Homemade Passionfruit Curd Recipe
This Homemade Passionfruit Curd is a refreshingly delicious thick fruit spread. Freshly made passionfruit puree is sweetened, then thickened with corn flour and egg yolks. The most common fruit curd is lemon curd, but it works just as well with passionfruit due to their slightly sour flavour. Use this curd to spread on toast, generously spoon over a pavlova or meringue, swirl through ice cream. Use it to fill macarons or sandwich together biscuits, fill doughnuts or just eat it straight from the jar.
So how do I make this Homemade Passionfruit Curd from scratch?
The steps involved in making this passionfruit curd are pretty simple and are not too time consuming.
To begin, we need to make a passionfruit puree. To do this, take your frozen or fresh passionfruit pulp and place them into a bowl. Separate the seeds by briefly blending with a hand blender or blitzing in a small food processor. Press the passionfruit pulp through a sieve, discarding the seeds.
In a saucepan, add the passionfruit puree and sugar. Heat on low/medium heat until the sugar has dissolved. In a small bow, combine the water and corn flour until the corn flour has completely dissolved. Pour the “slurry” or corn flour mix into the passionfruit puree. Whisk together and continue cooking for another 4-5 minutes until thickened significantly. Whisk occasionally to prevent burning.
To test when it has cooked enough, taste a little bit of the mix. If it tastes like cornflour still, continue cooking for another few minutes. Once the corn flour has been cooked off, remove from the heat. Add in the egg yolks and immediately start whisking. Whisk until completely combined. Add in the butter and continue whisking until the butter had completely melted into the curd. Pour into a sterilised jar, twist the lid on tightly and turn the jar upside down and leave to seal.
To sterilise a jar, submerge the jar and lids, separately, in very hot water for 5-10 minutes. Alternatively, you can place them in a hot oven with the lids off for 10-15 minutes.
Help! My Curd didn’t thicken! Why?
This is a common issue bakers face. This is because it can be quite difficult to tell when the curd has completely cooked. Sometimes it seems incredibly thick when in the pot but after jarring it, you notice it’s actually not setting as thick as you would like. Perhaps you’ve opened the jar and are disappointed at the strong corn flour taste when you should be tasting a delicious, creamy fruit spread. Never fear! There is a way you can thicken the curd, even after it has cooled.
To thicken this curd, place it into a heat safe bowl. Place this over a saucepan that is a little smaller and add hot water to about 1/3 of the way full so that it doesn’t directly touch the bowl. This is called a bain marie. Place over a low/medium-low heat. Cook for 5-10 minutes, whisking often until the curd has thickened substantially. If the water in the saucepan starts to boil and bubble over, turn down the heat or take the saucepan off the heat for a minute or two. The curd should become very shiny and should hold shape when mixed. Pour into a clean sterilised jar, tightly close the lid and turn upside down to cool and seal.
Any tips for a smooth curd?
I’m glad you asked! I do have some tips for the best raspberry curd recipe! Although I do claim this recipe to be “no fail”, there are a few issues you may run into and I’d love to guide you through it with a few troubleshooting tips!
Mise En Place
– Make sure all your ingredients are weighed up before you begin. This recipe really only has a couple of steps and for best results, some of them should be done quickly. For example; when you are whisking in the egg yolks, you are relying on the residual heat from the boiled mixture to cook the egg yolks. If you didn’t have your egg yolks ready and allowed the mixture to cool while you had to separate and weigh them, it might not be hot enough to cook the egg yolks to create a thick, rich flavour. The curd may taste a bit eggy as a result.
-Similarly, make sure all your equipment is ready and your jars are sterilised/in the process of sterilisation. This recipe needs very little equipment so it’s important to have everything ready to go.
-Don’t mix the cornflour and water until you are just about to add it. Cornflour tends to sink when combined with water and left to stand. It creates a thick paste at the bottom of the bowl and tends to clump, if you don’t mix it thoroughly and right when you need it, you may end up with lumps of cornflour in the finished curd and nobody wants that.
-Follow the recipe exactly and do not put the saucepan back onto the heat once you have added the egg yolks. Egg yolks cook at 71°c (158°f) and if you follow the recipe, the mixture should be more than hot enough to cook the egg yolks. If this still bothers you, and you’d really like to return the mixture to the heat, make sure it is turned down low and you pass the finished curd through a sieve to catch any curdled egg yolk.
Frequently Asked Questions
This recipe contains passionfruit pulp, sugar, water, corn flour, egg yolks and butter.
If the jars are sealed correctly, they have a shelf life of 1 month unopened. Opened, they have a shelf life of 5 days using this recipe.
You absolutely can! Wait until the curd has completely cooled and then place into an airtight container or ziploc bag and freeze for up to 3 months. Allow to defrost at room temperature for at least 45 minutes before using.
As discussed above, it’s very possible you didn’t cook the curd long enough. This means the corn flour wasn’t cooked enough to thicken sufficiently. In turn, the curd might not have been hot enough to then cook the egg yolks to thicken the curd. To fix this, place the curd on a bain marie (explanation in above post) on low temperature and cook for 5-6 minutes, whisking often until thick.
If the jar has been sealed properly, you can store the jar at room temperature, somewhere dark. If you have opened the jar, it should be stored in the fridge.
You can make fruit curd with a variety of different fruits. I tend to choose sour, strong tasting fruit like Gooseberry, Lemon, Raspberry and Blood Orange. If you are using a sweeter fruit, you may have to reduce the sugar in this recipe.
Interested in Fruit Curds? Check out my Curd Recipes, Here.
Thinking of Cake Recipes to slather this all over? Try having a look at my Cake Category, here.
Passionfruit Curd
Equipment
- 1 medium mixing bowl
- 1 Hand Blender or small food processor
- 1 Sieve
- 1 Small saucepan
- 1 Whisk
- 1 Small Bowl
- 1 small jar
Ingredients
- 240 grams passionfruit pulp around 12 passionfruits
- 50 grams water
- 150 grams caster sugar
- 30 grams cornflour
- 50 grams egg yolks around 3
- 30 grams butter cubed
Instructions
- Begin by sterilising the jar by either placing into the dishwasher for a cycle, into a low set oven (100-120°c) for 15-20 minutes or submerge the jar into boiling hot water for 10-15 minutes.
- In a medium sized mixing bowl, add all the passionfruit pulp. Using a hand blender or small food processor, briskly blend together the pulp for a few seconds at a time to help sperate the seeds.
- Pour through the sieve into another bowl, making sure to squeeze through as much juice as possible.
- Add the juice to a saucepan along with the sugar. Heat on a medium heat until it starts to bubble.
- In a small bowl, add the cornflour and water and mix together to make a "slurry". Add to the saucepan and whisk briskly.
- Cook the curd on a medium heat for 4-5 minutes stirring often until the curd has significantly thickened.
- Remove from the heat and whisk in the egg yolks quickly and thoroughly.
- Add the cubed butter and whisk until the butter has melted and combined into the curd.
- Pour the hot curd into the dried and sterilised jar. Place a small piece of cling film or parchment paper over the surface of the exposed curd to prevent a skin forming.
- Allow to cool before sealing and placing into the fridge for storage.
- Curd may last for up to 5 days in the fridge or 3 months in the freezer.
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