passionfruit slice

This recipe made me swoon.

I had never made passionfruit slice before, but it’s an Aussie favourite. Rightly so, given all the backyard passionfruit vines. Passionfruit will grow out of control if you don’t keep a close eye on it, but I couldn’t care less given the amazing fruits it yields.

My favourite types of passionfruits are panamas. They are much bigger, yield more pulp which is a vibrant golden hue and ultra fragrant, and they also seem to contain less white fibres to battle with when extracting the pulp.

Purple passionfruits are prettier though, and still damn tasty. These are the ones I ate the most growing up, as two different homes I lived in had purple vines in the back yard. In fact at one house the vine was right next to the pool so all you had to do was hop out of the water, rip one off the vine, jam your stubby finger inside and suck out the pulp as you jumped back into the pool. Kids, eh.

These Aussie childhood memories are fitting for the recipe I made after receiving a basket of passionfruits from the Passionfruit Industry of Australia.

Passionfruit slice: a simple biscuit base smothered in a tangy, fudgy topping.

The base is pretty standard in every recipe you'll come across, but I decided to add a little vanilla to enhance the flavours. And for the topping, I doubled the usual passionfruit quantities to ensure you’re hit with the intense flavours you’d expect from any passionfruit dessert.

Jonas thinks it’s one of the best cakes he’s ever eaten. Even better than my Easter egg friands, which he loved.

SK from my office told me it was one of the best cakes she’d eaten in a very long time, and when my colleagues swooped back for seconds it confirmed the ooohhs and aaaaahs were not just politeness.

If Jonas has his way, I’ll be making this recipe again and again and again and again.

And again and again.

Passionfruit Slice

Anna’s version of an Aussie classic. Makes approx 30 squares.

Ingredients:
100g (½ cup) caster sugar
85g (1 cup) desiccated coconut
150g (1 cup) self-raising flour
125g melted butter
¼ teaspoon vanilla bean paste
395g can sweetened condensed milk
250g passionfruit pulp (about 12 passionfruit)*
62ml (¼ cup) fresh lemon juice (1 lemon)

Method:

1. Preheat oven to 180’C / 350’F (or 160’C / 320’F fan forced). Grease a slice tin and line with baking paper.

2. *First prepare the passionfruit by scooping out the pulp of all but one passionfruit. Blitz in a food processor or blender to release the pulp from seeds, then strain through a fine strainer to yield juice. Mix in the pulp and seeds of the last remaining passionfruit (now weigh it to see you’ve got around 200-250g).

3. In a bowl, mix together the sugar, flour, coconut, vanilla bean paste and melted butter to form a dough.

4. Press mixture firmly into the prepared slice tin, to create a “cookie” base.

5. Bake for 10-15 minutes, until lightly golden on edges. Allow to cool.

6. In another bowl, mix together the passionfruit pulp, vanilla essence, lemon juice and condensed milk, as well as the additional passionfruit pulp.

7. Pour over cooled base then bake for another 10-15 minutes, or until just firm.

8. Bring to room temperature, then cover and refrigerate until completely set.

9. Cut into squares for serving. Store in an airtight container in the fridge.