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An easy fresh passion fruit curd recipe - perfect for using up passion fruits! This quick small batch recipe creates a gorgeously orange tangy spread. Great for use in all sorts of desserts or as an accompaniment to your next afternoon tea.
Ingredients
To make this quick dairy free curd, you'll only need three ingredients:
- Passion fruits - this recipe uses fresh passion fruits. You can substitute with passion fruit juice. For the small batch curd, you are looking for about ½ cup of fresh passionfruit juice. Do not use juice from concentrate.
- Sugar - granulated sugar or caster sugar work best in this recipe.
- Egg - for this small batch recipe, you'll need one whole egg and one yolk for the perfect thick passion fruit curd.
How to Make Passion Fruit Curd
This recipe follows the same basic process as other curds, with one exception - the need to separate the juice from the passion fruit's prominent seeds.
Ways to Juice Passion Fruit
You can do this in a couple of ways:
1. Juicing Passion Fruit Using Blender
Similar to my pomegranate curd recipe, you can use a blender to effectively 'juice' passion fruits.
Scrape the seeds and pulp of the fruits into a blender and blitz until the seeds are separated from the juices.
This will not puree the seeds into a pulp but will in fact divide the seeds from the juice as the seeds sink.
Then strain through a sieve to separate.
2. Juicing Passion Fruit Using Sieve
If you don't have a blender or don't want to involve it in the process, you can also successfully juice the passion fruits simply using a sieve.
In order to do this, I recommend first scraping the pulp and seeds of the passion fruits into a saucepan and heating for about 5 minutes while stirring occasionally. The heat helps to break the pockets of juice around the seeds down and makes these easier to release.
Then strain this through a sieve, pressing and stirring with a spoon or spatula to force the juice out into a bowl.
Tips for Making this Curd
Once you've juiced the passion fruits, place the juice in a small saucepan with the sugar, egg and yolk. Heat over a medium heat while whisking until the mixture is smooth. Continue to heat, mixing occasionally until thickened.
As with other curd recipes, you are looking for the mixture to coat the back of a spoon like in the image below.
If you've juiced the curd by heating it and using a sieve your juice is already warm when you add the other ingredients. This also means that the curd may thicken more quickly than if the juice is cool.
Once thickened, remove from the heat and decant into a heat proof bowl or jar. For quicker cooling, use a larger heat proof bowl or baking dish with a wider surface area. This will expedite the cooling process.
Ideas for How to Use Passion Fruit Curd
Now you have your luscious curd, you might be wondering what to do with it? If you're looking for ways to use passion fruit curd, here are some quick and easy ideas:
- Yogurt with passion fruit curd - add a but of a tangy twist to your yogurt with a spoonful of curd swirled in.
- Passion fruit curd tart - try substituting this curd for lemon in your tart, tartlets or pie recipes.
- Passion fruit curd filling for cakes or bakes - making a layered cake? Use this curd as a filling between your layers to give the cake a zingy fresh flavour.
- Tangy tropical frosting - try making a passion fruit curd icing by mixing a couple tablespoons into buttercream (measurement dependent on taste and desired consistency of the frosting).
- Simple passion fruit ice cream - jams and curds can be mixed into homemade ice cream (adding to taste preference). Freeze as the recipe suggests and you have an easy passion fruit ice cream.
To create other recipes using passion fruit curd, try using in place of other curds or jams in your desserts!
FAQs
So passion fruit curd is essentially a tangy spreadable preserve made with passion fruit juice. It is very similar to lemon curd - being made with juice, sugar and egg.
Curds are most frequently associated with afternoon teas as an accompaniment to scones, but they are also an easy filling for tarts or other desserts, such as cakes, meringues and pavlovas.
This easy homemade passionfruit curd can last for a couple of weeks in the refrigerator. Unlike store-bought canned curds or preserves, it should not be left at room temperature.
Yes! This passionfruit curd can be frozen easily if you are making in advance.
Once you've made the curd, allow this to cool thoroughly in the refrigerator overnight. This ensures that it is set and thickened. The following day you can move to the freezer (transfer to a freezer safe container if not already in one). This will last in the freezer for about 3 months.
Seeds in this recipe is actually a personal preference.
This is a recipe for passion fruit curd without seeds. If you'd like a bit of crunch added to your preserve, you can add some of the seeds back into the curd as you are cooking.
I would recommend a tablespoon or two of seeds and would not recommend leaving all of the seeds in this fresh passion fruit curd. Passion fruits are very seedy, so leaving them all in may be unpleasant.
Looking for tea time inspiration? Try these other small batch curds and preserves:
Passion Fruit Curd
Equipment
Ingredients
- 12 whole passion fruits see note
- ¼ cup granulated sugar or caster sugar
- 1 whole egg
- 1 egg yolk
Instructions
- Begin by cutting the passion fruits in half and using a spoon to scrape the seeds into a saucepan.
- Heat these over a medium heat for about 5 minutes to help the seeds release their juices. Then remove from the heat and strain through a fine mesh sieve, scraping the seeds against the sieve to press the juices out into a bowl.
- Return the juice to the saucepan and add the sugar, egg and yolk. Whisk together while heating over a medium heat for about 10 minutes until thickened enough to coat the back of a spoon.
- Remove from the heat and decant into a heatproof bowl or jar to cool completely before serving.
Curd enthusiast
Full of useful tips!