After my cousin Tri, whose wonderful neighbor owns several passion fruit trees, gathered a large basket of the fruit, I couldn’t help but imagine the most delicious, exotic and romantic dessert. I figured chocolate was the perfect flavor pairing for this dessert cup, so I created chocolate and passion fruit parfait. Not only is the dessert decadent and delicious, nothing has to go to waste. I used the egg whites that weren’t used in the custard and made tuile cookies.
I prepared these fancy desserts for a dinner social we’re hosting this week, but I think they would be the perfect way to end a romantic meal. Remember, Valentine’s Day isn’t very far away!
1. Info for Passion Fruit Parfait Recipe
- Cook Time: unavailable
- Total Time: unavailable
- Servings: 28
- Calories: unavailable
2. Ingredients for Passion Fruit Parfait Recipe
- 12 fresh passion fruits
- ¼ cup rum
- 60 mini tuile cookies, as needed
- 6 egg yolks
- 1¾ cups granulated sugar
- 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
- 3 (8-ounce) packages mascarpone cheese, at room temperature
- 8 ounces semi-sweet chocolate chips
- 1 quart heavy whipping cream, cold
- ¼ teaspoon salt
- 2 tablespoons powdered sugar
3. Directions:
- Cut the fruits in half. Gather all the pulp in a bowl and strain, extracting as much fruit as possible, discarding the seeds.
- For the mascarpone filling: Beat the egg yolks with 1 cup sugar in a small stainless steel mixing bowl. Prepare a double boiler: Fill a saucepan with water, making sure the water barely covers the bottom of the stainless steel mixing bowl. I always like to add a little kitchen towel on top of the saucepan. The bowl won’t jiggle and there won’t be any splatter of water in your egg mixture. Bring the water to a boil then lower the heat to a gentle simmer. Place the stainless steel bowl on the towel over the saucepan and whisk the egg mixture vigorously for about 3-5 minutes using a handheld mixer. You’ll get a pale yellow foam and the texture of the egg yolk will be thicker. The mixture should fall like a ribbon of sauce when you lift the whisk. Add rum and mix well.
- In another mixing bowl, whisk the mascarpone cheese to soften it. Slowly add the egg mixture to the mascarpone, adding just a little egg at a time. Add the vanilla extract. Divide the mixture into 2 bowls: one with ⅓ of the mixture (for the chocolate custard) and the other with the rest (for the passion fruit-flavored custard).
- On the same "double boiler," place a stainless-steel bowl filled with 8 ounces semi-sweet chocolate chips. Slowly melt, stirring frequently. Add to the small bowl of egg mixture.
- For the passion fruit version, add the passion fruit pulp to the large bowl of egg mixture. Mix well.
- Clean your handheld mixer in hot soapy water and then rinse them in cold water. Always make sure the beater blades are completely clean prior to whipping cream for optimum results. The whipping cream should be whipped cold. Whisk the cream until it forms soft peaks. Add ¾ cup sugar.
- Divide the cream into the same proportions as the mascarpone mixtures and using a silicone spatula, gently fold the whipped cream into the 2 bowls (chocolate and passion fruit) to get an airy batter.
- Plastic-wrap the containers and place in the refrigerator until the rest of the components of the dessert are ready.
- Coarsely crush a dozen of the tuile cookies.
- Line up 28 5-ounce parfait glasses. Add a first layer of crushed cookies. Cover with about 1 tablespoon of the passion fruit mascarpone filling. Add more crushed cookies per glass. Cover with a layer of chocolate mascarpone filling. Finish with the passion fruit filling. Plastic-wrap each individual container and place in the refrigerator for at least 4-5 hours. The fat from the cream may pick up some other odor from the refrigerator if the containers are not sealed properly.
- When serving, garnish with tuile cookies and a dusting of powdered sugar.
- Bon appétit!
