These passionfruit melting moments give a tangy, tropical spin to the classic Aussie/NZ biscuit (cookie). They start with a buttery, meltingly tender cookie, much like a shortbread but somehow softer. These ones are filled with a lovely light buttercream with a little twang from passionfruit.
Much like the beloved pavlova, both Australia and New Zealand lay claim to these delicious little treats. All I know, is there’s barely a cafe, lunch bar or bakery that don’t have them on their shelves. These delicate little sandwich biscuits are truly a treat.
They’re so easy to make too, so don’t stop there. Try these raspberry melting moments too.
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Ingredients
Jump to the recipe card for full ingredients and instructions.
The ingredients for melting moments are very simple and mostly self-explanatory. The wonderful thing about these passionfruit melting moments biscuits is not only the tangy passionfruit buttercream but the fact that they only have 6 ingredients.
- Plain flour, called all-purpose flour, in some places.
- Cornflour, also known as cornstarch – it’s that fine white starch powder often used for thickening sauce but here it’s used to give a soft texture.
- Icing sugar, also known as powdered sugar or confectioners sugar.
- Unsalted butter
- Vanilla extract
- and finally, passionfruit pulp. Use fresh wrinkly passionfruit (lilikoi) if you can get them but if not, choose a jarred passionfruit pulp or frozen passionfruit pulp. It might be called passionfruit juice too. Whatever it’s called where you are, you want 100% passionfruit, not a juice that has water or sugar added.
While very similar, melting moments are not yoyo biscuits. Yoyo’s use custard powder instead of cornflour.
How to make them
Passionfruit melting moments are so easy to make. There’s no chilling required, so even though they’re stuffed they’re quite quick too.
Jump to the recipe card for full ingredients and instructions.
1. Make the cookie dough
Start by creaming together softened butter and icing sugar (powdered sugar). I use a stand mixer with a paddle attachment but you can use a handheld electric mixer too. Just make sure to beat for a good few minutes to get it nice and creamy.
Add the vanilla then sift in the flour and cornflour and mix it gently until you have a soft dough. It’s important to scrape down the bottom and sides of the bowl to make sure there is no chunks of butter not mixed in properly.
This is meant to be a very soft dough mixture so don’t worry if it feels too soft to roll, it’ll all work fine.
2. Shape the melting moments
The classic melting moment shape is a chunky round cookie with a fork imprint on top. Dust your hands with flour to stop the soft cookie dough from sticking, then roll the dough into small balls (about 2 teaspoons of dough per cookie). You should get about 44 cookies which will turn into 22 once they’re sandwiched together.
Lay them out onto a baking sheet at least 4cm / 1 ½ inches, then use the tines of a fork, dipped into flour, to press down on top to flatten them out to about 4cm / 1 ½ inches wide. Bake the cookies for 14-15 minutes until they’re just beginning to turn golden brown around the edges.
3. Make the buttercream
Like the cookie dough, start by beating butter and icing sugar, plus the vanilla, together until creamy.
Now, add your strained passionfruit pulp. Start with 1 tablespoon, only adding more if you want more flavour and so long as it’s not making the consistency too loose. Then, I like to add some of the passionfruit seeds back to the buttercream to add some crunch and that contrast from the black seeds.
4. Pipe the cookies
Once the cookies have fully cooled, you can pipe or spread the buttercream onto your cookies. Just add the buttercream, quite generously, to the flat side of half of the cookies, then top that with the remaining cookies.
The buttercream at this point is still quite soft though completely edible and delicious. You can chill the cookies to firm it up but chilling anything does affect it’s flavour. I find these passionfruit melting moments better the day after they were made. The buttercream firms up slightly (and more with each passing day) and you can easily serve them at room temperature without getting messy.
Storage
Store your passionfruit melting moments in an airtight container in the pantry for 3-4 days or up to 5 in the fridge. They can also be frozen, again in an airtight container, for up to 3 months.
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Ingredients
FOR THE COOKIES
- 226 g unsalted butter softened (1 cup / 2 sticks / 8oz)
- 70 g icing sugar (powdered sugar) (½ cup / 2 ½oz)
- 1 ½ teaspoons vanilla extract
- 195 g plain flour (all purpose flour) (1 ½ cups / 7oz)
- 70 g cornflour (US cornstarch) (½ cup / 2 ½oz)
FOR THE BUTTERCREAM
- ¼ cup passionfruit pulp (60ml) (notes 2&3)
- 100 g unsalted butter softened (3 ½ oz)
- 170 g icing sugar (powdered sugar) (6oz)
- ½ teaspoon vanilla extract
For best results, always weigh ingredients where a weight is provided
Equipment
- Large baking sheets
- Piping bag not essential
Instructions
- FOR THE COOKIES:Preheat the oven to 180C (160C fan forced) / 350F. Line 2 large baking sheets with baking paper.
- In a large bowl with an electric beater or in a stand mixer with paddle attachment, beat together the butter and sugar until pale and creamy. Add the vanilla and beat well.
- Sift in the flour and cornflour, then mix on low until just incorporated. Scrape around the bowl to make sure there is not pockets of butter left.
- Dust your hands lightly with flour. Roll 2 teaspoons of the cookie dough into balls and place them onto the lined baking sheets about 4cm/1 ½ inches apart.
- Dip a fork in flour and press down lightly on top of each until they are above half the height and about 4cm/1 ½ inches wide, re-flouring the fork each time.
- Bake for 14-15 minutes until they just start to turn golden on the edges. Cool on the pan for 10 minutes then transfer to a wire rack to cool.
- FOR THE PASSIONFRUIT BUTTERCREAM FROSTING:Strain the passionfruit pulp so that you have at least 1 ½ tablespoons of juice/pulp. Reserve the seeds for later.
- Add the butter, icing sugar and vanilla to a bowl and beat with a handheld mixer (or in a stand-mixer) until light and creamy. Scrape down the sides of the bowl as necessary.
- Add just 1 tablespoon of passionfruit juice and beat in.You can add more passionfruit juice to taste which will loosen the consistency or thicken the buttercream with a little more icing sugar if needed but that will reduce the intensity of the passionfruit flavour.
- Optional: Add in 1-2 teaspoons of the reserved seeds and beat on low until just combined.
- Spread or pipe a good dollop of buttercream onto the flat side of half of the cooled cookies, then top with another cookie. If you find the buttercream too soft, you can let it chill for 5-10 minutes before piping. Once on the cookies, it will firm up overnight and more each day.
- Please take a moment to leave a comment & rating. It's appreciated and so helpful.
Notes
- Tablespoons: I use a standard Australian 20ml tablespoon (equal to 4 teaspoons). Check yours before measuring.
- 1-2 passionfruits will give you enough pulp for this recipe.
- The type of passionfruit pulp you use will change the consistency of your buttercream. The pulp from frozen or jarred passionfruit tends to be more liquid than the pulp directly from fresh passionfruit and may cause your frosting to be much softer. You can thicken your buttercream with more icing sugar or chill until it’s pipeable. It will firm up overnight and more over the next few days too.
- Nutrition details are approximate only – scroll below the recipe to find the full nutritional information.
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4 Comments on “Passionfruit Melting Moments”
I love melting moments and yours look amazing. I want to make these as a welcome home gift for my friend. It’s so humid in QLD atm. Should I chill the dough before rolling into balls please and how do I stop the filling from “melting” if I make them a couple of days ahead?
Thanks for your lovely recipes.💞
Ooh lucky friend 🙂 Being quite humid, it may help to chill it for 10-15 minutes AFTER rolling into balls. But I would still just test bake one cookie ball without chilling, just to see how it goes. The filling actually firms up over a few days but you can keep them in the fridge until you want to give them to your friend.
Absolutely beautiful. Great instructions and very easy to make. Thank you once again for a great recipe
Thank you so much, Lynn. I’m so happy you love them.