A Passion

I can't even begin to explain where I've been the last month. So much is going on but so much of it is fantastic - that I'm almost not too apologetic. There are things going on at work and things going on personally and they're just keeping me busier than I've been in an extremely long time. Then in the midst of all of this craziness - my hard drive decided to die and I basically had to rebuild my entire computer. It was....fun... to say the least. But let's stop with the excuses and just get to what you REALLY want to read about:

Tart and sweet and simply, perfect

I was just a little bit obsessed with passionfruit this past summer. I think this post still holds the highest number of hits on my entire blog. But even outside my blog I'd find myself ordering passionfruit cocktails and tarts and pâte de fruit... and loving them! Then I did this and got to sample Jen's passionfruit ice cream à la David Lebovitz when we had dinner at her house. Uh oh - you mean this recipe is in my "The Perfect Scoop" book at home? We're about to be in trouble.

Passionfruit might just be my new obsession

It didn't take long for me to start thinking about that ice cream once I got home. And I even had tubs of passionfruit puree in my freezer just *waiting*. But what I didn't have, yet really wanted was passionfruit SEEDS to add that tiny crunch to the ice cream. And those basically only come from real passionfruits (duh)! I looked but didn't very obviously find any fresh passionfruits at local grocery stores - even the Asian ones. It's possible I needed to go INTO San Francisco for this, but I never made the time.

~I can find the Perfect Puree at Draegers in the Bay Area
~Combining the puree and cream

Then I was reading my cousin Courtney's blog. She and her husband have been living in Melbourne, Australia for the better part of the last year. Well, in one of her entries she talked about a pavlova she made. And what did I spy on top of her pavlova? Passionfruit puree WITH SEEDS! (Please re-read the title of this blog post in case you're wondering why I'm getting so excited.)

Tempering the egg yolks with the hot milk mixture - work fast!

Cook until you can draw a "line" on your spatula

At this point I knew I'd be seeing Courtney for our other cousin's wedding just a few weeks later and sweetly asked her if she could buy and bring me a can or two of this wondrous passionfruit puree! Of course she did - and I LOVE HER FOR IT!! *Thanks Snort!!*

If we had a Woolworths selling passionfruit pulp here in The States,
you can bet I'd be there buying it

How beautiful is that passionfruit pulp?
Anyone going to Australia and wanna pick some up for me?...

So I was ready! I finally had all my ingredients and I could make this fantastical passionfruit ice cream. Gosh - it takes a village doesn't it? Jen, Courtney and I guess even Mr. Lebovitz!

~The original recipe made *so* little I doubled it for you!
~Of course after churning, the volume is greater due to all the air mixed in

I made it more per Jen than Lebovitz, tho the differences were small. She omitted the orange oil/zest and I decided I wanted to as well. I'd also personally suggest a TAD more sugar, like probably a full half cup instead of 7 T. I do tend to like things a bit more sweet than tart though.

Oh shucks I have to clean the rest of this out...

This ice cream is phenomenal. And in all seriousness - it NEEDS the seeds. I don't know what I'll do when my small stash of Australian passionfruit puree is gone. But for now I'm portioning it out to each batch of ice cream in a manner where the LEAST amount possible goes in to still have a few bites of seeds in a serving. Did I hear someone say anal retentive?!?

So make this ice cream. Seriously. No, seriously. It's incredible.

Sublime.

I doubled the original recipe:

1 cup fresh or frozen passion fruit pulp or concentrate (12-16 passion fruits – strain the pulp to separate from the seeds)
2 cups heavy cream
3/4 cup whole milk
1 cup sugar
1/4 t salt
5 large egg yolks
couple spoonfuls of passion fruit seeds (optional – but I’d highly recommend it)

Combine the passion fruit pulp and 1 cup of cream in a large bowl. Warm the milk, sugar, salt and 1 cup of cream in a medium saucepan over medium heat. Be sure the sugar dissolves.

Temper the egg yolks with the warmed liquid; whisking constantly to keep the yolks from cooking. Return the entire mixture to the saucepan and heat over medium. Stir constantly with a heatproof spatula making sure to scrape the bottom and sides of the pan. When the mixture coats the back of a spoon or spatula, strain the custard through a sieve into the passion fruit and cream mixture.

Stir until blended. You could cool it over an ice bath but not necessary. Chill the custard in the refrigerator (I try to chill it at least overnight) and then churn in your ice cream machine. Stir a few spoonfuls of passion fruit seeds (or seeds and pulp) into the ice cream just before it is done. Makes about 1 1/2 quarts (6 cups).