Orangey Passionfruit tarts

Do what you love and love what you do. That hackneyed mantra of my fellow Gen Ys rings in my head as I bake up my little treats, force feed my family and friends, and type up these blog posts. Sometimes I wonder just how selfish I can be when I do this, as most of the time the desserts are foisted upon my unsuspecting friends whether or not they want it. And all for what? Just for my personal pleasure of seeing them enjoying something I laboured over with love. I'm a brute. A narcissistic, selfish member of the Gen Y.

Sometimes I feel that our loving and doting parents might have done us wrong in constantly telling us to reach for the stars, that nothing is beyond our abilities (latent they may be), and that they will suffer through the rat race so that we may want for nothing and so that we may have the dreams they never dared to have. I won't generalise, but personally, all of that just made me impatient, discontent, and selfish. Some may call it ambitious and driven, but we are just two sides of the same coin.

I honestly don't know why I started talking about this. Must be the word "Passion" in the recipe I'm about to share with you now. So many people talk about doing what we're passionate about, to chase the thing that we would love to do, and not waste our time sitting in a 4x4 cubicle with no direct sunlight on our skin. Yet, to do that, we'd HAVE to be financially dependent on another. Do our parents then have to suffer more to ensure we get to do what we love? Do we continue to leech on their goodwill? I'm being weird, my apologies. I usually save these mad rantings to my personal journal, but there seems to be a spillover tonight. I'll spare you all the lecture and just hand you the recipe.

Passionfruit Tart
(Makes 12 mini tarts, or 1 8" tart)
For the crust:

• 185g all purpose flour
• 55g icing sugar
• 30g ground almonds
• 125g butter, cold and cubed
• 1 egg
• 1 tsp vanilla essence

Combine the flour, icing sugar, and almonds in the food processor and whizz to mix. Pop in the cubed butter and pulse until the mixture resembles coarse crumbs. Add in the egg and vanilla and pulse a few more times until it comes together. Tip the batter onto a well floured surface and knead a few times until it comes together. I like to just then roll the crust out and put it into my prepared mold (either 8" tart tray, or a mini tart pan) then freeze for 30 minutes. Freezing the crust means I can skip the pie weights when baking the crust as it holds the shape longer. Anyway, preheat the oven to 180°C and then bake the crust for 20 minutes then remove to cool.

For the filling:

• 160ml passionfruit pulp (I used 3 regular sized passionfruits)
• 300ml cream
• 110g caster sugar
• 4 eggs

I like to prepare the passionfruit filling in advance as I find it allows the flavours to steep and it sets a lot better when you bake. Strain the passionfruit pulp and discard the seeds, then whisk the juice together with the cream, sugar and eggs in a medium sized bowl. When ready to bake, pour the filling into the baked tart crust and bake for 35 - 40 minutes (for a big tart) or 25 - 30 minutes for mini tarts. Remove from the oven and allow to cool completely, then refrigerate overnight or up to 2 hours so it sets beautifully. Remove from the pans when ready to serve. 

For the topping:

• 150ml double cream
• 1 tsp freshly squeezed orange juice
• Orange zest

Whisk the double cream until soft peaks form, add the orange juice and continue to whisk until stiff peaks have formed. Then transfer the cream into a piping bag with a tip of your choice and pipe the cream out over the top of the tarts. Finish by grating the oranges (make sure you wash those babies) over the cream. You can also just dollop the cream on top of the tarts if you don't feel like piping; what matters here is flavour, not aesthetics.