Technique of the Week: Fruit Curds

This is the start of a new feature here at the hobby room, Technique of the Week.  I want to take a little time each week to teach you something I think you should know.  I'm going to skip the quirky anecdotes and background stories and get straight to a technique I've been using and think you might be able to use, too.

This week we're going to make some fruit curds.  And for anyone wondering, I don't mean some sort of cheese with fruit flavoring.  Fruit curd, is a custard-like fruit spread that is used frequently in tarts and with scones.  I had the occasion to make some lemon curd this week and it's a lot easier than it seems.  I think you might want to make some because it's delicious and versatile.

The technique is basically this:

1. Combine egg yolks and sugar.
2. Add some fruit juice.
3. Cook the whole thing over (a) a double boiler or (b) low heat in a non-reactive pan.
4. Once the curd gets nice and thick (and reaches 170 degrees), stop cooking.
5. Stir in some butter.

Here's a basic lemon curd that was adapted from Alton Brown's Lemon Curd recipe that you can find here.  This stuff is GOOD.  Like scraping-the-top-off-some-lemon-bars good.

Are you ready to try something exotic and fancy?  Check out these recipes from Gilt Taste. 

Now here's another twist: for the recipe I was using lemon curd in, I had the need to make it without eggs.  Soooo, here's a vegan lemon curd for you to try.  This recipe has been adapted from a lemon curd on the blog Angie's Recipes, which you can find here.

Vegan curd has a lot less fat and fewer calories (no eggs, no butter) and is still delicious.  This curd tastes like what you might find in a lemon meringue pie.  Yum.  The technique is almost the same, but instead of using eggs to thicken the curd, we will use a corn starch slurry.  

You know how it works: click on the recipe image to download a printable copy.  All I ask is that you subscribe to the hobby room to get recipes.

Happy cooking,