Creamy Lime and Passionfruit bars pair a key lime pie with a posset for creamy richness of a custard bar with the vibrant, tangy kick of fresh passionfruit for a perfect shoulder season dessert. This is a twist on classic Key Lime Pie components and adds refreshing and zingy passionfruit to compliment.
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Zingy passionfruit is incredibly underrated and it's a fantastic addition to most desserts from Cheesecake to Mousse or even alongside plums in this beautiful upside down cake. It's also a great ingredient to pair with sweet mango such as in this custard pie or on top of a pavlova.
Ingredients and substitutions for Lime and Passionfruit Bars
- Graham crackers or digestive biscuits: These will need to be finely crushed for the base.
- Butter: It needs to be melted and I prefer using unsalted, especially with those crackers adding salt, but salted won't make too much difference here.
- Sweetened condensed milk: This creates a sweetness alongside the lime juice and is an essential to any key lime dessert.
- Egg yolks: The egg yolks alongside the condensed milk creates a custard texture to this filling.
- Lime juice: The very core of this recipe is the lime juice which adds a bright and zesty flavor to the custard filling.
- Heavy cream: The heavy cream balances out the sweetness in the condensed milk and tartness in the lime juice and gives our bars a texture similar to a light cheesecake. It also is essential to create that nice set, but creamy posset topping.
- Sugar: Superfine or caster sugar is best for the passionfruit posset topping as it will caramelize nice and evenly thanks to it's fine texture.
- Passionfruit: Fresh medium purple passionfruit was used here though you can use high-quality frozen passionfruit pulp (thawed) or unsweetened passionfruit puree found in the baking aisle. It's pivotal not to use preserves here as the citric acid in the juice is what helps the posset set. You could replace this with lime juice instead for a double lime bar situation.
See recipe card for quantities.
How to make Lime and Passionfruit Bars:
Step 1: Crush those crackers: Crush or blend the crackers or digestives as finely as possible before adding in the melted butter.
Step 2: Press into the baking tin: Press the combined crushed cookie and melted butter into your baking tin and bake until golden.
Step 3: Filling: Beat the egg yolks and sweetened condensed milk on low until smooth. Pour in the lime juice and whip until thick and pale.
Step 4: Pour and bake: Pour over the crust and bake until golden and only slightly jiggly. Set aside to cool completely.
Step 5: Posset: Heat cream and sugar in a saucepan on low until lightly simmering at the edges.
Step 6: Passionfruit: Stir ยพ's of the passionfruit pulp through the posset and pour over the custard.
Step 7: Swirl: Spoon the remaining passionfruit pulp on top and swirl lightly with the back of a spoon. Chill for several hours.
Step 8: Slice: Into even pieces.
Step 9: Serve up: Serve as is or alongside a hot drink and dig in!
FAQ's for the best Lime and Passionfruit Bars
A posset is a traditional British dessert consisting of hot cream poured over sweetener and citrus juice, which causes the mixture to thicken naturally without eggs or cornstarch. Unlike lime curd, which is cooked on the stovetop with eggs to create a thick spread, a passionfruit posset remains lighter, silkier, and slightly more fluid before it sets completely in the refrigerator. It creates a luxurious, mousse-like topping rather than a dense layer.
More Lime desserts you'll enjoy
Lime and Passionfruit Bars
Ingredients
Base
- 150 grams / 5.3 ounces graham crackers crushed
- 50 grams / 1.75 ounces butter melted
Filling
- 70 grams / 4 large egg yolks room temperature
- 414 milliliters / 1 can sweetened condensed milk
- 113 grams / ยฝ cup heavy cream
- 75 grams / โ cup key lime juice
- 28 grams / 2 tablespoons superfine/caster sugar
Passionfruit Posset
- 340 grams / 1 ยฝ cups heavy cream
- 50 grams / ยผ cup superfine/caster sugar
- 40 grams / 2 medium passionfruit pulp and seeds only
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 190ยฐC/375F and line a 18ร18 cm or 7ร7 inch square baking tin with parchment paper.
Base
- Place the crushed biscuits and melted butter and stir until no dry portions remain in the bowl and the mixture resembles a rough breadcrumb.
- Spoon into your tin and press down firmly.
- Place in the oven and bake for 10 minutes until lightly golden.
Filling
- For the filling, place the egg yolks, sweetened condensed milk and heavy cream in a bowl and beat on low to break the egg yolks and get the mixture smooth, approximately 2 minutes.
- Add in the lime juice and beat on medium until thick and pale, approximately 2 minutes.
- Pour the into the cooled crust, cover and place in the oven until only jiggly in the center, approximately for 20 minutes.
- Remove and allow to cool completely before refrigerating for a minimum of 3 hours or overnight.
Passionfruit Posset
- Pour the cream and sugar into a medium saucepan and heat on low, stirring to dissolve the sugar.
- Continue cooking until the sugar has dissolved and it is bubbling at the edges of the saucepan, (ensuring the cream doesn't boil over), approximately 5 minutes.
- Remove from heat and stir in three of passionfruit halves until combined.
- Set aside to cool for 15 minutes before pouring over the top of the lime bars.
- Spoon over the pulp from the remaining passionfruit half and swirl lightly with the back of a spoon.
- Refrigerate for a minimum of 3 hours or overnight.
- Slice into even bars with a warm knife.
- Serve up and enjoy!
Notes
- Lime juice: The very core of this recipe is the fresh lime juice which adds a bright and zesty flavor to the custard filling. Key lime juice is best, but you can replace with any other fresh lime juice.
- Heavy cream: The heavy cream balances out the sweetness in the condensed milk and tartness in the lime juice and gives our bars a texture similar to a light cheesecake.
- Why this is baked: Due to the amount of lime juice in the custard, baking the filling ensures the custard sets which can't always be guaranteed when it's not baked.
- If you donโt want to bake your bars: If you use 80 milliliters or less than โ cup of lime juice, you shouldn't have to, though this will lessen the strength of that lime flavor without using any other setting agents.
- Passionfruit: Fresh medium purple passionfruit was used here though you can use high-quality frozen passionfruit pulp (thawed) or unsweetened passionfruit puree found in the baking aisle. It's pivotal not to use preserves here as the citric acid in the juice is what helps the posset set. You could replace this with lime juice instead for a double lime bar situation.
- Avoid a runny posset: Cooking the cream until simmering helps cook off the water content, so when the fruit juice is added the cream thickens and once chilled sets nicely.
- Baking tin: A square baking tin was used, though a rectangle tin would also work well. Note, the larger the tin from the one used here, the thinner your base and filling will be.
Nutrition
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