Passion Fruit Preserves

 

Passion Fruit Preserves is made of three ingredients only ( passion fruit pulp, pectin and sugar ). It makes perfect tropical flavours to spread over your favourite dessert, porridge, waffles, toast or ice cream.

After two weeks quarantine, I finally went out to do some real shopping at the beginning of November.Fruits and vegetables were on my „ to-touch-while-shopping“ list.
As I entered the market, fruits and vegetables were on my right and I enjoyed every single moment there.

This Passion fruit Preserves and some to-be-published-soon recipes are the result of my tactile journey: Tuscan Style Beans Preserve, Tuscan Kale and Meatball Soup (  and some Chayote creations.Lots of home made , healthy comfort food !

I find passion fruit very attractive to garnish the desserts, besides being healthy.

Also, it is very simple recipe to make.

What makes passion fruit so healthy ?

This precious fruit is loaded with vitamin C, vitamin A, calcium, magnesium, phosphorus and potassium.There are many benefits passion fruit has : it lowers cholesterol and diabetes risks; supports kidneys, nerves, heart rhythm and muscles.

Besides being tasty, it is so good to have it at hand, be it fresh fruit, fruit jam, fruit butter or this passion fruit preserves.

Once, you start the cooking process, you may preserve passion fruit with seeds or separate them to get smooth passion fruit paste to combine with the rest of ingredients.

I decided to leave the seeds in the pulp because, to us, food topped with preserves with black seeds looks beautiful.

If you need to ripen the passion fruit by any chance, leave it at room temperature for two or three days. After that, you can keep the fruit in the fridge for approximately two weeks.

Although I made passion fruit preserves with sugar and pectin, this fruit pulp can be preserved in several other ways :

1. You can freeze it in ice cube trays mixed with sugar to taste and by doing this you get tasty drink for hot summer days ;
2. If you mix passionfruit pulp with the same amount of sugar, stir on low heat until sugar is dissolved and pour into sterilized glass jars and seal you don’t need pectin.

Do you know the difference between jams, jelly and preserves ?

Frankly I did not think about it that much but once I decided to use passion fruit, I started to do some research. In short terms, jelly is made from fruit juice. The best example is Apple Lavender Jelly .

Jams are made of whole fruit, mashed and boiled. Homemade Fig Jam  is great example.

I named this recipe as „ preserves“ because it contains seeds. In most of the cases, it should contain whole fruit but I discard the rind since it is not edible !

Once you decide to make this fruit preserves, you will see how great and festive any cake looks garnished with some passion fruit spread. It is so inspiring !

I did not plan to make passion fruit post. As I said at the beginning I was so carried away with real shopping that recipes with passion fruit bumped unexpectedly ! and I am so happy it did !

I guess that is how it works for all food loving people; you spot something and buy it because it opens the doors; pushes you to combine, discover, taste and, yes, even makes you fail.
Trust me , I know what I am talking about: I wanted to make Panettone from Scratch  and I failed while making it to be posted before Christmas.

Having in mind it is literally two days project, imagine how disappointed I was when I saw what came out of the oven.

But, no worries, I’ll do it once again and publish this year ! For sure !

So, to be back to passion fruit preserves, I decided to make preserves instead of jelly firm marmalade since I needed a spread to use for cheesecake, ice creams and puddings so don’t be surprised with liquid texture, once done.