This wonderful passion fruit tart has a really unique taste! Buttery pastry crust filled with sweet and sour passion fruit curd, topped with crispy on the outside and soft on the inside meringue. Sweet meringue balances the tartness of the curd. The contrast of the textures is also lovely – crispy pastry crust and meringue with a soft and delicate curd. You’ll love this tart!
If you’re wondering where you could also use passion fruits, we also love these mango muffins with passion fruit glaze and banana oatmeal with passion fruit.
What is passion fruit?
Passion fruit is a small round tropical fruit, also known as maracuja, with edible pulp and seeds. It tastes tropical, slightly sweet and sour. Look for the fruits that have wrinkled skin – these are ripe.
How to eat passion fruit? Cut the fruits in half and scoop out the seeds and pulp. You can eat them as is, for example, you can add them to your oatmeal, or juice the seeds – this is what will be needed for this tart. The seeds can also be used as a garnish.
How to juice passion fruit:
- if you need a small amount of juice, like for a passion fruit glaze, you can just press the seeds through a small sieve
- if you need more juice, like for this tart, simply add the seeds to a blender, pulse a couple of times and strain through a sieve.
What you’ll need:
This amazing passion fruit tart consists of:
- Shortcrust pastry – it’s very simple to make, you only need 5 ingredients: flour, powdered sugar, butter, salt, and cold water.
- Passion fruit curd – this is my favorite recipe to use up passion fruits! I have a separate detailed post showing how to make this curd step by step (it’s really easy!). You can also use lemon curd for this tart, also store-bought lemon curd, or any other curd.
- Meringue – it’s also very easy and quick to make but if you’d like something different, you could also top this tart with whipped cream or omit any topping.
How to make it step by step:
Make the pastry crust: Add all the ingredients except the water to the mixer bowl. Make sure your butter is cold – this will result in a flaky pastry crust.
2. Mix with a stand mixer fitted with a paddle attachment until the mixture resembles a coarse meal with some roughly pea-size lumps. Add 1-2 tablespoons of cold water (just enough to bind the dough together), mix until almost combined.
3. Gather the dough and gently form a smooth ball, do not overwork it.
Flatten the dough into a disk, wrap in a cling film, and put in the fridge for 1 hour.
4. Grease lightly a 9-inch / 23 cm round tart pan with butter. Remove the dough from the fridge, roll out the dough on a lightly floured surface until it’s large enough to fit into the tart pan. Transfer the dough into the pan, press it into the corners (the dough should cover the bottom and about 1-inch (2.5 cm) of the sides of the pan), cut off any excess dough. Put in the fridge while the oven warms up.
5. Blind-bake the pastry crust (without the curd and the meringue): prick the dough with a fork in several places, line with a sheet of baking paper, and fill to the top with dry beans/dry rice/dry chickpeas/ceramic baking weights, pressing them into the corners and sides. Bake at 350 °F / 180 °C for about 20 minutes, then remove the paper with the beans and bake for another 15 minutes until the crust is golden.
While the crust is baking, prepare the curd (I have a separate, detailed post showing how to make it) and the meringue.
6. Make the meringue:
- Add the egg whites into a clean and dry bowl (if your bowl is not clean and dry the egg whites will not whip up properly).
- Beat them with a whisk attachment at high speed until soft peaks are formed – the meringue will be fluffy and if you lift the beater upwards, peaks will form, but they will move sideways when moving the beater (shown on the middle photo).
- At this stage, we add the sugar, teaspoon by teaspoon, waiting for a while after each addition, until it’s combined with the egg whites, mixing all the time at medium-high speed. When all the sugar has been added, mix the meringue for another minute. It should be very thick and glossy.
7. Pour the passion fruit curd into the baked pastry crust.
8. Transfer the meringue into a piping bag fitted with a big round tip (or a large plastic bag with a corner cut off), and pipe small rounds onto the passion fruit curd. You could also just spread it on top with a spatula.
9. Put the tart into the oven and bake at 350 °F / 180 °C for 20 minutes. It’s ready when the meringue is lightly browned – it will be crunchy on the outside and soft on the inside.
Leave to cool slightly and enjoy!
Storage:
This passion fruit tart tastes best on the day it was baked. It’s also very good the next day, but the pastry will be softer and the meringue not crunchy on the outside anymore.
How to make it ahead: You can make the dough and passion fruit curd ahead and store them in the fridge for up to 3 days. When you are ready to bake it: blind-bake the dough, pour the curd over and top with freshly prepared meringue. Meringue can not be made ahead, it must always be prepared right before baking it.
Did you make this recipe? RATE THE RECIPE or tell me in the COMMENTS how you liked it! You can also add a photo of your dish. It would make me very happy and will help other readers. Thank you!!
Passion fruit tart with meringue topping
Ingredients
pastry crust:
- 1 ½ cup (190g) all-purpose flour
- 10 tablespoons (145g) butter cold and unsalted, cut into cubes
- ¼ cup (30g) powdered sugar
- pinch of salt
- 1-2 tablespoons very cold water
passion fruit curd:
- ½ cup (120ml) passion fruit juice from about 9 small passion fruits
- 2 large eggs
- 1 large egg yolk
- 4 tablespoons (60g) butter cubed
- ½ cup (100g) granulated sugar
- 1 teaspoon cornstarch or potato starch
- pinch of salt
meringue:
- 2 large egg whites
- ½ cup (100g) granulated sugar
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Instructions
Make the pastry crust:
- In a stand mixer: Stir the flour with salt and powdered sugar together, add the cold, cut into cubes butter and mix with a stand mixer fitted with a paddle attachment until the mixture resembles coarse meal with some roughly pea-size lumps. Add 1-2 tablespoons of cold water (just enough to bind the dough together), mix until almost combined. Gather the dough and gently form a smooth ball, do not overwork it.
- In a food processor: Add the flour, powdered sugar, and diced cold butter to the food processor bowl (with the S-blade attached). Pulse a couple of times until the butter pieces are the size of large peas (they can be of different sizes). Add cold water and pulse until the dough begins to come together (be careful not to overmix it). Transfer the dough pieces onto a work surface, and gather them with your hands, forming a dough ball.
- By hand: stir the flour with powdered sugar and salt together, add the cold diced butter, rub the butter into the flour mixture with your fingertips (or chop it with a large knife) until it resembles a pea-sized crumble, add cold water, knead quickly until dough forms a smooth ball (be careful not to over mix it).
- Flatten the dough into a disk, wrap in a cling film, and put in the fridge for 1 hour.
Blind-bake the pastry crust:
- Preheat the oven to 350 °F / 180 °C / Gas Mark 4, no fan.
- Grease lightly a 9-inch / 23 cm round tart pan with butter.
- Remove the dough from the fridge, roll out the dough on a lightly floured surface until it's large enough to fit into the tart pan. Transfer the dough into the pan, press it into the corners (the dough should cover the bottom and about 1-inch (2.5 cm) of the sides of the pan), cut off any excess dough. Put in the fridge while the oven warms up.
- Blind-bake the pastry crust (without the curd and the meringue): prick the dough with a fork in several places, line with a sheet of baking paper, and fill to the top with dry beans/dry rice/dry chickpeas/ceramic baking weights, pressing them into the corners and sides.
- Bake for about 20 minutes, then remove the paper with the beans and bake for another 15 minutes until the crust is golden.
- While the crust is baking, prepare the curd and the meringue (it will take about 20 minutes, not counting the juicing of passion fruits).
Make the passion fruit curd:
- Make the curd using a double boiler method – prepare a medium pot and bowl (glass or metal). Place the bowl over the pot with boiling water, the bowl can't touch the water surface.
- Add all ingredients for the curd (except for the eggs and the yolk), whisk until the butter and sugar dissolve (over medium heat).
- Reduce the heat to the minimum, add the eggs and the egg yolk, let the curd steam gently, until thickened. It will take about 10 minutes, at first, you have to mix sporadically, at the end very often. The curd should have a pudding consistency.
- Remove the baked crust from the oven, pour a warm curd into the crust.
Make the meringue:
- Add the egg whites into a clean and dry bowl. Beat them with a whisk attachment at high speed until soft peaks are formed – the meringue will be fluffy and if you lift the beater upwards, peaks will form, but they will move sideways when moving the beater.
- At this stage, we add the sugar, teaspoon by teaspoon, waiting for a while after each addition, until it’s combined with the egg whites, mixing all the time at medium-high speed.
- When all the sugar has been added, mix the meringue for another minute. It should be very thick and glossy.
- Transfer the meringue into a piping bag fitted with a big round tip (or a large plastic bag with a corner cut off), and pipe small rounds onto the passion fruit curd. You could also just spread it on top with a spatula.
Bake the tart:
- Put the tart into the oven and bake for 20 minutes. It's ready when the meringue is lightly browned – it will be crunchy on the outside and soft on the inside.
- Enjoy!
Notes
- The curd is sweet and slightly sour, with a distinct passion fruit taste. If you want a distinctly sour curd you can use juice from about 6 passion fruits (6 tablespoons of juice, 90ml) mixed with lemon juice (3 tablespoons, 45ml) but then the taste of passion fruit is not so pronounced.
- The heat under the pot must be really small, otherwise, the eggs will curdle – if this happens and you will see clumps in the curd, just put the mixture through a fine sieve quickly, then put it back on the burner.
- How to make it ahead: You can make the dough and passion fruit curd ahead and store them in the fridge for up to 3 days. When you are ready to bake it: blind-bake the dough, pour the curd over and top with freshly prepared meringue. Meringue can not be made ahead, it must always be prepared right before baking it.
- Instead of meringue, you can top the tart with sweetened whipped cream.
- Calories = 1 serving (1/8 of the recipe). This is only an estimate!
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