Gluten-Free Passionfruit Tart with Almond Crust

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Last Updated on October 7, 2020 by Chenée Lewis

In the past few years I’ve become enamored with the flavor of passionfruit. I had a passionfruit macaron from a French-style bakery over a year ago and I still think about it! I guess I’m just a sucker for sweet and tart flavors together: I love pineapples, green grapes, and watermelon Sour Patch candy. Passionfruit, if you’re new to the flavor, is all that and more — it has a deep tropical deliciousness that’s hard to put your finger on. It’s tart like lemon, uniquely flavorful like mango, and sweet like kiwi. And SO perfect to be made into a passionfruit tart!

I decided to make a passionfruit tart to highlight this under-utilized tart fruit flavor, and I knew right away I had to share it! This passionfruit tart is so easy, but it’s full of bright fruit flavor, and the gluten-free almond crust adds a delicious buttery touch!

The style of this tart is similar to that of a French tarte au citron, a lemon tart. The curd filling is made with many of the same ingredients, but in this case we’ve swapped the traditional pâte sucrée for an almond flour press-in crust. This crust not only makes the passionfruit tart gluten free, but it also adds a subtle nutty flavor that balances so nicely with the tart passionfruit! Finally, the tart is topped with a dusting of powdered sugar (and don’t worry, I’ll share with you how to make those decorative star stencils!).

Gluten-Free Almond Tart Crust

The biggest way this passionfruit tart departs from the traditional French pastry is the crust. This almond flour tart crust is gluten free, with a rich buttery texture and a nutty almond flavor. While developing this recipe I experimented a lot with different ratios of almond flour to butter and egg. Some were too buttery and fell apart after baking. Others were too dry and barely came together in the first place.

When I finally settled on the recipe for this gluten free tart crust, it was just right. I love how it sets up so nicely after blind baking, and then provides the perfect vessel for the amazing passionfruit curd.

Passionfruit curd

This passionfruit tart is filled with a passionfruit custard filling that is essentially a curd. If you’ve had lemon or orange curd before, you’ll recognize the fruit, eggs, sugar, and butter in the ingredient list. It’s surprisingly easy to make, and when added to our easy gluten-free almond crust, it produces amazing flavor and texture!

But the first step in our passionfruit tart is that delicious passionfruit curd! It’s cooked on the stovetop, then strained for the best texture. Finally, we add in butter to add some more rich flavor to our passionfruit tart.

Ingredients

This passionfruit tart is so classic and elegant, but really easy to make! And don’t be intimidated by the idea of cooking with passionfruit. We’re actually using frozen passionfruit pulp that you can find in your grocer’s freezer section! Here’s what you’ll need to make it:

For the gluten-free tart crust:

• almond flour – I used Bob’s Red Mill superfine almond flour.
• unsalted butter – although I typically use salted butter in baking, I opted for unsalted butter to be precise about the level of salt in this almond tart crust.
• granulated sugar – adds some sweetness to the tart crust to balance out the nuttiness of the almond flour.
• egg – helps bind the crust together.
• salt – brings out the almond and buttery flavors!

For the passionfruit curd filling:

• frozen seedless passionfruit purée – this is generally easier to find and use than fresh passionfruit. I found mine at a local supermarket here in Chicago. You can usually find it at international groceries, if not at your regular supermarket. It’s sold in the freezer section, near the other frozen fruit.
• whole eggs and egg yolks – these give the filling some structure and bind it together. The yolks also add richness and color!
• granulated sugar – sweetens the passionfruit curd.
• vanilla extract – because this is a gluten-free recipe, double check that your vanilla extract is gluten-free.
• unsalted butter – we melt butter into the curd as a last step to make it silky and buttery. it’s the perfect finishing touch right before baking our passionfruit tart!

Equipment

This passionfruit tart is pretty simple to make, but it does require a few important ingredients. First, you definitely need a 9.5-inch tart pan. This is the one I use, and I love that it’s nonstick and easy to clean! Plus the removable bottom makes serving and slicing tarts so easy.

You’ll also need a saucepan to simmer your passionfruit curd, a fine mesh strainer to strain the curd before baking, and either a hand mixer or stand mixer to mix up your almond crust.

Tips for the best passionfruit tart

Spray tart pan with cooking spray

Before you press your almond tart crust into your tart pan, be sure to spray the bottom and sides of the pan with some cooking spray. I forgot this step in one of my rounds of recipe testing and although I was able to remove the tart from the pan, it was much more difficult.

Don’t overfill tart pan

It’s important not to overfill the tart pan with the passionfruit curd filling — the filling will rise a bit while baking and you don’t want it to overflow. But either way, to prevent messes in your oven, place a baking sheet lined with foil on a lower oven rack to catch any drips.

How to make powdered sugar designs

You can make designs similar to the ones I made in powdered sugar using parchment paper! Just fold a piece of parchment paper in quarters and cut a design (similar to how we used to make paper snowflakes in school)! I cut from both sides of the folded paper to make a star shape, but you could make circles, diamonds, whatever you like! I’d love to hear what designs you made in the comments below, and be sure to share them on Instagram with the hashtag #cheneetoday!

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