Blueberry Curd (no lemon)
Smooth, creamy blueberry curd made with fresh blueberries, whole eggs, and without lemon.
Blueberry curd, without the lemon. I’ve been asked to de-lemon a few recipes on my blog, but it came loudest when it was my other fruit curds (especially the berry curds). Sometimes lemon is overpowering, sometimes its a distraction and I think this was the motivation behind the requests. I heard you all loud and clear, and here’s blueberry curd – no lemon!
Recipe Origins
This recipe starts with my older blueberry curd recipe which does have lemon; lemon was there to sharpen the blueberry flavor and because my curd recipe came about as my lemon curd recipe was in development.
Since sharing it though, I’ve had a few people complain that they don’t want the lemon – they just want blueberry. It took some time, and lots of recipe testing – as it turns out lemon contributes to consistency as well. I wanted us to have a thick, smooth curd that really let the blueberry (and yes just the blueberry) flavor shine through.
Recipe Ingredients
Blueberries: fresh blueberries are best here, especially ones that have gone a bit soft.
Sugar: fine granulated sugar. This curd isn’t overly sweet because of the low amount of sugar but if you find you’ll want it sweeter or want to experiment with even less sugar, consider that a change in sugar is a change in the liquid amount and will affect the consistency.
Eggs: whole eggs.
Salt: fine sea salt.
Butter: unsalted or salted is fine.
How to make Blueberry Curd (without lemon)
Cook down the blueberries: set them in a pot over medium low heat. The goal here is to burst the blueberries but also to cook off some of their water and concentrate their natural flavors and sugars.
→In recipe testing I did try making this without the cook down, so straight from a fresh blueberry puree. The puree tasted awful as there was so much more water.
Make the puree: once the blueberries have turned mostly saucy and all have broken down, transfer to a food processor to puree.
Sieve the puree: to remove any blueberry skins.
Beat the eggs: with the salt, to break up the yolks and white bits.
Cook the eggs, sugar and blueberry puree: whisk all well together, then cook until thickened. The temperature should reach 170 F.
Sieve again: this time to remove the egg bits.
Stir in the cold butter: and once it’s melted and incorporated let the curd cool.
Transfer to an airtight container, it will thicken when cold.
The curd keeps in the fridge for about two weeks.
What can I do or make with Blueberry Curd?
Fruit curds are great for serving with pancakes, french toast, any kind of breakfast pastry. They’re also the perfect topping to a pavlova or mini pavlovas.
Some ways I personally love using curd: layering it into a loaf cake for a lovely fruity swirl like in this lemon curd blueberry loaf, stuffing it into sugar cookies like in these lemon curd stuffed cookies, spreading it over the bottom of a fruit galette like in this strawberry galette, baking a thick layer of curd over a shortbread crust like these blueberry curd bars.You can also double the recipe and make a blueberry curd tart or pie like this raspberry tart I have. I’ve also happily found you can bake it directly into a cheesecake batter to flavor the batter (and add another pure layer of curd on top) like I do in this lemon curd cheesecake. I know some people like to stuff curd into cupcakes, I think these double blueberry cupcakes would work great with this blueberry curd. It would also be great to layer it between cake layers in a tall stacked cake, like this blueberry cake.
p.s. I also plan to make you a blueberry curd pie eventually!
Blueberry Curd Recipe (no Lemon)
Blueberry Curd Recipe (Without Lemon)
Ingredients
- 350g fresh blueberries frozen can work but it is less ideal and will make for a runnier curd
- 100g or ½ cup fine granulated sugar
- 3 large eggs
- Pinch fine sea salt
- 57g or ¼ cup butter unsalted
Method
- Set the blueberries in a medium sized pot over medium low heat. Cook as the berries burst and break down, until you have mostly a sauce - this will take about 20 minutes or so. Let cool briefly then transfer to a food processor and puree. Press the puree through a fine mesh sieve back into the (now cool) pot, do your best to squeeze out all the puree and leave only the blueberry skins. Stir in the sugar.
- In a bowl, beat the eggs with the salt best you can (we want to break up the white bits as much as possible). Add the eggs to the pot and whisk the mixture together. Turn the heat onto medium low and cook until the mixture thickens; it will thicken first on the bottom so it needs to be stirred often to cook evenly. Keep a thermometer handy, it’s done when the temperature reaches 170 F.
- Slice the butter and set it in a bowl, then place a fine mesh sieve and pour the cooked curd through it (we are sieving again to remove any egg bits). Once it’s all through, stir in the butter until the butter has melted and incorporated into the curd. Let cool to room temperature then transfer to a container to store in the fridge.
Notes
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