Passion Fruit Pie - a sweet little piece of sunshine

My husband's recent birthday was the perfect excuse to prepare something sweet. 

Our passion fruit vine has been giving us so much fruit this year that it was meant to be... passion fruit pie. 

It's like a little piece of sunshine... and it's hard to just have one slice. Enjoy! 

Passion Fruit Pie 

Bottom Crust
1 package of butter cookies (about 20)
1/2 cup of melted salted butter
1 teaspoon of water (if necessary)

Easy, just run the cookies in a blender, add the butter and the water and mix for about 10 seconds. Pour everything in a medium size pie mold or any other pan. Press the crust tightly. It should not be thicker than 1 cm (4 inch). Leave aside.

Passion Fruit Cream
1 small can of sweetened condensed milk
1 small pack of whipping cream (38% fat)
10 g of powdered gelatin or 1 sheet
Pulp from 8 passion fruits

Remove the pulp from you passion fruit before you start anything else. Set aside.

Start whipping your cream until firm. Now dissolve the gelatin in a little bit of hot water. Add the condensed milk, the gelatin and the passion fruit pulp to the whipped cream and fold gently. Pour it into the crust you previously prepared and let set in the fridge for at least an hour.

Passion Fruit jelly topping
Pulp from 6 to 8 passion fruit
1/2 glass of natural peach juice (nectar)
1 tablespoon of sugar
10 g of powdered gelatin or 1 sheet

Now that the cream as set, remove the pulp from you passion fruit, add the peach juice and sugar and mix well. As before dissolve your gelatin in a bit of hot water and add it to rest. Stir very well and carefully pour over the cream. Return to the fridge for at least another couple of hours, just to be sure it won't fall apart and you get nice slices. 

Cheers all!

Banana and Cream Cobbler Pie

You will have to to forgive me, but this time, the light wasn't on my side. As much as I tried to take a decent picture of my last creation, it just wouldn't come out right. I also hate using a flash, which makes everything look crude and over exposed. I'm trying to tell myself that after all, I'm not in a studio and my camera can only do so much. This is a real home and I have to work with what I have. 

What I can tell you for sure, is that this was one of the best pies I have eaten in the last few years. Yes, it was that good. I'll confess, I'm not even such a pie lover, but damn, it was good.

Without further ado, I present you...

Banana and Cream Cobbler Pie

There are basically three parts to this recipe. The pie crust, the filling and the crumble that goes on top. As you'll see, it's actually easier to make than it looks.

Ingredients

Pie crust

85 g unsalted butter
115 g sugar
3 g table salt
265 g flour
5 g baking powder
100 g cream (32%)

Cinnamon Crumble

120 g unsalted butter
175 g of sugar
140 g of flour
140 g of almond flour
2 teaspoons of cinnamon
12 g of cointreau

Banana and Cream Filling

500 g of ripe bananas
1/3 of a vanilla bean (grated) or 1 teaspoon of pure vanilla extract
100 g of sugar
150 g of cream (32%)
20 g of corn flour
1/2 lemon juice

Method
The pie crust

Using a mixer, cream the butter with the sugar and the salt. Start adding the flour mixed with the baking soda and alternate with the cream, until the dough comes together. Do not over work. Wrap in cling film and let it rest in the refrigerator for about 30 minutes.

The crumble topping

No need to wash your mixer. Just put all the ingredients for the crumble in it and run the mixer at medium speed for 4 to 5 minutes.

Pick all the bits together, cover and set aside.

The banana and cream filling

Mash the bananas with a fork and grate your vanilla bean. Put these in a small pan, together with the sugar, cream and lemon juice. Start cooking on low heat for about 10 minutes. Dissolve the corn flour with 1 to 2 tablespoons of cold water and add to the banana cream, letting it cook for just another minute.

Remove from heat and let it cool.

Putting everything together...

Start rolling out the dough for the pie crust (5 mm thick). This dough is not always easy to handle, so if you have a hard time, use a piece of waxed paper both under and over the dough while rolling it. 

Lay it down carefully in the pie pan. I used a 28 cm wide pan by the way.

Fill with the cooled banana cream, spreading it out nice and evenly.

To put the crumble on top,  I used a funnel with a large nozzle to push down thick ropes of crumble dough. I suppose there might be other ways, but this actually worked pretty well for me. Though it might seem like a good idea, don't try to use a pastry bag. 

Once you got all your dough made into little cylinders, spread it out over the banana filling.

Cook at 180 degrees Celsius for about 30 minutes or until the top is nice and golden brown.

Let it cool a bit before removing from pan. Finish with a generous sifting of powdered sugar and serve warm with your favorite ice cream on top. Vanilla... chocolate... even strawberry. 

What I really love about this pie, is that the those big chunks on top actually become like crunchy cinnamon butter cookies. Yum.

Cheers all!

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