Tuesday, November 16, 2010

Passionfruit Melting Moments

The recipe is from a book about fruit that my friend gave me for Christmas one year.

melting moments
250g unsalted butter, softened
40g icing sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
185g self raising flour
60g custard powder

passionfruit filling
60g unsalted butter, softened
60g icing sugar
1.5 tablespoons strained passionfruit pulp
preferably fresh, but the tinned stuff is usable if you add less sugar

Cream the butter and icing sugar until light and fluffy. Add the vanilla and beat until combined. Sift the flour and custard powder into the butter mixture, then stir until soft dough forms.

Roll level tablespoons of the mixture into 28 balls and place onto 2 baking trays lined with baking paper, spacing to allow for spreading. Flatten the balls slightly with a fork. I used about 1 teaspoon for smaller biscuits.
Alternatively, using a large strong piping bag with a star nozzle, pipe the biscuit mixture into heaped rounds directly onto the trays about 3.5cm wide at the base. Refrigerate for 30 mins until firm.
I find that the dough's softness depends on the butter; if it's too soft leave in the fridge for a bit before rolling into balls. If piping, a soft consistency is better.

Bake for 20 minutes at 180C or until lightly golden. Transfer to a wire rack to cool.

For the filling, cream the butter and icing sugar until light and fluffy, then stir in the pulp. Use the filling to sandwich pairs of the cooled biscuits together. Leave to firm before serving. I stuck them in the fridge because it was so hot, but they store well in airtight containers for about 4 days.


From experience, the larger size the book recommends (the recipe makes 14 if using level tablespoons) is far too large to eat neatly, so I made balls a lot smaller, about 1 teaspoon level. I will probably try pipe them next time, but piping wastes a lot of batter so I'm reluctant to do that.
Making the smaller biscuits also meant I had to watch the oven more closely, since they cook faster, approximately 10 minutes in my fanforced oven.
I also made sure the biscuits were completely cool before sandwiching them, since the warmth of the biscuit can melt the filling (it's butter after all!).
Make sure the butter is unsalted, as the salted (even the reduced salt one!) butter can suppress the other flavours.

All in all, they were yummy, with the custard powder adding a nice flavour to the vanilla. The passionfruit I skimped on a bit this time, since I did use the tinned stuff, for fear of it being too sweet. Using the fresh passionfruit pulp was better, as the tart flavour contrasts nicely with the sweetness of the biscuit.

No comments: