Passion Fruit Pie with Coconut Whipped Cream

Key lime pie is an easy dessert to love. Not only is it delicious, with its combination of zesty key lime juice and rich sweetened condensed milk, but it is very easy to make at home. I make it on a regular basis and I’ve even added other flavors to the basic recipe. This time around, I used the idea of a key lime pie and swapped out all of the lime juice for a more tropical favorite to make Passion Fruit Pie.

This pie uses passion fruit juice in the type of recipe that would normally be made with fresh key limes. The pie filling is made with sweetened condensed milk, egg yolks and a generous amount of fresh passion fruit juice. Passion fruit works in this recipe because the fresh juice is very acidic, just like key lime juice, so it reacts with the other filling ingredients and begins to thicken even before it goes into the oven.

Passion fruit juice is incredibly aromatic, with an amazingly sweet floral scent that you’ll notice as soon as you cut into the the fruit. This tropical aroma carries over into the finished pie, so you get a bright tropical flavor – complimented by the creamy sweetness of the sweetened condensed milk. If you like key lime pie, you’ll probably fall in love with this at first bite!

Like key lime pie, it’s important that you use fresh juice to make this pie. It can take a bit of effort to juice fresh passion fruits, but you can follow my tutorial here. Passion fruits can usually be found in well-stocked supermarkets. You can also sometimes find fresh passion fruit juice in specialty markets, but be sure that you’re not buying a product with sweeteners added (or any other juices in the mix) if you try a packaged juice. The pie can be baked in a shortbread crust or a graham cracker crust and should be refrigerated before serving. The pie is best within a day or two of baking.

I topped this pie with coconut whipped cream to serve it. The whipped cream is lightly sweetened whipped cream with finely chopped shredded coconut added to it. You can also make non-dairy whipped cream with coconut cream and get similar results. Both will yield a delicious topping for this dessert.

Passion Fruit Pie
1/2 cup fresh passion fruit juice/pulp
1 14-oz can sweetened condensed milk
4 large egg yolks, room temperature
9-inch graham cracker crust, baked

Preheat oven to 350F.
In a large bowl, whisk together passion fruit juice, sweetened condensed milk and egg yolks until smooth. Pour into prepared pie crust and place on a baking sheet.
Bake for 15-20 minutes, or until pie filling is just set. Remove from oven and cool to room temperature, then refrigerate for at least 4 hours until well-chilled. Top with coconut whipped cream, if desired.

Serves 8-10.

Coconut Whipped Cream
1 cup heavy cream, chilled
3-4 tbsp confectioners’ sugar
1 tsp vanilla extract
2 tsp coconut rum (optional)
1/4 cup sweetened, shredded coconut, very finely chopped

In a medium bowl, beat heavy cream to soft peaks. Beat in confectioners’ sugar, vanilla and rum. Fold in shredded coconut.

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