Let’s celebrate: Passionfruit tart
A glorious spring tart with a silky-smooth passionfruit filling. To save time, you can use shop-bought ready-rolled shortcrust pastry.
SERVES 8
PREPARE 30 minutes, plus chilling
COOK 1 hour 10 minutes
PASTRY
200g plain flour, plus extra for dusting
65g icing sugar, plus extra for dusting
100g unsalted butter, diced and chilled
1 large egg yolk (reserve the white for glazing)
FILLING
8 large passionfruit (to yield 100ml passionfruit juice)
5 medium eggs
175g caster sugar
juice of 1 small lemon
150ml double cream
- For the pastry, pulse together the flour and icing sugar in a food processor. Add the butter and pulse until the mixture resembles coarse breadcrumbs. Add the egg yolk and 2 tbsp cold water. Pulse again to bring the dough together (add a drop more water if needed). Shape the dough into a ball then flatten to about 3cm thick, wrap in clingfilm then chill for 1 hour to firm up.
- Preheat the oven to 200C/ 180C fan/gas 6. Lightly dust the work surface with flour and roll out the pastry to a circle about 3mm thick. Use to line a 23cm fluted tart tin leaving the extra pastry overhanging the edges. Prick the base all over with a fork and chill for 20 minutes.
- Line the pastry case with a large circle of baking parchment (scrunch it up first then smooth it out) and fill with baking beans or rice. Sit the tin on a baking sheet and bake on the middle shelf for 20 minutes, until starting to turn golden.
- Carefully lift out the baking paper and beans and return the pastry to the oven for 10 minutes until the base looks cooked. Brush the base and sides with a little of the reserved egg white and return to the oven for a final 3-5 minutes to seal the pastry.
- While the pastry is in the oven, make the filling. Scoop the passionfruit pulp into a sieve and press it with a wooden spoon to extract the juice – you want 100ml in total. In a mixing bowl, use a hand whisk to gently whisk together the eggs and sugar with a pinch of salt until just combined (you don’t want any air bubbles). Lightly whisk in the passionfruit juice and the lemon juice, and then the cream. Pass the mixture through a sieve into a jug and chill until ready to use.
- Remove the pastry case from the oven. Cool for about 30 minutes, then use a serrated knife to trim the excess pastry from the edges. Dust out any crumbs from the middle.
- Turn down the oven to 150C/ 130C fan/gas 2. Carefully pour the filling into the tart case and bake for 30-35 minutes, until there is just a slight wobble in the middle of the tart. Remove from the oven and leave to cool completely before serving. Serve dusted with icing sugar, if liked.