I had never heard of pawpaw fruit before this September, so I made it my mission to find the best way to eat them.
Pawpaws have a broad range of ripeness. They are good to eat when they’re soft and green, and when they’re completely black. The flavor profile varies greatly with ripeness. To anyone who claims not to like the fruit, I would encourage them to try a different ripeness.
Less ripe ones are less sweet and floral. Many people compare pawpaws to bananas or mangoes, but I don’t think they were even a little similar.
The more ripe a pawpaw becomes, it develops a tangier, sweeter flavor that is more reminiscent of a mango. The texture also becomes slimier.
I took inspiration from multiple recipes to make each item, but the ones I relied on the most are linked.
Recipe 1: Smoothie
Ingredients:
¼ cup blueberries
½ an orange, zest and juice
⅓ cup 0% Greek yogurt
⅓ cup 2% milk
1 pawpaw
Instructions:
Blend until smooth.
I made this first because I figured I could drink it while I worked on the other recipes. This was excellent, the blueberries and orange worked really well with the pawpaw flavor. It pairs really well with anything creamy. I think it would also work well with tropical fruits, like mango and pineapple. But because the pawpaw flavor is so light, I didn’t want to overpower it.
Recipe 2: Salsa
Ingredients:
yellow onion
tomato, with the seeds removed
bell pepper
pawpaw
cilantro
cumin
lime juice
2 garlic cloves
salt
habanero hot sauce (optional)
Instructions:
Chop and combine everything, serve with tortilla chips.
This was the only recipe where I purposefully did not measure anything. I recommend just eyeballing the onion/tomato/pepper/pawpaw ratio until it looks even, and then tasting as you add other things. I was a little nervous about the cumin and garlic being too strong and not pairing well with the pawpaw, but they were great. Try to use a pawpaw that’s just ripe enough, it will keep a crisper texture. My mom occasionally makes fish tacos and tilapia with mango salsa, there are many similar recipes online. This salsa seems like it would be a good substitute for the mango.
Recipe 3: Muffins
Ingredients:
2 large eggs
6 tablespoons cooled, melted butter
¾ cup buttermilk
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 cups all-purpose flour
¾ cup granulated sugar
2½ teaspoons baking powder
½ teaspoon salt
¼ teaspoon grated nutmeg
¾ cup pawpaw pulp, mashed
Instructions:
Preheat oven to 375°F
Peel the pawpaws, then remove the seeds
Mash pulp with a fork if needed.
Whisk together the eggs, butter, buttermilk and vanilla
Sift together the dry ingredients and add gradually, stirring until batter is smooth
Stir in pawpaw pulp
Place batter in greased muffin tins or cupcake liners ⅔ full
Bake muffins for 18-22 minutes, test with a toothpick
Cool for 10 minutes in the pan, then finish cooling on a wire rack
This was probably my least favorite recipe because the pawpaw flavor didn’t come through enough. For baked goods, I recommend using extra ripe fruit because it has a stronger flavor and mushier texture. Use 1 cup of pawpaw rather than ¾. If (like me) you have a potato ricer, this is a good opportunity to pull it out. It was much quicker than mashing the pawpaw with a fork.
I also had to make a few substitutions. Buttermilk isn’t something I keep on hand, so I used Google’s suggested replacement: milk and lemon juice. It did not smell or taste anything like buttermilk, but it's hard to tell if it had an effect on the muffins. This recipe called for a ½ cup of chopped and pitted dates, which I didn’t have. I still wanted something to break up the dense texture, so I added ½ a cup of chopped pecans which worked really well, cranberries or shredded coconut are common additives in other pawpaw muffin recipes.
Pawpaw seem to go better with sweet recipes than with savory ones. We're lucky enough to be able to walk into a grocery store and walk out with bananas, apples, mangos and berries anytime of year. But pawpaws are only available for a few short weeks in the Eastern United States. Even if you live here, it can be difficult to get your hands on one. Baking with them is definitely a fun fall activity, but there is something about eating them plain that strengthens the sense of exclusivity.
