Vibrant Blood Orange Curd is a smooth fruit spread used for breakfast, cake fillings, and more. Use it as a substitute for lemon curd.
One of the few good things about winter – the abundance of blood oranges, and the first thing I made was this Blood Orange Curd. Curd is a fancy way of saying fruit spread, much like jam or marmalade. Some are made with eggs, like this one, or some are made without eggs, like strawberry curd or peach curd. You can spread it on toast or scones for breakfast or you can use it to make dessert. Use it as cake filling or top on ice cream. The possibilities are endless.
Blood oranges bring me back to my time in the Bahamas. It was my last semester in college, and the geology department was taking a research trip to San Salvador. I asked the professor if I could go with them, and she said as long as I took her oceanography class, it didn’t matter what major I was. For the price and her guidance, I knew this trip was something I couldn’t pass up.
During this trip, I had my first blood orange, fresh from the tree. We were venturing into the “jungle” for the day and just finished crawling out of a small cave. One of the guys found these oranges growing on the tree and tossed one to each of us. I’m not a fan of oranges, but this was different. It was a little more bitter than a navel orange and reminded me a bit of a grapefruit.
That trip was in March 2009. Fast forward to winter, I found blood oranges at Whole Foods. I’ve never been so excited over produce before. Then they disappeared. After some research, I discovered blood oranges are a winter fruit. Then I started seeing them at other grocery stores, which is a relief because Whole Foods is 3 hours away from me (about 30 minutes from my parents).
Blood oranges are named for the deep red hue you see after cutting (and the “bloody” scene you leave behind when juicing them). However, as you can see by the curd, the color is lost when cooking. I served it with homemade dried cherry and orange scones.
Blood Orange Curd
Yield: 6
Ingredients
- 1/4 cup (1/2 stick) unsalted butter
- 1/4 cup + 2 Tablespoons sugar
- 1/4 cup blood orange juice
- 2 Tablespoons blood orange zest
- Pinch of salt
- 3 egg yolks
Instructions
- In a medium saucepan, melt the butter. Whisk in the sugar, juice, zest, salt, and yolks until everything is smooth. Cook the mixture, whisking constantly, until it starts to boil and thicken. Cook for another minute or two then remove from the heat. Strain then pour into a heatproof container. Let cool to room temperature then refrigerate until ready to serve.
Source: Adapted from Luscious Lemon Desserts by Lori Longbotham (affiliate link)
Sarah Reid, RHNC (@jo_jo_ba) says
Yum! Love some good curd (especially your strawberry one :-)
Jessica | Oh Cake says
This looks sooo good! Carla you should open a bed & breakfast… I’d be your best client! Maybe I’d even swap you some of my blood orange jam for your curd. :) Looks so luscious!
[email protected] says
Carla,
This looks great (I love the canning jar, too). Isn’t it weird how red things lose their color with heat?
I’m on a quest to make a red velvet cookie w/o die, because I did it with pizza dough. Ok, not red velvet, but the beet pizza crust stayed pink after baking.
I didn’t have success with cake. The failures are sweet to eat, though!
Thanks.
Renee says
I recently discovered blood oranges too. I really like the flavor of them over regular oranges. And that wonderful flavor in this curd sounds really great to me.
Stephanie @ Girl Versus Dough says
Oooooh I can see myself spreading this on EVERYTHING. Or just eating it with a spoon. :)
Jenne Kopalek says
I wish I could find blood oranges around here. I would so make this!
Wendy says
I love lemon curd and didn’t even know that I was missing out on a world of other fruit curds! I am excited to try this. Thanks!
Isabelle @ Crumb says
This post makes me wish I had bought that giant bag of blood oranges at the grocery store… and to think I was so proud of myself for resisting at the time, too! :)
I’m always sad at how little of the gorgeous pink colour carries through into blood-orange-flavoured stuff… that gorgeous sunny orange colour is pretty darn spectacular too, though. If I could dive face-first into that scone closeup, I totally would.
Jennie @themessybakerblog says
Blood oranges are a beautiful fruit, and so is this curd. I love these photos!
DeniseinVA says
Hi Carla, I am so glad I came across your blog. There are so many recipes here I want to try, this one included. I am also impressed with your photos. I have put you on my blog roll so that I can remember to visit often. Thanks also for stopping by. I have made the cookie recipe again for friends and made and they couldn’t say enough good things about it. I made sure they knew where I got it from and directed them to your blog.
DeniseinVA says
Sorry, can’t type for toffee tonight :(