Brighten up your day with PASSION FRUIT
We’re smack dab in the middle of citrus season, so it may be easy to overlook them, but passion fruit are at their peak right now.
They bring that distinctive “tart sunshine” flavor even better than most citrus, and I love finding new ways to use the pulp, even though I often just eat it straight from the shells with a spoon — the classic approach.
If you need inspiration for recipes that use the wonderfully golden juice, try making sorbet, the next best thing to raw. Sweetened with a little sugar and churned until icy, it’s the perfect thing to make right now.
And if you want a baking project, make my passion fruitpoppy seed muffins, a spin on the classic lemon breakfast treat that packs a more colorful punch than the yellow citrus ever could.
6 large, wrinkled passion fruit
1 cup granulated sugar
cup filtered water
Juice of 1 large orange
Juice of 2 limes
1. Halve the passion fruit across their equators and, working over a bowl, use a small spoon to scrape out all their pulp; reserve the empty shells on a plate. Measure out cup of the pulp in a liquid measuring cup; keep any remaining pulp for another use, such as in lemonade or as a topping for yogurt and granola.
2. In a small saucepan, combine the sugar and water and bring to a boil, stirring to dissolve the sugar. Immediately remove the pan from the heat and stir in the passion fruit pulp, orange juice and lime juice. Let the syrup cool to room temperature in the pan, about 30 minutes.
3. Using an immersion or stand blender, pulse the passion fruit syrup a few times to break up the seeds and then pour the syrup through a fine mesh strainer into a bowl, pressing to extract as much liquid as possible. If you want some seeds in the sorbet for aesthetics and crunch, add 1 teaspoon of the broken seeds from the strainer back to the syrup; otherwise, discard all the seeds. Pour the syrup into a resealable container and chill at least 2 hours or overnight in the refrigerator.
4. Stir the syrup and then pour it into an ice cream machine and churn according to the manufacturer’s instructions. Spoon the sorbet into the reserved passion fruit shells and smooth the tops flat or mound up slightly; store any remaining sorbet in a resealable container in the freezer. 5. Place the filled hulls on the plate in the freezer and chill until firm, at least 2 hours. Enjoy straight from the freezer with a spoon.
Passion fruit granita
In Step 4, pour mixture into shallow glass dish and freeze for 4 hours, scraping mixture every 30 minutes with the tines of a fork, until it forms fluffy crystals like shaved ice. Spoon granita into the reserved passion fruit shells and freeze until ready to serve. Make ahead: You can make the passion fruit syrup base up to 1 week before you plan to churn the sorbet. The churned sorbet will keep in an airtight container for up to 1 month.