Passion Fruit Spheres With Popping Candy Recipe
by Nicola Lando
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120 minutes prep time
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45 minutes cook time
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Difficult
These passion fruit spheres burst in your mouth releasing an intense hit of passion fruit puree. We've balanced the slight sourness of the passion fruit with a sweet chocolate soil and a sprinkling of chocolate popping candy.
We've opted to use reverse spherification to make these passion fruit spheres. Reverse spherification has come to be preferred over basic spherification because it is more versatile and the spheres are less fragile. To read more about reverse spherification, see our article on 6 Things You Need To Know About Reverse Spherification.
And as if spherification wasn't magical enough, we've also created chocolate soil from just 3 basic ingredients - chocolate, water and sugar. The chocolate crystallises as it comes into contact with the hot sugar syrup with spectacular results. To top it off, a sprinkling of chocolate popping candy ensures this dishes is a multi-sensory sensation!
For the passion fruit spheres Serves: 8
- 150g passion fruit puree
- 10g sugar
- 0.5g xanthan gum
- 1.5g calcium lactate (1%)
For the sodium alginate bath
- 500ml bottled low-calcium water
- 2.5g sodium alginate (0.5%)
For the chocolate soil
- 75ml water
- 200g caster sugar
- 80g dark chocolate couverture
Other
- 200ml bottled low-calcium water (for washing the spheres)
- 40g chocolate popping candy (to serve)
- Black porcelain canape dishes (to serve)
- 10 small sprigs of mint (to serve)
Equipment
- Spherification spoon
- Thermapen thermometer
- 1 tbsp measuring spoon
The passion fruit spheres
- Begin by making the sodium alginate bath. Mix the water and sodium alginate in a food processor on full speed for 1 minute, until evenly dispersed.
- Transfer to a bowl, ideally a bowl with a flat bottom and perpendicular sides. Cover with cling film and let it rest in the fridge overnight.
- For the passion fruit spheres, mix the passion fruit with the sugar and calcium lactate in a food processor on full speed for 1 minute.
- Add the xanthan gum and mix for a further minute on full speed.
- Refrigerate overnight to allow the air bubbles to disappear.
- When you are ready to spherify, prepare a bowl with 200ml water for washing the spheres.
- Fill the measuring spoon with the puree and pour it into the sodium alginate bath. Place the spoon close to the surface of the bath and flip the spoon to pour it in.
- Try one sphere at a time to begin with. Leave the sphere in the bath for about 2 minutes, gently moving it around and stirring with the spherification spoon.
- Use the spherification spoon to lift the sphere out of the bath and into the prepared bowl of water. Store them in this bowl and transfer to the plating dish once ready.
The chocolate soil
- Prepare a baking tray with greaseproof paper.
- Heat the water and sugar in a pan to 135°C. Use a thermapen thermometer to monitor the temperature.
- Remove from the heat and pour in the dark chocolate couverture chips. Stir with a whisk until the mixture crystallises.
- Tip onto the greaseproof paper and wait until cooled before using.
To assemble
- Place a teaspoon of chocolate soil at the bottom of the canape dishes.
- Use the spherification spoon to delicately place the passion fruit sphere on top.
- Finish with a sprinkling of chocolate popping candy and a sprig of mint. Serve immediately.
About the author
Nicola Lando is the co-founder and CEO of Sous Chef, where she has spent more than a decade sourcing, tasting and selecting specialist ingredients, cookware and tableware from producers around the world.
She trained at Leiths and later completed a stage at a Michelin-starred London restaurant, experiences that helped shape Sous Chef’s original mission: to give home cooks access to the same exceptional ingredients used by professional chefs.
Today, Nicola leads much of Sous Chef’s product sourcing and ingredient selection, working directly with producers and travelling internationally to food fairs, farms, mills and manufacturers. She tastes thousands of products each year and has built deep expertise across storecupboard ingredients, olive oil, condiments, spices, preserved foods and specialist cooking ingredients.
She holds an olive oil sommelier certification from ESAO in Spain, Imperial Executive Education’s Certificate in Nutrition for Health: Evidence-Based Tools and Strategies certificate; as well as studying Food Safety and Control at University of Greenwich.
Nicola also writes recipes and ingredient guides for Sous Chef, combining practical cooking experience with first-hand knowledge from producers, suppliers and specialist food makers. Her work focuses on helping cooks understand how to choose better ingredients, use them well, and get more flavour from their cooking.
