Photo by Joseph DeLeo; Food Styling by Rebecca Jurkevich
Lemon curd serves a vital purpose in my household: it’s a stand-in, at times, for the kind of sour candy that’ll burn your tongue off. Come January, as I sit and eat a pile of roots, my cravings for all things tart and juicy are at an all-time high. I miss summer peaches, grapes that make your mouth pucker, biting into a tomato that’s been drizzled with a little vinegar and oil. That longing for zing sometimes ends in the artificial substitute—a handful of Extreme Sour SweetTarts—but, more than often than not, it leads me toward my favorite lemon curd recipe. This lemon tart recipe in Gourmet was the gateway: The richness of the tart’s olive oil crust is offset by the cool, sharp cut of the lemon, its fresh tang helping to brighten any winter meal.
But lemon curd isn’t the only curd, and there’s no need to stop at one sour spread. Recently, instead of enjoying grapefruit segments as an afternoon snack, I’ve been turning them into a fragrant, delightfully sour curd. When stacking a double-decker pavlova for a birthday, I swirled pineapple and key lime curd into whipped cream as a flavorful mortar between the two layers. And when I’m dutifully scrubbing sweet potatoes and deveining sturdy kale from my winter CSA, I daydream about that time I made a batch of passionfruit curd—and demolished it with friends before the day was over.
Better than sour candy. (Photo by Joseph De Leo, Food Styling by Lillian Chou)
Of course, there are some guidelines to what can be curded—try to curd bananas and you’re really just renaming pudding. “Curd works best when there is some sharpness present, to counter the sweetness,” baker and cookbook author Edd Kimber explained in a recent email. “For example, if you make a blueberry or strawberry curd, it works best when paired with lemon juice to prevent the finished curd being too sweet.”
Another reason to add citrus: “A curd that is simultaneously smooth (as in, not curdled) and properly thickened requires lots of acidity,” Epi contributor Claire Saffitz says. Saffitz, whose tangy Mango Lime Curd is just as satisfying between the layers of a cake as it is as swirled on top of a shortbread cookie, stresses that “it's possible to create a curd from any fruit purée as long as there’s an acid present.”
If you’re looking to get beyond the classic lemon, look to the rest of the citrus family: Yuzu curd is particularly refreshing, while a Meyer lemon version will be mellow, sweet, and luxuriously perfumed. Tangerine curd has a rounder sweetness to it. Kimber, whose Sour Cherry and Lemon Ice-Box Cake from his latest book, One Tin Bakes, is both refreshing and decadent, recommends switching out the lemon for blood orange or bergamot if you’d like a change of pace.
The basic method
If you’ve never made curd before (lemon or otherwise), you’ll be pleasantly surprised by how simple it is—as long as you watch the flame on your stove to prevent burning or curdling, you’ll be just fine.
First, you whisk together sugar, eggs, and fruit juice (and if you’re using citrus, zest). “Following a tip I learnt from Dorie Greenspan many years ago, rubbing the zest and sugar together first helps to bring out even more flavor as it releases the oils,” Kimber explains.
The proportions of sugar to juice and eggs varies from recipe to recipe; I like to use the formula in this lemon curd tart— ¾ cup lemon juice and ¾ cup sugar—as a general guide because it comes out a bit more tart than most. If you prefer something sweeter, start with this recipe, which calls for quite a bit more sweetener.
Some recipes enrich the curd with only egg yolks, which makes for a denser, richer texture and intense flavor, but I tend to go for ones that call for egg whites as well, if only to save the trouble of finding a use for all those egg whites. (My go-to recipe is 2 whole large eggs plus 2 large yolks, along with 2 teaspoons cornstarch.) The juice, sugar, eggs, and cornstarch get whisked and whisked and whisked together in a medium saucepan over medium heat.
Kimber recommends waiting until your curd is thick enough to coat the back of a spoon before adding cubes of butter: “If you make the curd and add the butter after the custard is thickened, adding a few pieces at a time, the butter ends up emulsifying into the custard so it is lighter and less intensely buttery in flavor.” All in all, I start with half a stick of unsalted butter, added cube by cube, plus a touch of olive oil for a bit of grassy flavor. Some recipes, though, use ¾ stick, a full stick, or more—you can taste as you go and decide how buttery you like it.
Your scones are calling for curd. (Photo by Joseph De Leo, Food Styling by Rebecca Jurkevich)
Branch out to other super-tart fruits
Mangoes and berries may need a bit of citrus to get properly tart, but many other fruits can go it alone: Cranberry, passionfruit, and rhubarb all make excellent choices for curd. While you could put any fruit through a juicer or blender raw for curd, rhubarb and cranberry do well when cooked down with a bit of sugar and mashed—they’ll still be tart, but they’ll lose some of their fibrousness and bitter bite.
Passionfruit, or lilikoi, as it’s called in Hawaii, can be made into a vibrant, fragrant curd that’s often spooned over coconut milk–based haupia. “Getting the tasty, tart juice from the center of these fruits can be tricky,” says Maui-based chef Sheldon Simeon, whose forthcoming cookbook, Cook Real Hawai’i, shares his recipe for lilikoi curd with haupia. To make curd without wasting a drop of the juice, Simeon scoops the pulp—seeds and all—from halved passionfruit into a blender, whirs it on the lowest setting, and then strains the liquid. “Don’t blend on high or you’ll be left with crushed seed pulp in your juice,” he warns.
This method works with other fruit as well, and sometimes you can skip the straining: In this Cranberry-Lime Pie from the chefs behind Thai Diner in Manhattan, the skins melt into submission while you cook the fruit down with a bit of sugar. While the curd was designed as a pie filling, it’s equally fantastic spooned onto scones.
When I’m not craving scones, I like to smear the tangy spread on top of whisper-thin crepes, spoon it generously into the center of custardy Dutch babies, or layer it with fresh berries in a small drinking glass for a dessert that’s at once rich and fresh. Grapefruit curd makes the filling for these gooey bars, but rhubarb or raspberry would work equally well. My colleague Joe Sevier reminded me that curd can be folded into mousse or cheesecake; I’d like to remind you that there is no reason why it can’t be eaten, as is, with a spoon.
These grapefruit bars have a mix of grapefruit and lemon juice in the curd, plus candied grapefruit zest on top. Photo by Alex Lau, Prop Styling by Kalen Kaminski, Food Styling by Susan Spungen
The final touch
Different fruits aren’t the only way to branch out beyond a basic curd—ginger, mint, vanilla, and cardamom all add nuance to lemon, lime, and cranberry curds, while a bit of pepper adds a pleasant punch to grapefruit or tangerine curds. If you’re hoping to experiment but nervous about tainting a whole batch, cook your curd almost to completion and then separate it out into smaller bowls to stir in your various additions. You might lose a little something in terms of a perfectly smooth consistency, but this way you can have as many different variations as you like.
However you flavor it, a batch of zingy fruit curd in the fridge might just help you get through until summer fruit arrives again.