Pastry chef Penny Stankiewicz has a thing for exotic fruit — especially passion fruit.
“Passion fruit has been one of my signature flavors for almost a decade,” Stankiewicz said. “I’m obsessed with it.”
Stankiewicz first began using the tart, purple-skinned tropical fruit in custom wedding and special event cakes at her private cake studio. Now she features the fruit across the menu at Sugar Couture, her new bakery-café in Brooklyn, N.Y.
Customers can find it in items such as Lemon Ginger Cake with Strawberry and Passion Fruit Buttercream; Chocolate Ganache Tarts with Passion Fruit Whipped Cream; as a filling in French macaroons; and in an elaborate, made-to-order dacquoise, an almond and hazelnut layer cake with passion fruit buttercream sandwiched between meringue layers, with fresh passion fruit atop the tiers.
“It’s an amped up acid … a lemon on steroids, so it’s a highlighter for other flavors,” Stankiewicz explained.
Stankiewicz isn’t the only chef with a passion for passion fruit.
According to Datassential MenuTrends, passion fruit has been growing on dessert menus. It is among the fastest growing fruits on dessert menus overall, appearing on 4 percent more menus than a year ago. It is especially popular in fine dining, where it currently appears on 11 percent of dessert menus.
Vinson Petrillo, chef of Zero George Café + Bar in Charleston, S.C., also uses passion fruit across his seasonal menu.
“Passion fruit has so much complexity,” Petrillo said. “I do it with desserts. I do it with foie gras.”
Last summer, Petrillo used passion fruit in a Citrus Pistachio Sable. The dessert consisted of a sponge cake made with pistachio and hazelnut flours, and incorporated passion fruit in various forms and textures, including curd, gelato, gelée and even the fruit’s seeds.
Petrillo also makes a Passion Fruit Crème Brûlée that combines the fruit’s seeds and juice with egg custard. While he’s not sure what form it will take, Petrillo said passion fruit will most certainly be on his spring or summer dessert menu.
At Post 390 in Boston, executive pastry chef Craig Williams isn’t waiting for warmer months to put the tropical fruit on his menu. In December, Williams added two passion fruit desserts to his menu: Coconut and Fromage Blanc Cremeux with coconut curd, key lime tropical sauce, green tea meringue and mango passion fruit gelée, and a Chocolate Sliver, made with passion fruit curd and mango passion fruit pâte de fruit.
“Maintaining a seasonal menu in New England during the winter can be very challenging,” Williams said. “Passion fruit is a great way to bring in a lot of flavor. In these dishes in particular, its acidity balances really well with the sweetness of the other components, while adding great color.”
Tracy Obolsky, pastry chef at North End Grill in New York City, also uses passion fruit to break up the monotony of winter. She uses it in the ultra rich Valrhona dark chocolate in her Almond Joy Ice Cream Cake with Passion Fruit and Warm Fudge Sauce.
“I added the passion fruit because while the almond-coconut-chocolate combo is delicious, it is also kind of one-note and can get boring after a few bites,” Obolsky said. “The passion fruit adds an acidic note that breaks up the monotonous flavor and also cuts through the richness.”
Chefs may favor passion fruit in their desserts, but to get diners to accept the unfamiliar flavor may take some convincing. While Stankiewicz said the passion fruit cakes and sweets at Sugar Couture are beginning to become customer favorites, the flavor wasn’t an instant hit.
“We have to educate them, sell it to them,” she said. “[Once they try it], inevitably they come back for more.”
