We visited Maui in 2013, and it was an amazing trip for so many reasons. I walked out of our hotel, strapped on my GoPro, and walked into the water. One day, we randomly passed a farmer’s market, and found a treasure we were completely unaware existed – lilikoi butter, also known as passion fruit butter.

This little jar of yellow gold was absolutely one of our best Hawaiian discoveries, and every several years I wake up determined to try to make lilikoi butter myself. Then I look up various recipes, trying to find the easiest one to make, and I give up when I see the current price of passion fruit.

Recently we took another fateful trip; this time to Costco. Walking through the aisles, I stopped in my tracks when I saw a jar of passion fruit mixture, and it wasn’t that expensive. Within 3 seconds of reading the label, I knew I was going to try to make lilikoi butter when I got home. And that’s what I did.

I looked at a bunch of recipes, and they all had the same basic ingredients: eggs, passion fruit juice, butter, and a lot of sugar. This jar from Costco had honey mixed with passion fruit, so I left out the sugar. If this recipe isn’t sweet enough for you, you could always add a little sugar to sweeten it up.

Lilikoi Butter Recipe (Passion Fruit Butter Recipe)

Ingredients:

3 large eggs (not giant, not tiny)
5 oz passion fruit with honey, seeds removed first
6 Tbsp butter

Method:

That’s it. Three ingredients. And here’s how to make it. You’ll need a small pot and a steel or glass mixing bowl to make a double boiler, so that the bowl rests on the rim of the pot, not touching the water.

• Use a strainer to remove the seeds from the passion fruit with honey. (You can save the seeds for another recipe. They’re really good in a smoothie.)
• Fill a small pot about ½ full with water, and heat it to a gentle boil.
• In a stainless steel mixing bowl big enough to rest on the pot outside the water, crack and whisk the eggs until smooth.
• Add the passion fruit without the seeds, and whisk it into the eggs.
• Cube the butter (cold or room temp) and add it to the mixture.
• Set the bowl on the pot of boiling water.
• Use the whisk to stir periodically for 10-15 minutes. If you don’t stir, the eggs will cook, so just keep the mixture moving. I tend to stir a lot in the beginning as the butter is melting, and stir less frequently after that.
• The mixture is ready when it’s thick enough to stick to a metal spoon.
• Pour the mixture in a clean glass jar, and seal. As it cools, it’ll create a vacuum inside the jar to really seal it. Let it cool to room temperature, and then keep it in the refrigerator after it’s open.

Once you’ve made it a few times, you won’t even need the recipe. Mix 3 eggs, 5 oz passion fruit mixture, and 6 tbsp butter, then stir while it cooks, put it in a jar. Done.

You can put lilikoi butter on anything you want to give a sweet, tropical buttery flavor. When we were on Maui, we picked up some local banana bread, and it was a perfect pairing. At home, we make our own banana bread to recreate the feeling of being on the islands.