If you are a citrus curd fan, you will love this grapefruit and cranberry curd! It is rich, decadent and so delicious! I love to use it for curd pies, pastries or even just to spoon onto a piece of toast.
Making fruit curd is a little technical. As long as you keep in mind the tempering process of the egg yolks you will be just fine when making this. The tempering process is when you slowly add a little hot liquid into the egg yolks so they can come to temperature slowly, this helps them not to curdle. It is simple to do but vital to your curd working out and forming perfectly.
I love to use this recipe in my grapefruit and cranberry meringue tart, so I always save my egg whites for that and other uses. So keep that in mind when you are cracking and separating your egg yolks.
This curd will store safely in the refrigerator for about 1 week. After that toss it out to be safe. This batch makes roughly 16 ounces and will fill 2 – 8 ounce quilted jars full. It also makes enough to fill a 8-10 inch tart shell, with the 8 inch shell being fuller of curd and the 10 inch being thinner.
What you need to make grapefruit and cranberry curd:
Makes roughly 16 ounces of curd
- Zest of 2 grapefruits
- 2 large grapefruits – juiced or ~ 1 and 1/8 cup grapefruit juice
- 1 cup cranberries or 1/4 cup cranberry juice
- 2 tablespoons lemon juice
- 2 cups sugar – if using sweetened juices then reduce to 1 1/2 cups sugar
- 8 egg yolks
- 1/2 cup salted butter – cold, cut into chunks
Instructions
- In a medium to large sauce pot, zest grapefruits then squeeze in juice of both grapefruits or add grapefruit juice.
- Add fresh cranberries or cranberry juice.
- Add lemon juice and sugar and stir.
- Bring mixture to a boil and simmer for 3-4 minutes or until cranberries pop open and then boil for another minute after they pop open, if using juice and not fresh cranberries then bring to a boil and cook until sugar dissolves.
- Remove juice mixture from heat and pour through a fine mesh strainer to remove the cranberries and other bits of grapefruit, after straining place mixture back into pot.
- Set aside while you prepare the egg yolks.
- In another bowl, add egg yolks and whisk together.
- Spoon in about 1 tablespoon of the hot mixture and whisk into the egg yolks, followed by another tablespoon and another until you’ve added about 1/2 cup into the eggs.
- This is called tempering our eggs and helps not get chunky fruit curd.
- Once all the hot mixture is mixed into the eggs, add egg and juice mixture into the rest of the juice mixture and turn heat on medium high, whisk continuously while you cook the mixture for 7-8 minutes.
- You do not want the sauce to scorch on the bottom of the pan so you need to be attentive to both heat and whisking to avoid this.
- Once mixture thickens and can coat the back of a spoon with a semi-thickened consistency then it is good and can be removed from heat.
- Take cold butter and add in chunks to mixture while whisking and stir until butter dissolves.
- Allow curd to cool completely for thickness of curd to fully develop.
- This will store in the refrigerator for about 1 week.
Here are a few other recipes you may love:
- Cranberry and Grapefruit Smoothie RECIPE HERE
- Overnight Orange Rolls RECIPE HERE
- Dark Chocolate Mango Orange Cookies RECIPE HERE
- Tart Plum Jam without Pectin RECIPE HERE
Grapefruit and Cranberry Curd
Ingredients
- Zest of 2 grapefruits
- 2 large grapefruits – juiced or ~ 1 and 1/8 cup grapefruit juice
- 1 cup cranberries or 1/4 cup cranberry juice
- 2 tablespoons lemon juice
- 2 cups sugar – if using sweetened juices then reduce to 1 1/2 cups sugar
- 8 egg yolks
- 1/2 cup salted butter – cold cut into chunks
Instructions
- In a medium to large sauce pot, zest grapefruits then squeeze in juice of both grapefruits or add grapefruit juice.
- Add fresh cranberries or cranberry juice.
- Add lemon juice and sugar and stir.
- Bring mixture to a boil and simmer for 3-4 minutes or until cranberries pop open and then boil for another minute after they pop open, if using juice and not fresh cranberries then bring to a boil and cook until sugar dissolves.
- Remove juice mixture from heat and pour through a fine mesh strainer to remove the cranberries and other bits of grapefruit, after straining place mixture back into pot.
- Set aside while you prepare the egg yolks.
- In another bowl, add egg yolks and whisk together.
- Spoon in about 1 tablespoon of the hot mixture and whisk into the egg yolks, followed by another tablespoon and another until you’ve added about 1/2 cup into the eggs.
- This is called tempering our eggs and helps not get chunky fruit curd.
- Once all the hot mixture is mixed into the eggs, add egg and juice mixture into the rest of the juice mixture and turn heat on medium high, whisk continuously while you cook the mixture for 7-8 minutes.
- You do not want the sauce to scorch on the bottom of the pan so you need to be attentive to both heat and whisking to avoid this.
- Once mixture thickens and can coat the back of a spoon with a semi-thickened consistency then it is good and can be removed from heat.
- Take cold butter and add in chunks to mixture while whisking and stir until butter dissolves.
- Allow curd to cool completely for thickness of curd to fully develop.
- This will store in the refrigerator for about 1 week.