Passion Fruit & Coconut Vacherin

⏱ 210 min · Serves 8

A show-stopping tropical vacherin: crisp coconut meringue shards layered with billowing coconut cream, sharp passion fruit curd and a tumble of fresh fruit. Crunchy, creamy, sweet and mouth-puckeringly sharp all in one forkful — and most of it can be made the day before.

Per serving: 582 kcal · 6.5g protein · 55.0g carbs · 38.0g fat

Ingredients

• For the coconut meringue:
• 4 large egg whites (about 140g), room temperature
• 220g caster sugar
• 1 tsp cornflour
• 1 tsp white wine vinegar
• 40g desiccated coconut, lightly toasted
• For the passion fruit curd:
• 10 passion fruit (about 150ml strained juice, plus seeds reserved)
• 3 large egg yolks + 1 whole egg
• 110g caster sugar
• 90g unsalted butter, cubed
• Pinch of salt
• For the coconut cream:
• 400ml double cream, well chilled
• 150ml coconut cream (thick part of a chilled tin of full-fat coconut milk)
• 30g icing sugar
• 1 tsp vanilla bean paste
• To finish:
• 2 fresh passion fruit, halved
• 1 small mango, diced
• 20g coconut flakes, toasted
• Handful of mint leaves

Method

1. Heat the oven to 120C fan/140C. Draw two 20cm circles on baking parchment and place ink-side down on two trays.
2. Whisk the egg whites to soft peaks, then add the caster sugar a tablespoon at a time, whisking until the meringue is stiff, glossy and no longer grainy between your fingers (about 8 minutes).
3. Fold in the cornflour, vinegar and toasted desiccated coconut with a spatula.
4. Spread the meringue over the two circles, one flat and even (the base) and one swirled and peaked. Bake for 1 hour 15 minutes, then turn the oven off and leave the meringues inside to cool completely, ideally overnight.
5. Meanwhile, make the curd. Scoop the passion fruit pulp into a sieve set over a bowl and press to extract 150ml juice; reserve 2 tbsp of the seeds.
6. Whisk the juice, yolks, whole egg, sugar and salt in a heatproof bowl set over barely simmering water. Cook, whisking constantly, for 8-10 minutes until thick enough to coat the back of a spoon.
7. Off the heat, whisk in the butter a cube at a time until glossy. Stir through the reserved seeds, cover the surface with cling film and chill for at least 3 hours.
8. Whip the double cream, coconut cream, icing sugar and vanilla to soft, pillowy peaks — stop while it still slumps a little.
9. Assemble no more than an hour before serving: set the flat meringue on a platter, spread with half the cream, then ripple through half the curd. Break the second meringue into large shards and stand them upright in the cream.
10. Spoon over the remaining cream and curd, then scatter with fresh passion fruit pulp, diced mango, toasted coconut flakes and mint. Serve immediately, with extra curd on the side.