Cranberry Curd

Love lemon curd but want a winter take on it? Make cranberry curd!

I came in at the last minute last year with these cranberry pistachio bars so they missed out on too many potential occasions to make them so this year I wanted to give you the straight up curd recipe to do with what you like.

This curd recipe takes inspiration from David Tannis’ cranberry curd tart. Where I depart from his recipe: I use whole eggs (so that there’s no ‘yolk’ taste in my curd and I don’t have leftover egg bits), I cook the sugar with the berries, I have you blend the berries so you get the most cranberry flavor and color, and like all my curds, I stir the butter in after the curd has cooked. This gives you a more smooth texture.

Recipe Ingredients

Cranberries: fresh cranberries sold in the produce section of the grocery store. Sometimes you can find them frozen but this time of year (fall/winter) it’s best to use the fresh ones.

Oranges: you’ll need the zest and the juice from the oranges. If your oranges are small you’ll need 2-3, if they’re really big just one might do.

Eggs: Whole large eggs. This curd recipe is unique in that it does not separate the eggs (and there’s no leftover egg whites or egg yolks!)

Sugar: Fine granulated sugar. If you want an even more tart flavor you can reduce the sugar by a few tablespoons.

Butter: Unsalted butter. Salted is fine here too but if you are the type to add a pinch of salt to things (like I do!) then it’s best to use unsalted.

How to make Cranberry Curd

Start by zesting and juicing the oranges: do this straight into the saucepan you’ll be using to cook. Zest first then juice and measure out how much juice you’ll need.

Cook the cranberries with the orange juice, zest and the sugar: pour all these ingredients into the pan and set it over medium heat. Cook for 15-20 minutes until the berries have mostly burst and all are at least soft.

Puree the berries: if you have an immersion blender, you can blend the berries right in the pan. If not, transfer the mix to a blender or food processor and process until all the berries are broken down.

Sieve the puree: pour the cranberries and strain through a fine mesh sieve into a bowl, pressing the skin and berries to extract as much juice as possible. Discard the solids.

As long as the pot is no longer very hot, you can crack the eggs into the pot and whisk them in there. Temper in the eggs: the cranberry puree is usually still quite hot so we want to be careful not to cook the eggs before they are mixed in. Slowly pour the sieved berry mixture into the eggs, stirring the mixture as you do.

Cook the curd: over medium low heat, stirring often. The curd will thicken on the bottom first, make sure you stir it to get it to cook evenly. Stop once it coats the back of a spoon, or if you have a thermometer, the temperature reaches 165 F.

Sieve the curd over the butter: set the butter in a heatproof bowl and a fine mesh sieve over it. Pour the curd through it and press. Scrape the bottom of the sieve to ensure you’ve captured all of the curd. Doing this helps get rid of any egg white bits.

Stir and chill: stir the curd with the butter until the butter is fully melted. Once the curd is at room temperature you can transfer it to the fridge for longer storage. Make sure to seal it!

FAQ

Can I use dried cranberries or cranberry juice to make the curd? 

Unfortunately no. Dried cranberries have no juice in them. Cranberry juice doesn’t yeild the same bright flavor. IT has to be fresh cranberries for this one.

Can I pour this into a tart shell and bake it for a cranberry curd tart? 

Yes you can and it doesn’t need any additional thickeners. Use a 9 inch tart pan, and bake the curd in a pre-baked crust for 15-20 minutes until it’s set at the edges. More details here.

What can I do with Cranberry Curd?

Spread it over a pavlova.

Make pistachio cranberry curd bars 😉

Spoon it over ice cream or spread it over toast.

Use it between cake layers or over cheesecakes.

You can also serve it with french toast or pancakes.

Storing Cranberry Curd

The cranberry curd can be made ahead of time and stored in the fridge for up to 2 weeks. Keep it in an airtight container. If you want to have it for longer storage, freeze it. It’ll keep frozen for 2 months.

Cranberry Curd

Smooth, silky tart cranberry curd made with whole eggs.

Yields: 2 cups

5 from 6 votes

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Ingredients

• 340 g fresh cranberries one bag - check the weight on the label
• 200 g or 1 cup granulated sugar (reduce by 2 tablespoons to make the curd less sweet)
• Zest from 1-2 large oranges optional, skip if you want less of an orange flavor
• 120 g or ½ cup orange juice from navel, blood or cara cara oranges
• 3 large eggs
• 85 g or 6 tablespoons unsalted butter cold

Method

• Set the cranberries, orange juice, orange zest and sugar in a large pot over medium heat. Cook for about 15-20 minutes, until most of the cranberries have burst and all are soft. Turn off the heat.
• Use an immersion blender (or transfer the mix to a blender or food processor) to blend the cranberries into the juice. Through a fine mesh sieve, pour the puree into a bowl (or back into the pot if you used a blender). Press to squeeze out all the juice from the berries.
• Crack all the eggs into a bowl or into the cooled pot if it's empty, (we don’t want the heat of the pot to start cooking the eggs before they are whisked in).
• Pour the curd back into the pot over the eggs, whisking as you pour and set it over medium low heat. Cook until the curd thickens and covers the back of a spoon. On a thermometer it should reach 165 F. The curd will thicken on the bottom first, be sure to stir it every 30 seconds so it doesn’t burn on the bottom.
• Set the butter in a large bowl and set a fine mesh sieve (you can reuse the one you used earlier, just rinse it well) over the butter. Pour the curd through the sieve, pressing to extract all the juice. This will remove any unwanted cooked egg white bits.
• Stir the butter into the curd until it fully melts. At this point you can transfer to an airtight container and store in the fridge for a few hours or up to a week. You can also freeze the curd for 2 months.

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