To celebrate Valentine’s Day, I offer a whimsical mousse recipe featuring passion fruit—perfect for the feast of Saint Valentine, right? Well, not exactly. While the flavor of passion fruit is certainly seductive, the origin of the name is actually religious. The plant was named by Christian missionaries in Brazil in the sixteenth century. They used the distinctive shape of the flower as a symbol to represent the Passion of Christ in their teachings.
Etymology aside, I am passionate about this fruit, which has a tropical yet tart flavor. But fresh passion fruits, which are available at Burlington area markets like City Market and Healthy Living, are outrageously expensive—one passion fruit, which yields about 1 tablespoon juice, sells for about five dollars!
Recently, I was delighted to find pure unsweetened frozen passion fruit juice (packaged in snack-sized cubes) in the freezer section of City Market at a reasonable price. I experimented and developed this recipe for passion fruit mousse, which has a magical texture that seems lighter than air.
A device called a whipping syphon or gourmet whip makes this recipe a cinch to make. The most common use of a whipping syphon is to make instant whipped cream (like Reddi-wip, but you add real cream), but it can also be used to make a variety of mousses. I have had fun experimenting with various mousses, but passion fruit mousse is my most successful trial so far.
I realize that many people do not own a whipping syphon, so I’ve tried to come up with a more approachable conventional version of the recipe. Unfortunately, none of the other methods I tried were worthwhile. The airy texture produced by the whipping syphon is what makes this passion fruit mousse special.
Passion fruit mousse may sound exotic, but with just three ingredients, it is actually one of the easiest desserts I make. Once the simple mousse base is in the canister, I store it in the refrigerator for several days. When I’m ready to serve, I can squeeze a luscious swirl of mousse into dishes. Et voilà, an ethereal dessert at a moment’s notice!
Equipment: a whipping syphon
Ingredients
1 cup unsweetened passion fruit juice (from generous 1½ cups frozen pieces, thawed)
¼ cup granulated sugar
½ cup heavy or whipping cream
Fresh passion fruit seeds or crushed lemon or vanilla wafers for garnish
Preparation
1. Whisk the juice and sugar together in a medium bowl until the sugar dissolves. Whisk in the cream. Pass the mixture through a fine sieve into a 2-cup measuring cup. Pour the mixture into a whipping syphon; a funnel makes this easier. (This step may not seem necessary, but it is critical that any mixture used in a whipping syphon is completely smooth.) Screw on the top, and refrigerate the canister for at least 1 hour, or for up to 4 days.
2. When you are ready to serve the mousse, screw the desired tip onto the whipping syphon. Using a nitrous oxide charger and following manufacturer’s instructions, fill the whipping syphon canister with gas. Shake the canister vigorously. Invert the whipping syphon vertically over each dessert dish, and squeeze out a swirl of the mousse. Serve immediately, garnished with passion fruit seeds or crushed wafers, if desired.
Makes about 10 lighter-than-air servings.
Tip: When ripe, passion fruits are heavy and crinkled but not shriveled. If the skin is still smooth, let the fruit ripen in a paper bag at room temperature for a few days.
To make fresh passion fruit juice: Slice off the tops of ripe passion fruits and scoop the pulp into a small bowl. The seeds are edible and provide an interesting crunch, but if you prefer seedless juice, strain the pulp through a fine sieve. One passion fruit yields about 1½ tablespoons pulp or 1 tablespoon seedless juice.
—Patsy Jamieson