(Image Credit: vectorpocket [edited])
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If you ask us, high tea without citrus curd does not deserve to be called high tea at all! But if you are considering getting the store-bought stuff to complete your set🤮, ditch that idea and have a go at our recipe instead. Not only will this yield much better results (we promise😉), it will also save you more than half the usual price! Fellow cheapskates unite!!!
95g unsalted butter (cold)
85g citrus juice
100g fine sugar
100g eggs (2 - small)
Yield: 380g
1) Cut butter into approx. 1cm³ cubes. (no need to stress over getting it perfect!)
2) Heat all ingredients except butter in a bain-marie while stirring constantly until mixture thickens to a viscosity that allows it to coat the back of a spoon. (this should take 4-6min given the size of the recipe; if you want to be pedantic, you could measure the mixture’s temperature and aim for 82°C)
3) Take mixture off the heat (you should have a towel prepared on your work surface for your wet bowl to rest on) and blend in butter until homogenous.
4) Strain mixture, leave to cool at room temperature (or use an ice bath if you are impatient!) and chill for at least 4h.
Recommendations and FAQs
🔪If you want to minimise your dishwashing load:
=> measure the juice, sugar and eggs in the same bowl (you should use the bowl that will form your bain-marie); make sure that you mix them till homogenous immediately after measuring; why, you ask? sugars are hygroscopic (they tend to absorb moisture) and will therefore slowly pull water from the eggs, thus aggregating their proteins and cooking them, while acid will add to the problem by speeding up egg coagulation - if your ingredients are stirred, the mixture would just thicken...but if they aren’t, you would get an unevenly cooked mess🙀!
=> remember to tare/zero your scale before measuring out each new ingredient!
🔪Don’t forget to strain your juice beforehand (unless you are into seeds and pulp, of course👀).
🔪Remember to wear rubber/plastic gloves when dealing with citrus if you have any open wounds on your hand (or if you have dry/scaly skin)!
🔪Why doesn’t this recipe include the zest of the citrus? There’s pretty much no need to add it since you are already getting bold flavours from the juice (no one’s stopping you from using it, nonetheless). If you’d like to use the zest for something else, just remember to zest before juicing the fruit used for this recipe.
🔪Can I replace the citrus juice with a non-citrus option? Yes, there’s no reason why you can’t. In fact, berries can yield great curds too! But, of course, you should reduce the sugar if you are using a juice that isn’t tart (cutting back by 40% or so should do the trick). Also, do add a little (about 1 teaspoon aka 4-5g) apple cider vinegar to the mix if you are using a juice that has pretty much no sourness at all. Introducing some acidity allows you to yield a better brix/acid ratio, which would make the final product taste better overall😋! (It’s something like adding salt to cookies to enhance the flavour.)
🔪What are some flavours/combinations that you would recommend? (1) Passionfruit, (2) Lemon + Calamansi, (3) Grapefruit + Lemon, (4) Meyer Lemon, (5) Mango + Lemon/Calamansi, (6) Cranberry. For the combinations mentioned, experiment with the ratios to your liking - don’t need to be legalistic about the grams!
🔪What on earth is a ‘bain marie’? Click here for a detailed explanation with a visual example. We should mention, however, that there is no real need for your bowl to be Pyrex or heatproof. Professional pastry chefs use metallic mixing bowls for this all the time (you just need to (1) wear a glove if you are going to touch the bowl and (2) stir your mixture constantly - seriously, don’t even think about walking away - since it will cook much quicker in a metal bowl, increasing the risk of getting huge lumps of cooked egg in your mixture😬).
🔪Can I skip the bain-marie and just cook the curd directly in a pot/saucepan like I would a custard cream? We would advise against this, but - of course - no one can stop you from being stubborn🤨. Just be sure to (1) use a heavy-bottom pot so that the heat distribution will be gentler and more even, (2) use a French/thin whisk instead of a balloon whisk so that you can reach the corners of the pot (lest you get burnt bits‼️), (3) stir your mixture constantly (we cannot emphasise this enough‼️), and (4) switch off your heat whenever you do the ‘coat the back of a spoon’ test OR just stick to the bain-marie‼️
🔪What do you mean by ‘coat the back of a spoon’ in step 2? Click here and skip to 0:09 for a demonstration of the ‘coating-the-back-of-a-spoon’ test. As shown, the mixture should cling on to the spoon well enough for you to draw a clear line through it with your finger.
🔪I don’t have a blender. What else can I use for step 3? You can definitely stick to using a good ol’ whisk. A blender, however, would do a better job of emulsifying the butter into the mixture, producing a better mouthfeel.
🔪Must I really strain the final product at step 4? This is an absolute must, especially if you choose to use a whisk instead of a blender. No matter how diligent you are with stirring, you might still end up with really small bits of cooked egg in your final product. Straining helps to get rid of every last one of them👌.
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