Michelle Darmody: Coconut pancakes with passionfruit sauce
Chia pudding with passionfruit and blueberry yogurt
Passionfruit grows on a vine, it can take a year or two for the vine to reach maturity and be able to produce fruit. They have a strange appearance — a tough wrinkly exterior that opens up to a squishy, seed-filled centre. The seeds and pulp are a good addition to a diet, as they are full of vitamins and fibre. Passionfruit have such a strong and unique flavour that you do not need too many of to make their presence felt in baking.
Passionfruit is an excellent addition to a fruit salad, it provides a sweet yet tart sticky sauce for the other fruit. It is particularly good with ripe strawberries and mango and some freshly squeezed orange juice.
Passion fruit also makes an excellent curd in place of lemon. The passion fruit sauce served with the coconut pancakes can be used for other desserts or with yogurt. These are small and thick pancakes, more like an American style than a French one.
The name of the fruit derives from a reference to the passion of Christ, with the flower seen to resemble a crown of thorns.
Chia pudding can be made as an after-dinner treat or for a breakfast. It is a handy alternative to porridge in the warmer summer months and can be made ahead of time. I sometimes make a large batch and keep it in a kilner jar in the fridge, it lasts a few days. The pudding has a texture that is not to everyone’s liking but with the addition of fruit and other textures I think it works well.
- 225g flour
- 140g cold butter, cut into cubes
- 55g caster sugar
- 1 egg, lightly beaten
- zest of 2 limes
- 8 passionfruit, cut in half and inside filling scooped into a bowl
- zest and juice of a lime
- zest of a lemon
- 190g golden caster sugar
- 6 egg yolks
- 145mls cream
Line the base of a 9-inch tart case with parchment. Butter and flour the edges of the tin.
Rub the cold butter into the flour until it looks like rough breadcrumbs — try not to over mix.
Stir the sugar into the egg, mix it lightly until it begins to dissolve, stir in the lime zest. Add this to the flour mixture with a fork. Bring everything together with your hands then wrap it in parchment and rest the pastry in the fridge for at least an hour or overnight if you wish.
Preheat your oven to 180°C.
Roll your pastry to about 3mm in thickness and cut a disc bigger than your tin. Gently sit the disc into the tin and allow it to fall into place. Do not stretch it too much as this will lead to it shrinking during baking. Bake the pastry 'blind' for 15 minutes, by putting a sheet of parchment and some baking beans on top of it. Remove the beans and bake for a further 10 minutes. Remove from the oven and allow to cool completely in the tin.
Preheat your oven to 150°C.
Pass the filling from the passionfruit through a sieve. Mix what came through the sieve with the zest and lime juice.
Whisk the egg yolks and sugar until pale. Gently mix in the cream and the fruit mixture into the egg mixture. Pour this into the cooled tart case.
Bake for about 40 minutes until the filling has set. Allow to cool completely before cutting.
- 170g plain flour
- 30g desiccated coconut
- 1 tsp baking powder, sieved
- 1 tsp bread soda, sieved
- 120mls butter milk
- 175mls coconut milk
- 1 egg, lightly beaten
- ½ tbs honey
- 150g passionfruit pulp and seeds (about 8 juicy fruit)
- 100g golden caster sugar
Mix the flour, coconut, baking powder and bread soda together.
Mix the butter milk, coconut milk, egg and honey together and combine well.
Add the wet mixture to the dry ingredients and whisk until it becomes a smooth batter.
Heat a pan to hot and rub it with either butter or sunflower oil. Spoon two generous soupspoons of batter per pancake and let it spread a little. Let it cook until bubbles begin to form in the centre of pancake, and the underside is turning golden. Flip and cook on the other side. Repeat with the rest of the batter.
To make the sauce, pass the passionfruit pulp and seeds through a sieve. Place what came through the sieve and the sugar into a heavy based saucepan and place it over a low heat.
Save a tablespoon of the seeds from the sieve and set aside. You can eat the rest or use them in another dessert.
Allow the passionfruit and sugar to simmer for about five minutes until it begins to thicken. Take off the heat and allow to cool. Stir in the extra seeds and serve with the pancakes. The sauce will store in the fridge for a few days.
- 50g chia seeds
- 520mls coconut milk
- 4 tsp honey
- 100g blueberries
- 100g coconut yogurt
- zest of 1 lime
- 1/2 tbs maple syrup
- 2 passionfruit, cut in half and inside filling scooped into a bowl
- 2 tbs coconut flakes, toasted
Mix the chia seeds with the honey and coconut milk. Place into the fridge in a covered bowl for at least three hours. Stir once or twice. The seeds should expand and soak up all of the liquid.
To make the blueberry yogurt place the berries, lime zest, coconut yogurt and maple syrup in a blender. Blitz until smooth. Taste and add some more maple syrup if you would like it sweeter. Likewise taste the passionfruit and if it is a particularly bitter one you can add some syrup to this as well.
Scoop the chia pudding into four bowls. If the pudding is very set you can add a drop of water to loosen it. Scoop some blueberry yogurt and passionfruit on top. Sprinkle with some toasted coconut and serve.
