Passion Fruit Puree, 100% Pure Passion Fruit, No Sugar added. It’s a 2.2 pound bag. The price is $25.50, and if you have amazon prime, there is free delivery. Cindy divided the puree into 3/4 cup portions and froze them.