Passion Fruit Meringue Cheesecake

This lovely Passion Fruit Meringue Cheesecake is a spin on a recipe from Wild Sweetness by Thalia Ho! It is a beautiful book. A book about baking and desserts, but it’s also about Thalia Ho’s artistic vision of the wild and beautiful world she occupies. I immediately went for her Lemon Meringue cheesecake, because I adore the flavor combination of tart and sweet, the creamy textures of cheesecake and meringue, you all know how I feel about a toasted meringue. I replaced the lemon in her recipe for passion fruit, which is also tart, but has a wonderful perfume quality to it. You can use the pulp with the seeds or strain the seeds out, that is up to you and how you like the texture of the cheesecake. I strained the seeds for the cheesecake itself, but then added a fresh passion fruit to the top for a sour note and texture. You can also find passion fruit puree.

See below for the recipe and a guide to buying passion fruit and puree. And if you love cheesecake, be sure to check out my Showstopping Cheesecakes Class at Craftsy.com!

I received a box of passion fruit from Rincon Tropics when the book arrived, so I swapped the lemon in her recipe for the tart pulp of the passion fruit in equal measure (taking into account the seeds that would be strained out so I used 2/3 cup) and it was perfection. If you’ve never worked with passion fruit, you are in for a real treat, it is very tart, but has almost a perfumed flavor, it’s intoxicating, which is probably how it got its name.

I am going to post an IGTV about making Swiss Meringue from Zoë Bakes Cakes. It is one of my all time favorite recipes and I want you to see just how easy it is. I used it for this cake, as does Thalia, because it holds up beautifully on a cake, pie or anything else you can think to pile it onto. It is cooked on the stove, so it is safe to eat without baking. It is snow white and cloud like, until you set it aflame with a blowtorch or broiler or even ignited cognac.

Here is a link to Thalia’s book for the lemon meringue cheesecake recipe. I try to support my fellow bakers and cookbook writers as often as possible, because I know full well how much work, heart and soul we pour into the pages we share in our books. Support bakers and makers who are trying to bring more joy into the world!

The Recipe:

To recreate the cheesecake recipe, you can also use my lemon cheesecake recipe (using passion fruit instead of lemon – instructions for the swap are in the recipe). Then top it with the meringue topping.

Tropical Fruit Resources

Tropical fruit and purees can sometimes be hard to find locally, so I often order mine online.
Fierce Fruit (for Fruit Purees)
Frieda’s
Melissa’s Produce
Miami Fruit
Rincon Tropics
Tropical Fruit Box
Vanilla Beans – here is more info on using vanilla beans

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