Fruit curd is a creamy dessert sauce made with fruit puree, sugar, eggs, and butter. Lemon curd was the most popular in the 1800s, but other fruits can be used. The mixture should not be boiled too long, and can be customized with additional ingredients. It is served chilled and can be used as a frosting, filling, or spread.
A fruit curd is any of several types of dessert sauces or spreads that was first used in the late 1800s. At the time, lemon curd was the most popular, but strawberries, apples, and raspberries were also used. No matter which recipe you use, making a fruit curd also calls for sugar, eggs, and butter. When blended and cooked together, the resulting product is a creamy, full-flavoured dessert custard.
Another common ingredient in a fruit curd is the puree or juice of the base fruit that is used for the spread. The need for juicing or purification depends on the choice of fruit. Butter and well-beaten eggs are added to the dough for extra texture and flavour. For best results, use fresh eggs. The mixture also does not have to be boiled.
If the mixture has been cooked beyond the boiling point, the eggs will curdle and the resulting spread won’t last as long as it should even when stored in the refrigerator. For this reason, you need to keep a close watch on your cooking mix. If this is too tedious a process, fruit curds can be purchased in many supermarkets, although they will most likely contain unhealthy preservatives.
Other ingredients can be added to the mix according to personal taste. Cornstarch or cream can also be added to make the custard creamier. The amount of sugar used can also be reduced or the sugar removed completely to make the dessert safer for diabetics. The process for making a fruit curd will take about 10 minutes to complete in addition to the time it takes to puree the fruit.
Once a fruit curd has been whipped and cooked to perfection, it should be immediately refrigerated and served chilled. In the old days, fruit curds were served as part of lemon dishes at tea time in Britain or when people were entertaining guests with scones and cakes. Nowadays, fruit curds are used as a frosting for cakes, filling for tart shells and spreads for cookies. Fruit curds should not be confused with fruit jams and butters. Fruit-based jams typically contain the same ingredients in a curd with the exception of eggs, and fruit butter does not contain any butter despite its name.
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