I wanted to share this dessert with you, too, because it’s unusual and good and also very easy.
Mine didn’t quite like the above because I didn’t have any fresh passion fruits, so I couldn’t drizzle actual passion fruit pulp across the top, which would make a nice garnish but is certainly not crucial.
Passion fruit tastes something like apricots and a little like peaches and different from either. I like it a lot and will definitely be picking up more passion fruit puree when I get the chance. You can drink the sweetened juice and that’s good, too, but using pureed passion fruit in a dessert like this will make it go a lot farther. So, here you go:
Passion Fruit Fool
14 oz pkg frozen passion fruit puree, such as this kind, which is pure passion fruit puree with no additives or sugar or anything. I got this at Global Foods; if you have a good global grocery store, check in the frozen aisle.
1 1/2 C sugar, or more to taste, divided because you are going to add some to the passion fruit puree and some to the cream.
1 Tbsp or so cornstarch
2 1/2 C heavy cream
1 fresh passion fruit, optional
Stir 2/3 C of sugar into the thawed puree. The puree I was using was very thin, like water, even after adding the sugar. I wanted it more like syrup, so I brought it to a low boil, added a slurry of cornstarch and water, and stirred for two minutes or so, until the puree had thickened. I’m not sure how much cornstarch I added, so the above is a guess. You probably already know that you must mix cornstarch with about an equal amount of water before you add it. You drizzle it into your simmering fruit puree while stirring, then continue to stir and cook until the puree has thickened, which as I say takes only a couple of minutes.
Pour the thickened puree into a bowl or jar or whatever and chill until cold.
Now whip the cream until stiff. Gradually add the remaining sugar while whipping the cream, starting with 1/3 C but adding up to 1/2 C additional sugar after that, or even more. I usually add 1/4 C of sugar to 1 C of heavy cream, but you are probably going to want the cream sweeter than usual to contrast with the quite tart passion fruit syrup. At least, I did.
The cream is stiff when you can stop the beaters, lift them out, and the cream stands up in stiff little peaks where you lifted the beaters out.
Now, dollop whipped cream into small glass dessert dishes. Spoon over passion fruit syrup. Repeat. Repeat. Cut through the fool a couple of times with a knife to swirl.
If you happen to have a fresh passion fruit, split it and scoop out the seeds and drizzle a bit over each individual serving. Serve.
I find dishes of fool hold pretty well for 12 hours. But I don’t know about holding them longer. I assembled about a third of this recipe at a time to avoid needing to find out just how long it would hold.
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Whipped cream doesn’t usually hold well for long, but if you add cream of tartar or another mild acid – I have a recipe that uses lemon juice in a chocolate pie (the lemon vanishes) – it can hold up for a couple days. We did that with the whipped cream for last week’s pecan pie and by yesterday it was a little watery, but we also finished the pie so no problem.
I will have to look for passion fruit puree. I loved the passion fruit stuff we got in Hawaii.
What an interesting dessert. I must try this sometime. Thanks for sharing!
You can get frozen passionfruit puree at Amazon, if you can’t find it locally. (I haven’t yet, but have a few more stores to try.) The comments on Amazon claim Mexican groceries are good places to look, but that the quality is not as good as the Goya brand Rachel used.