Text by Bethanie Walder

Passion fruit mousse is Marcel’s new favorite dessert. It’s pretty dangerous to have a favorite dessert that only takes about 10 minutes to make. (And yes, for those who know I don’t usually eat sugar, passion fruit mousse is basically irresistible for me, too.)

Last weekend we traded cooking lessons with Fernanda – I showed her how to make hummus and she showed Marcel and I how to make passion fruit (maracujá) mousse. For those of you who are interested, and who have access to passion fruit – making the mousse is simple and pretty similar to making a no-cook filling for key lime pie. You mix equal parts sweetened condensed milk and passion fruit juice (it took about 6 fruits to get enough juice), then fold in whipped cream. The basic ratio of ingredients is basically one third milk, one third juice, one third whipped cream. Let set in the fridge for about an hour, drizzle passion fruit juice/seeds on top, and eat. We didn’t have a good kitchen implement for whipping our whipping cream, so we didn’t bother, since the mousse tastes just as good even if it doesn’t set up thickly.

Making passion fruit mousseMaking passion fruit mousse Making passion fruit mousseMaking passion fruit mousse Making passion fruit mousseMaking passion fruit mousse

Fernanda also introduced us to an equally dangerous and easy to make food this weekend – frozen pão de queijo. It’s not that we didn’t already know and love pão de queijo, we became addicted to it the last time we were in Brazil. This little baked treat is one of the famed foods of Brazil, and we had absolutely no idea that you could buy them frozen to cook at home. (Okay, so frozen pão de queijo is a bit like frozen french fries or frozen pizza, it’s certainly not the best, but it’ll do.) The first week we were here I bought all the ingredients to try making pão de queijo from scratch, but I’ve been procrastinating. It’s made from a type of tapioca flour mixed with cheese and then baked. The outside is lightly crispy, like fresh-baked sandwich bread, and the inside is cheesy gelatinous deliciousness. It has to be eaten hot (okay, it doesn’t have to be, but it sure tastes a lot better hot). We’ve been eating it pretty sparingly since we got here, but now, with a bag of these addictive cheese buns in our freezer, things could get ugly quickly (in terms of our attempts to continue to fit into our clothes, that is).

pão de queijopão de queijo

Next Brazilian dish to try making ourselves… feijoada?? Or maybe risotto with hearts of palm and requeijo (creamy creamy cheese)?? Whatever it is, hopefully it will come out as good as the maracujá mousse.