I've been completely flooded with orders and buying baking supplies the past week. Even though I've been sleeping at 3-4 am every day the past week, I'm still loving what I do. I love it even more when I get to make desserts with flavors that I personally love myself. Out of most fruit flavors that work well in desserts, passion fruits would be one of my top favorites. I've seen so many creations (including Pierre Herme's mogador) that included this tart and sweet fruit. Back when I was still a child and living in Taiwan, my grandparents would frequently buy the purple skinned passion fruit for my brothers and I to eat. We would cut the passion fruit in half, sprinkle granulated sugar over the pulp, and eat it straight out of the shell. I remembered the passion fruit to be slightly sweet, quite tart, and so very fragrant. After I moved to Singapore though, I could never really find the same type of passion fruit. When I moved to Indonesia, I still had a hard time finding it. All I could find were the ones with the orange skin and transparent pulp which I found quite tasteless (and mostly overly unripe). Eventually, I did find a sort of locally made passion fruit syrup in Indonesia that several stores would sell. The fragrance was pretty similar to the passion fruit in Taiwan but the syrup was loaded with a ridiculous amount of sugar -.-" Because I was so desperate for that taste, I survived by mixing a spoonful of the syrup and mixing it into water. Years have passed and I've grown out of drinking that sugar loaded syrup so I set out on a mission to find these passion fruit. I figured if they can make the syrup, they must be getting the fruit from SOMEWHERE.
FINALLY, after years and years and years of looking for them (I looked for them when I could remember to :p), I FOUND THEM. Okay, my dad found them. He went to a nearby fresh market that he usually visited to buy mangoes and spotted these. I went totally crazy and asked my dad to buy 2 kg worth of them. As soon as he brought them home, I opened the bag and was surprised to see that the passion fruit was so so much smaller compared to those in Taiwan. Luckily though, the insides were the same yellow pulp, but was a bit disappointed that they were a little less sweet and fragrant. What I found super weird was how dirty they were. They were covered in dirt like they were grown underground! Nevertheless, I quickly scrubbed them clean and sliced each one to remove the pulp. I placed the pulp over a strainer and let it sit until the juice and seed were mostly separated. I then placed them into ice cube trays and froze them for future use. Oh and I did eat one or two, in secret of course hehe. I've pretty much been banned from eating overly sour fruits, especially citrus fruits due to my stomach. Long story short, I managed to sneak a few and still be ok (YAY :D)
I went totally crazy the next few days, trying to figure out what to make with such a yummy ingredient (years of a passionfruit-less life seemed to have driven me crazy haha). I couldn't decide what to do with them until a friend contacted me for a birthday order. She wanted something small, like cupcakes, because there were only a few people that will be present and she didn't want a gigantic cake that no one could finish. I gave her a few options and she eventually chose to order small mousse cakes, in the shapes of a bear, bunny, and panda. She also said that she was open to any flavors I could create so I went completely into "create the perfect flavors" mode. One of the flavors I settled for was of course passion fruit! I wanted to add a secondary flavor so I thought mangoes, since they were really ripe and in season now. Indonesia is famous for their mangoes after all! In the end, I settled for a chocolate joconde base, passionfruit mascarpone mousse, and a mango gelee center.
Of the three cakes that I made, my friend felt that this flavor was her favorite. She loved the taste and she absolutely adored the way the cake looked. Since the mousse was an off white color, I made it into a bunny, one of the shapes she asked for. She said the bunny was so adorable she just wanted to pinch the cheeks! I was actually really happy with the results too but sadly, I didn't have extras to get a picture of the innards. I will definitely have to find the time to do it soon!
Mango Passion Fruit Entremet
~Mango Gelee~
2 cups Mango, cubed
1 gelatin leaf
25 g sugar
1. Blend the mango cubes in a blender
2. Pour the mango puree into a saucepan and add sugar.
3. Slowly cook the mixture until the sugar has melted
4. Place gelatin leaves to bloom in water
5. Remove mixture from heat and add in bloomed gelatin, stir evenly to fully
incorporate the gelatin into the mixture.
6. Pour into a parchment lined pan and let cool.
7. Once cool, place into freezer until further use.
~Chocolate Joconde~
Source: Cake Chef
~Passionfruit Mascarpone Mousse~
30 g passion fruit puree
2 egg uolks
45 g sugar
1 gelatin leaf
120 g Mascarpone Cheese
90 g heavy whipping cream
1. Bloom gelatin leaf in water
2. Place egg yolks, passion fruit puree, and sugar over a double boiler.
3. Heat mixture until 74 degrees C
4. Add in gelatin leaf and mix evenly to ensure the gelatin has melted
5. Whisk in the Mascarpone cheese into the mixture
6. Whip heavy cream into soft peaks
7. Fold whipped cream into the Mascarpone cheese mixture
~Assembly~
1. Prepare 3 cm half hemisphere molds
2. Pour mousse into half of the mold
3. Cut out 2 cm circles from the mango gelee, and place ontop of mousse
4. Cover mango gelee with more mousse, until the mold is fully filled
5. Place molds into freezer and leave till firm
6. Cut out 3 cm rounds of the chocolate joconde base
7. Remove mousse from their molds carefully and place onto the joconde base
8. Decorate to recreate bunny face.
More flavors and cute shapes to come! <3
Love,
Natalie
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