Lilikoi Malasada

Hawaii's best-loved street sweet: the Portuguese sugared doughnut brought by Madeiran plantation workers, fried golden and piped full of tart lilikoi custard

Origin: United States

From the journey of Passion Fruit.

The malasada came to Hawaii with the Portuguese, and specifically with the labourers recruited from Madeira and the Azores to work the sugar plantations from the eighteen-seventies onward. In their homeland the malasada was a Shrove Tuesday sweet, a yeasted doughnut without a hole, fried in oil and rolled in sugar to use up the fat and sugar in the house before Lent; in Hawaii the tradition survived as Malasada Day, still kept on the Tuesday before Ash Wednesday, and then escaped the calendar altogether to become an everyday island treat sold from bakeries and food trucks with queues down the pavement. The islands then did what Hawaiian cooking always does and filled it with something local. Lilikoi, the Hawaiian passion fruit, makes the finest filling of all: a thick, tart, golden custard piped into the hot, sugar-rolled doughnut, whose sharpness cuts the richness of the fried dough exactly as it should. Crisp and sugary outside, soft and yeasted within, and flooded with sharp passion fruit cream, the lilikoi malasada is the perfect expression of Hawaii's layered kitchen, in which a Portuguese pastry, an American doughnut habit, and a South American fruit meet on a Pacific island.

Ingredients

Dough

  • 500 g strong white bread flour
  • 7 g fast-action dried yeast (1 sachet)
  • 60 g caster sugar
  • 1 tsp salt
  • 3 whole eggs
  • 180 ml whole milk, warmed
  • 60 g unsalted butter, softened
  • 1 tsp vanilla extract

Frying

  • 2 litres neutral oil, for deep frying
  • 200 g caster sugar, for rolling

Lilikoi Custard

  • 150 ml passion fruit pulp, sieved
  • 4 whole egg yolks
  • 100 g caster sugar
  • 30 g cornstarch
  • 200 ml whole milk
  • 40 g unsalted butter, cubed

Method

  1. Make the dough: mix the flour, yeast, sugar, and salt, then work in the eggs, warm milk, and vanilla to a soft, sticky dough. Knead for 8 to 10 minutes, then work in the softened butter a little at a time until smooth and elastic. Cover and leave to rise for about 1½ hours, until doubled.
  2. Meanwhile make the lilikoi custard: whisk the yolks, sugar, and cornstarch to a paste. Bring the milk to the boil, pour it onto the yolks whisking, return to the pan, and cook, whisking hard, until very thick. Take off the heat and beat in the sieved passion fruit pulp and the butter. Cover the surface with cling film and chill.
  3. Knock back the risen dough and divide into 16 pieces. Roll each into a ball, flatten slightly, and set on floured trays. Cover and leave to prove for a further 30 to 45 minutes, until puffy.
  4. Heat the oil to 175°C. Fry the malasadas in batches of two or three for about 1½ to 2 minutes a side, until deep golden brown and cooked through, then lift out and drain briefly.
  5. Roll each hot malasada in caster sugar to coat. When cool enough to handle, poke a hole in the side with a skewer, fit a piping bag with a narrow nozzle, and pipe the cold lilikoi custard generously into each.

Notes

Malasadas are at their best within an hour or two of frying and do not keep, which is why Hawaiian bakeries sell them hot from the fryer. They can also be served plain, simply rolled in sugar, in the original Portuguese manner, or in the Hawaiian style rolled in a mixture of sugar and cinnamon. Beyond lilikoi, the island bakeries fill them with haupia (coconut), guava, and chocolate custards; the tart passion fruit remains the favourite because it cuts the sweetness best.

The Gastrographer

The Gastrographer

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Ingredient originTrade or transit route
Became a culinary stapleColonial / trade control
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