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I found some frozen passion fruit purée at Yasolo, a little shop in my neighbourhood, owned by a lovely couple from Côte d'Ivoire. Obviously, I was ridiculously excited about it and the shop owner wondered why on earth I'd buy it if I wasn't going to make juice from it. So I explained to her, in French, that I was going to make a passion fruit spread of sorts, that's thickened with eggs and butter. Actually there isn't a French baking term for "curd" and often lemon curd translates as "crème de citron."
You can enjoy fruit curds like this passionfruit curd served with best scones or smeared on toast, and also as a filling for cakes and cookies (remember when I made grapefruit coconut cookies that were sandwiched with grapefruit curd? Yum!). In this case, I used it to fill green matcha tart shells to make these matcha tarts.
📖 Recipe
Matcha Tart with Passion Fruit Curd
Ingredients
Passion fruit curd
- 125 mL passion fruit purée
- 60 mL fresh lemon juice
- 200 grams granulated sugar
- 8 large egg yolk(s)
- 150 grams unsalted butter
For the matcha tart dough
- 86 grams unsalted butter softened
- 63 grams icing sugar
- 33 grams ground almonds
- 8 grams matcha green tea powder
- 1 large egg yolk(s)
- 156 grams bleached all-purpose flour
- 1 pinch Diamond Crystal fine kosher salt
- 22.5 mL whole milk (3.25 % fat)
Garnish
- 2 Passion fruit for decorating, or you can use fresh raspberries
Instructions
Passion fruit curd
- In a medium saucepan, combine the passion fruit purée, the lemon juice, and half the sugar.
- In a large bowl, whisk together the egg yolks with the rest of the sugar until the mixture has lightened in colour. Set aside by the stove.
- Have the cubes of butter ready by the stove (away from heat) and also, place a fine mesh strainer over a large bowl nearby. Have a couple heatproof spatulas at the ready.
- Heat the juice mixture on medium–high until it comes to a boil almost. Pour the juice over the lightened yolks and whisk like mad to temper the eggs. When the egg-juice mixture is well mixed, transfer it back to a saucepan.
- Heat the curd on medium–high until it comes to a boil, whisking constantly. When the mixture comes to a boil, set a time for 1.5 minutes and boil the mixture while whisking non-stop. Move the saucepan around over the burner to avoid scorching if your burner/pan have hot spots. At this point, the curd should be thick. Take the pan off the heat, and begin whisking in the butter, a little at a time. When the butter has disappeared and the curd is well mixed, pour it into the strainer set over a bowl. Use a spatula to get every last drop of curd out of the pan. Press the mixture through the sieve.
- Cover with plastic wrap pressed onto the entire surface of the curd, then close the bowl with another piece of plastic wrap pulled across the top. Chill overnight.
Matcha tart shells
- In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, cream together the butter, icing sugar, ground almond, and matcha. Scrape down the sides of the bowl with a spatula.
- Add the egg yolk and mix it in.
- Add the flour and salt. Mix it into the dough on low.
- Sprinkle the milk over the crumbly mixture in the mixer bowl, and mix until the crumbles become a cohesive green dough.
- Dump the dough onto a work surface and press/gently work the dough into a uniform mass. Divide the dough into five pieces (~75 grams each). Flatten each piece into a disk, wrap in plastic, and chill for an hour.
- Preheat the oven to 350 °F (175 °C).
- Chill the unbaked tart shells for another 30 minutes or more (if you have the time, an hour is better). Place the chilled tart shells on a baking sheet, dock the dough, and bake on the middle rack for about 20 minutes or so. No pie weights needed! Bake the tarts until the edges are golden brown.
- Transfer the baking sheet to a wire rack for 10 minutes, then using a glass, unmold the tarts (check out my post about how to remove a tart from a tart pan for more info). Let cool completely before filling.
Assembly
- Fill the tarts with passion fruit curd and top with fresh passion fruit pulp or fresh raspberries.
- Chill until ready to serve.
Blogtastic Food says
Wow! I have seen many matcha flavored desserts but this has got to be one of my favorites. Your blog is amazing and super inspiring! just subscribed (:
The Finer Cookie/Kim says
Beautiful post. Such vibrant colors. Looks and sounds delicious. I couldn't agree with you more how crucial it is to get the measurements correct in a recipe. Just yesterday, I made a cookie and there were three mistakes! Too little liquid. Too much flour and teaspoons shoulda been tablespoons. Needless to say it was a total disaster. I fixed the problems and proceeded to make a great cookie. Kudos to your good work. Love your blog Janice.
Mardi (eat. live. travel. write.) says
I have learned so much about recipe development over the course of the past few months but I definitely identify with your "methods" as described above 😉 I LOVE passionfruit and passionfruit curd is one of most favourite things ever. Stunning with the matcha pastry!
Eyecandypopper says
haha your early days remind me of my own too! Not writing anything down and then writing everything from memory... Funny. These mini tarts are adorable, and that passion fruit curd sounds so decadent! Yum! Well done, and a nice little summery break during a cold winter.
Marie-Pierre Breton says
This is fantastic! I'm personally a passion fruit fan, they are my favorite fruits! Plus I've just got my forst Match tea set and wanted to experiment with it! I found the spot on recipe for me! Thanks a ton it looks super yummy!