These Passion Fruit Bars have a super-crispy buttery crust with a perfectly balanced tart and tropical filling!
Sweet Tart Lilikoi Bars
I’ve mentioned before that I’m a little obsessed with passion fruit. The flavor, the concept—even the name. When I hear “passion fruit” in my head, it’s invariably being said by someone with a sultry accent, all slow esses and coy head tilts and eyebrow wiggles. It’s a name that’s basically begging you to love it, and when you combine the wink-and-a-nod name with the tart tropical taste, how could I not feel passionate about it?
Last week I posted a picture of some frozen passion fruit puree on Instagram and Facebook, and got several questions about what I do with it. Gather round, friends, I am happy to spread the gospel of the passion fruit! It’s a pretty easy ingredient to use. Basically, since it’s so tart, I substitute it in baking recipes where I might use lemon juice instead.
So, for instance, in the past I’ve used it to make passion fruit curd, and passion fruit pound cake, and passion fruit tarts. Instead of the pure sour pucker of lemon juice, it has a lovely balance of tart and tropical flavors. It makes everything just a little more interesting, and I knew it would be the perfect way to shake up traditional lemon bars.
Table of Contents
The Perfect Crust to Filling Ratio
Everyone has their ideal lemon bar, and everyone’s ideal is a bit different. Slim and dainty, or a tower of curd piled sky-high? Crumbly shortbread crust or crispy buttery crust? Extra-sour flavor or moderately sweet? Firm or soft? Zest or no zest? The questions, they are endless.
So in addition to boasting my favorite fruit flavor (call me, passion fruit!), these bars are also my dream texture. The base is a super-crispy buttery crust that comes together in a minute and doesn’t require any chilling. (Chilling is way too high maintenance for me. Hello, you’re the crust, basically the curd delivery system. You don’t get special treatment!) They have the perfect filling-to-crust ratio, and they set enough to easily and neatly cut, but not so much that you feel like you’re chewing gummy worms. In short, purrrrrr.
I knew that I loved these bars, but the real test came when we served them to a few friends. Some of them thought they were lemon bars before they tasted them, and were so surprised—and happy!—to find a whole new flavor waiting for them! They were a universal hit, and I think I made a few more passion fruit converts that day.
💡Tips and FAQs
Here are my two secret weapons for making these bars: frozen passion fruit pulp and non-melting powdered sugar.
- Frozen passion fruit pulp. The passion fruit pulp is from a local Mexican grocery store—if your area has a sizable Latino population, chances are the freezer section might have a similar product! You can probably substitute the pulp of fresh passion fruit, but those are much harder for me to track down, and I haven’t tried it myself. If you use the frozen puree, just make sure it’s defrosted (duh) before making the recipe.
- Non-melting powdered sugar. This is one of those professional tricks that I think everyone should know about. If you’ve ever made a dessert and sprinkled a gorgeous layer of powdered sugar on top, only to find that it’s absorbed moisture from the dessert and turned into a wet, gloopy mess, this is the product for you! It’s basically powdered sugar microscopically coated with fat, so that the sugar doesn’t absorb any moisture and stays pristine for days. It is a lifesaver for desserts like these bars, which often start to get damp and gross-looking in a matter of minutes. The texture is a little finer than powdered sugar—maybe a cross between powdered sugar and corn starch?—which you can kind of tell in the close-up pictures. Taste-wise, I can’t tell a difference between regular powdered sugar, especially since it’s usually used in very small amounts as a garnish.
Where to buy non-melting powdered sugar:
I bought mine from a local LA culinary supply store (Surfas, holla!). You can buy it from Surfas online, or King Arthur Flour also carries their own brand.
These bars taste like rainbows and happiness and small woodland creatures frolicking in dappled sunlight….or maybe just like really good, really spring-y treats. Either way, give them a try!
🧡More Bar Cookie Recipes You’ll Love
Passion Fruit Tarts
Peach Passion Pops
Passion Fruit Bars
Ingredients
For the Crust:
- 8 oz unsalted butter, melted and slightly cooled
- 3.5 oz granulated sugar, (1/2 cup)
- 2 tsp vanilla extract
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 8.25 oz all-purpose flour, (2 cups)
For the Filling:
- 8 large eggs
- 16.3 oz granulated sugar, (2 1/3 cups)
- 1 1/2 cups passion fruit puree, I used one 14 oz Goya pouch
- 2.12 oz all-purpose flour, (1/2 cup)
Instructions
To Make the Crust:
- Preheat the oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit. Line a 9×13 pan with foil so that it extends up the sides, and spray the foil with nonstick cooking spray.
- In a bowl, whisk together the melted butter, sugar, vanilla, and salt. Once mixed, add the flour and stir with a spatula until combined and no streaks of flour remain. Scrape the dough into the pan and press it into an even layer. It might seem a little greasy—this is normal.
- Bake the crust for 25-30 minutes at 350 F, until it’s golden brown on top. While the crust is baking, prepare the filling so it’s ready to go as soon as the crust is done.
To Make the Filling:
- In a large bowl, whisk together the eggs, granulated sugar, and passion fruit puree. Sift the flour on top of the egg mixture, and whisk it in as well.
- When the crust is done baking, slide the rack part-way out of the oven. Pour the filling over the hot crust and slide it back into the oven. Reduce the temperature to 325 F and bake for 25-30 minutes. It’s done when the center barely jiggles when you tap the pan.
- Once done, remove the pan from the oven and let it cool until it reaches room temperature.
- For the cleanest cuts, refrigerate the bars and cut them when completely cold. To cut, remove the bars from the pan using the foil as handles. Use a large sharp chef’s knife and wipe it off often between cuts.
- Sprinkle the top with powdered sugar before serving. Store Passion Fruit Bars in an airtight container in the refrigerator for up to a week.
Measuring Tips
Our recipes are developed using weight measurements, and we highly recommend using a kitchen scale for baking whenever possible. However, if you prefer to use cups, volume measurements are provided as well. PLEASE NOTE: the adage “8 oz = 1 cup” is NOT true when speaking about weight, so don’t be concerned if the measurements don’t fit this formula.
Want to learn more about baking measurements and conversion?
Passion fruit… mmm… ^____^
Do you think it’ll work out with jackfruit?
(I know, it’s a silly-lazy question, but I’d like to hear your thoughts, *before* I use something expensive…)
Thanks!
Hi! I’m sorry to say I actually don’t have any experience with jackfruit! Do you often substitute jackfruit for passion fruit in recipes? If you’ve had success doing it in the past, then it would probably work here too. You can definitely substitute other sour and semi-sour juices, like lemon, lime, grapefruit, and mango puree in this recipe. So if jackfruit puree has a similar consistency and is also fairly sour, it should be okay! (If it is too sweet, the amount of sugar in the recipe will be out of whack and your bars will probably be too sweet.) I’m sorry to not be of more help! If you do try it with jackfruit, please let me know how it goes!
Heads up to anyone looking at this– I don’t know whether the packaged passion fruit purée is much more sour, but I did this with fresh passion fruits and it calls for far too much sugar! I could tell just looking at the recipe that 2 1/3 c sugar was preposterous, so I decreased it to just 2 cups, but next time I will use 1.5 instead. The crust is excellent though! Really buttery with a good kick of salt.
Thanks for the feedback, Yael! The puree I buy is quite sour–I wouldn’t say it’s lemon juice level, but it’s close. So the sugar amount is to compensate for the sourness. I can imagine that fresh passion fruit isn’t quite so intense, so reducing the sugar sounds like a good call. I appreciate your sharing your experience for other readers.
Hii Elizabeth.. Could I do with mango pulp instead?
Can u suggest me regarding this..
Yes, you definitely can! It’s a great substitute. Since mango is much sweeter than passion fruit, I’d suggest either adding a few tablespoons of lemon juice to make the mango tarter, or reducing a bit of the sugar in the filling. Let me know how it turns out!
I made these for the first time this Christmas and they are an unqualified hit! I adore passionfruit but like Mike I’d like to do a mango variation too. I’ll make the recupe adjustments and give it a shot.The original recipe bars were absolutely to die for!
Hello! How do you defrost your passion fruit pulp? I bought Goya last week as well and the bag I stuck in the fridge leaked somehow. The contents also seemed like they were separated in liquid form.
Thank you for the recipe! I actually have been planning to make it for over a year now (have had the passionfruit pulp in my freezer for 1 year), finally got around to making these for a neighborhood bbq last night.
They. Are. So. Good. Took me right back to my favorite tropical vacations (kinda am tempted to book a new one soon).
I used my own recipe for the shortbread crust that I normally use with lemon bars and reduced the amount of sugar to an even 2 cups. I think I will probably reduce the sugar even more just because I like things a little more tart.
Love these!
Made these today and they turned out great! My husband loves the tartness of passion fruit, so I reduced the sugar by 1/2 c., and may even reduce by another 1/3 in the future (I was using Goya frozen purée). I think I’ll also try these with Goya’s frozen guava!
Hi I’m making these from our home grown passion fruit and so excited! Just to clarify was that 8oz, as in 2 sticks of butter for the crust or, 8 tbsp so only one stick?
We have a friend in California who periodically mails fresh fruit from her garden to us in NJ. The latest box contained about a dozen passionfruit. I was excited to try this recipe, but they only rendered about a 1/4 cup of juice. I substituted the remainder with guava nectar. Turned out delicious!
Hey Liz, That sounds amazing, also getting fresh fruit sounds delightful. I am happy it worked out, thanks so much!!
This recipe is so good. Just like a lemon bar, but more exotic. The buttery crust is perfect.
Thank you, Elle! It’s one of my very favorites–I love passion fruit flavors!