experimental orange curd
We went to the farmer’s market today, and it appears to be citrus season. I’ve got navel oranges, blood oranges, grapefruits, and a couple of meyer lemons, all for under $10. I love the farmer’s market.
I wasn’t sure what would be best to make; but I started with an orange curd using a couple of the navel oranges. I started with a yuzu curd recipe that I got from Extraordinary Desserts, and just kind of improvised. It could probably stand some improvement, but as it stands it tastes a bit like an orange julius with more eggs mixed in.
The orange curd is meant to be baked — the recipe I have for the yuzu curd has you bake it in some puff pastry with almonds — but if you use pasteurized eggs, you can use the unbaked curd as a glaze or sauce, too. I’ve now got a whole bowlful, and I’m not sure what to put it on.
Chilled orange curd
Here’s what I did:
- * Juice enough oranges to get about 1/2 cup of juice. For me this was one and a half oranges.
- * Slice off the peel from another orange, then dice up the rest of the orange, and add it all to the same container.
- * Zest a lemon into the same container.
- * Cut a stick of butter (1/2 cup) into cubes and set aside.
- * Add 1 cup of sugar and 4 eggs (preferably pasteurized) to a medium saucepan; mix together, then add in the orange juice/zest/orange mixture.
- * Whisk it around in the saucepan over low heat; the orange chunks will cook down a bit and juice; feel free to smush the orange chunks and juice them a bit more.
- * Keep whisking until the mixture starts to visibly thicken, between 5 and 10 minutes. You really can’t time it, you just have to watch it. Make sure it doesn’t get too hot and curdle.
- * Once the mixture is thick enough, drop in the butter. Continue whisking until the butter is melted.
- * As soon as the butter is all melted, take the mixture off the heat.
- * Strain the mixture through a wire strainer; you’re going to have to help it through with the whisk, moving around and pressing on the orange chunks and pulp to get the curd through.
- * Chill it in the fridge for an hour or two, and you’re done!
The curd can be used as a topping if you used pasteurized eggs, or added to pastries and baked (it comes out with a texture similar to the cheese in a cheese danish).
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I bought those pasteurized eggs. Wow are they fantastic! I can make a whole bunch of recipes now that I wouldn’t have made before.
Comment by Bette — January 21, 2009 @ 9:28 am
Wow! sounds delicious.
Comment by Dawn Smith — June 11, 2009 @ 10:26 am
Now this is something to try over the weekend. This is fantastic Chilled orange curd recipe. Thanks for sharing! If you wont mind I’d love to guide Foodista readers to your post. Just add the foodista widget to the end of this post so it will appear in the Foodista pages and it’s all set, Thanks!
Comment by christine — August 20, 2010 @ 6:57 am