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.

Guava-Apple Crumble Pie

On a little island in the Caribbean there is a quaint little cement house with my name inscribed in the concrete of the back porch. My grandfather wrote it there many years ago, perhaps thinking that I would live there someday, or at least visit often. Well, I no longer live in the balmy Caribbean and most of my close family has settled in the US. The house has largely become a distant, dreamy memory.


What does all this nostalgia have to to with this blog? Well, the back porch that I mentioned is surrounded by fruit trees and other tropical plants. Guavas, acerola cherries, sugar cane, plantains, limes, oranges, avocados; you name it, it grows there. Those are the flavors I grew up with, even though I spent most of my life in the US. And now that I'm far away from my mother's kitchen, I'd like to bring those flavors into my own.


I like to think that by working on these recipes I'm melding two culinary traditions that are important to me; something in between what I would have eaten at the little cement house and what I learned when I first started baking in college...and it tastes a little something like this: