Pi Day

Passionfruit is my absolute favorite of all flavors. You don't usually see it in pies, but I was determined to make it happen. A friend and I came up with this recipe and "tested" it three times. You know...for science. Honestly, I was surprised that it was such a success, but it really turned out very good. A little tart, a little sweet, and the buttery, flaky crust balances it all out.

And, as promised, a pie crust tutorial after the jump. For now the tutorial has no pictures. I didn't have my pie dish, so I couldn't take photos. I'll re-post with pics soon.

Passionfruit Meringue Pie + crust tutorial

Crust 

1 1/4 C of all purpose flour
1/4 tsp of salt
1 Tbsp of sugar
1 stick of butter
1/4 cup to 1/2 Cup of ice cold water

It is very important that both the water and butter are super cold. If the butter is all melty, your crust won't be as flaky in the end.

Step 1: Combine flour, salt, and sugar in a bowl. So far, so good, right?

Step 2: Cut the butter into chunks and plop them into the flour mixture. At this point you can use a food processor to mix these ingredients until you get a cornmeal-like texture. I always do this by hand. Mostly because I don't have food processor...but I like to think that this makes it taste better (because of love, or whatever). Actually, the real reason is that, by hand, I am more likely to leave larger chunks of butter. Towards the end, when you are rolling the dough, this butter will "marble" with the rest of the dough, making the end result MORE FLAKY.

Step 3: Add water, in increments, and form a ball. The ball should be a little sticky, just a little. Refrigerate this for about half an hour.

Step 4: Remove from the fridge and roll out with a rolling pin, or any long, cylindrical object (I have used a wine bottle in the past).Make sure to flour the rolling pin, dough, and counter surface liberally, or else you'll have a heck of a time getting that dough off the counter. And, not to insult your intelligence, but make sure to roll out the dough so it covers the pie dish, with some hanging over.

Step 5: Place the dough on the dish. Tuck in the edges for a neat look and style them for effect. My favorite technique is to crimp the edges using a pinching method with the pointer and thumb of my left hand, and the thumb of my right hand. Braids are also very nice, but time consuming. Maybe I'll do a post on that later.

Step 6: Poke the bottom of dish with a fork several times and put in the freezer for AT LEAST a half hour, preferably an hour. Crusts will keep for a few weeks if you want to make them ahead of time.

Step 7: Ta da! Now fill the inside!

Filling

1 Cup sugar
5 Tbsp cornstarch (thickener)
1/4 tsp salt
1/2 Cup milk
4 large egg yolks
1 Tbsp butter
1 Cup passionfruit pulp ( I used the Goya brand, found in the frozen food section of supermarket in a Hispanic neighborhood)
1/2 lemon

First things first. Preheat the oven to 400 degrees. Pre-bake the crust using some kind of blind weight, like beans, over some foil for about 15 minutes, until golden edges appear. We used a pot...

Lower the temp to 350 for baking the pie.
 
In a saucepan, whisk together the sugar, cornstarch, and salt. Slowly mix in the milk until the cornstarch is dissolved. Mix the egg yolks in a separate bowl. Let the milk mixture come to a boil gradually.

Being careful not to cook the eggs, mix about a cup of the milk mixture into the eggs, them pour this mixture back into the saucepan. Add passionfruit pulp. Let simmer while whisking for 3 minutes. Remove from the heat and add butter. Whisk with a squeeze of lemon juice to brighten it up.

Meringue

5 large egg whites
1/4 tsp cream of tartar
1 Cup sugar

To be perfectly honest, I did not make the meringue. My friend *hand whisked* this all by himself. You pretty much whisk the egg whites and cream of tartar over a pot of boiling water (no direct heat!) and add the sugar gradually until you get this marshmallow-y and delicious white goop.

Take the pre-baked pie shell and fill it with the thickened passionfruit mixture. It should set pretty nicely. Smooth the meringue over the top and bake for 20 minutes, or until the meringue has a nice tan.

Next: Papaya Smoothie