Non-Citrus Curds

[gfron1]

Okay, okay...just enjoying my day off climbing in illegal places

When I did it, I upped my yolk and upped my butter to help it set. I use Amernick's lime curd recipe as my base and then modify based on how it feels when I stir it - meaning, does it look like it will ever set thick?. I'd have to look but I may have even placed the recipe on my blog.

[Lisa2k]

AHHH..MY SAVIOR I checked your blog but didn't see the recipe for the pomegranate curd, though the photo of it looked gorgeous. I was toying with one of my lemon curd recipes and scribbling notes. I decided I might use 5 yolks instead of two whole eggs and two yolks, and a whole stick of butter instead of the 6 T called for in the lemon curd recipe, then add the juice of one blood orange or one lime along with the pomegranate juice. However, I'd love to see YOUR recipe before I attempt anything, or at least something!

Tri2 - By the looks of your creations, I don't doubt your suggestion would work out perfectly, although my execution in these cases is what you would call questionable..lol

Regardless, if worse comes to worse, that's the route I'll take.

Edited April 6, 2009 by Lisa2k (log)

[Lisa2k]

It's definitely a fine line and maybe a line not to be crossed for the true purist. I usually use .5% by weight to the combined weight of the juice, sugar and egg. I dissolve the hydrated gelatin in the hot curd then incorporate the butter with a blender. It may still cross the line for what you want, it will hold it's shape on a plate, but it's not jello.

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Tri2, thanks for all of your help I used the small amount of gelatin and it worked out perfectly! I only used the juice of one lemon, so the pomegranate flavor wasn't masked. You can see it here

[Tri2Cook]

Those are some really nice tarts. Glad it worked out the way you wanted. Thanks for the kind words in the post as well but... ummm... uber pastry extraordinaire? Not me, I'm just a hack having fun.

[Darienne]

I am very unfamiliar with the taste of pomegranate and wonder which chocolate it would compliment best.

My next-door-neighbor/landlady/friend loves pomegranates to distraction and I would like to make her something special before we leave...which is very soon. I now have Lisa2K's curd recipe which I think could be part of RLB Fruit Cloud Cream...whipped cream being another passion of said lady...and then?

I see a number of desserts could be made and am almost paralyzed by the choices. Some direction would be nice. Please, nothing incredibly complicated. Remember that this is all new to me as I go along.

Thanks.

[beacheschef]

HELP! I made pomegranate curd this evening using the recipe Lisa posted on her website.

Even cooking the curd to 160 degrees, it's still thin and not set up (even with the 1/2 tsp

of gelatin in it). It's also an "odd" color, more of a drab brown, but I held off on adding

lots of grenadine until I was able to thicken the curd.

I used 2 tbsp. fresh lemon juice as the juice of 1 lemon. Should I have added 3-4 tbsp of lemon

juice - what's the rule of thumb for "Juice of 1 lemon"?

Are there any tips to making the pomegranate curd that I need to know to successfully make this

recipe? I've made lemon, lime and orange curd for years with success - this recipe is really making

me puzzled.

[Wholemeal Crank]

So glad to see this thread pop up today at the top of the list....was given four very large, gorgeous pomegranates as a gift yesterday, now I know what to do with them. And I have pH paper and a lemon tree, I think we can work this out. Heh!

[beacheschef]

Let me know what happens when you make it.

Last night I substituted lime juice for the lemon juice, and I think I like the taste better.

I'll check it later to see if it set.

I'm mixing the curd with white chocolate, piping it into mini tart shells. Because of the white chocolate, I'm not as worried about the curd setting, but I still would like to have a great recipe for pomegranate curd to use in pies and cakes.

[JeanneCake]

I tried making a pomegranate curd earlier this year, using the concentrate from Perfect Puree. Disaster. It wouldn't set up. I got some Pom juice from the supermarket and tried it again; using RLB's passion curd recipe as the base (all yolks, sugar, butter, trace of salt and juice), took it off the heat at 186 and it worked fine.

I have a thinner curd when I use pasteurized yolks; thick enough to stand a spoon in when I use shelled yolks. The juice gave me a better color at the end as well, nice dark red; and it worked great to pour over a vanilla cheesecake and panna cotta and....

[Wholemeal Crank]

Couldn't find the pH paper, so winged it. Because I prefer a less buttery curd, and wanted to be sure it would set, I used a bit of cornstarch (yes, I'm a heretic). It still came out a bit too buttery for my preference, but is delicious.

2/3 cup sugar

2 T cornstarch

1 cup pomegranate juice

1/4 cup lemon juice

5 egg yolks, whisked together

1/3 cup butter, cut into chunks

Stirred the sugar, cornstarch and juices together until there were no lumps, then brought it to about 160 degrees. Gradually added it to the whisked eggs, returned to heat, brought to near boil so the cornstarch thickened, then strained it into a bowl, whisked in the butter, and poured into serving dishes to chill.

It is not very clear, but I don't taste any raw cornstarch flavor, so I'm not sure what that is about. But it is delicious, and I think it will go over well with my target audience tomorrow.

I got nearly a quart of wonderfully sweet juice from these four giant pomegranates--they were about one and half pounds apiece--and am freezing some for another try.

[beacheschef]

I pulled the two versions of my pomegranate curd from the refrigerator to compare the tastes - one was made with lemon juice, the other using lime juice for the acid. Otherwise, the recipe was exactly the same.

The pomegranate curd with lemon wasn't great tasting the night I made it, but its flavor has since mellowed. I really liked its taste this evening - and it was firm enough to pipe into tartlet shells on its own. The curd made with lime juice tasted sweeter, it lost some of that tartness that pomegratnates have. It was a firmer curd, as I made sure to cook it until much thicker - closer to 170 degrees. Compared side by side, the less sweet curd made with lemon juice was a winner.

I then combined white chocolate with the (lemon-based) pom. curd in a 1.5 - 1 ratio of curd to chocolate. It's setting up now, but tastes good. I'll fill some chocolate shells and see how I like them. Additionally, I mixed the curd with equal parts semisweet (56%) chocolate and will see how it tastes as a molded chocolate filling.

Thanks for the help!

[beacheschef]

I got nearly a quart of wonderfully sweet juice from these four giant pomegranates--they were about one and half pounds apiece--and am freezing some for another try.

How do you juice pomegranates?

[beacheschef]

What is the best way to boost the red color of the curd? Right now it's a dreary brownish color.

I added some grenadine to a small sample of curd - the color reddened somewhat but the taste was awful.

I have red liqua-gel coloring - would that work or is there a better way to bring out the red color?

[Wholemeal Crank]

Used my citrus juicer. I have moderately heavy duty version, not quite as solid as this, but a similar design. The poms were so massive I had to cut them down to sixths or smaller to fit the wedges in.

[beacheschef]

I'm loving the taste of pomegranate curd with dark chocolate and want to offer a molded chocolate with a pomegranate center fro the holidays. I can combine my pomegranate curd with semisweet chocolate for a really good tasting piece, but will I have shelf-life issues?

Would it be better for me to reduce pomegranate juice to a syrup, then add it to the cream?

I'm open to suggestions - so bring 'em on!

[OliverB]

I finally found some Quince at the farmers market and decided to make quince paste. Recipe is pretty easy, peel/core/cut quince, add lemon peel and vanilla bean, cover with water, bring to boil and simmer for about 40 min until soft. Drain, discard vanilla bean, puree everything else in food processor. Back in pot, add same amount of sugar, put on low and boil down to thick paste. Put in pyrex baking dish lined with parchment paper greased with butter. Put in very low oven for about an hour to dry/set.

Same recipe I find online.

But after an hour this was still very soft, top was somewhat set, bottom was soft marmalade. Back in the oven for an other couple hours, still soft. I finally ended up dividing it into two baking dishes, reducing height from maybe an inch to half an inch or a bit less. Back in the low oven and after something like 12 hours it's finally something I can actually cut into cubes. That's way longer than the one hour or so the recipe indicates.

Any idea what went wrong? Instructions are a bit nebulous, what do they mean with a "very thick paste" before I put in the baking dish and into the oven? Mine was thick as lava, even on the lowest setting of the stove splattering paste all over form the rising bubbles, if I had gone longer I think it would have just burned.

This is really tasty stuff and I have an other bag of quince to process, but really don't want to run the oven for an other 12+ hours....

Any ideas? I might just make quince jelly or just saute some in water and then add some butter to add it to a nice salad, but I'm baffled by the paste's refusal to dry/set. I've never made marmalade or pastes or anything like this, chance are good I did something wrong, but what? Add more sugar?

[mkayahara]

You know, I've never made quince paste before, but I assume it's the same idea as any pectin-based jelly: pectin, fruit puree, sugar, acid. It's just that the pectin is being provided naturally by the quince. It may be you didn't have enough acid for the pectin to gel: did you add lemon juice, or just zest? You could add more sugar, but it's probably not necessary: 50% sugar is enough for the pectin to gel.

[OliverB]

the recipe I used did not say anything about lemon juice, the one I found online does (and everything else is the same) so maybe that's the reason, thanks! Next batch I'll add some lemon juice, they can use a bit of a sour bite anyways

[Karri]

As fortune would have it we just made about 10L of the stuff the other day for cheese plates. Exact same M.O. except that we boiled it on high for about a good half-hour. It is like a volcano ao be very careful. And it was also a bit liquid to our liking so we just left it in the fridge for a week. And today it was perfect. So I don't know why but the added time set it.

[mkayahara]

the recipe I used did not say anything about lemon juice, the one I found online does (and everything else is the same) so maybe that's the reason, thanks! Next batch I'll add some lemon juice, they can use a bit of a sour bite anyways

Yeah, after I typed that, I checked in Ad Hoc at Home, and he calls for lemon juice there, too. (Two tablespoons for 4 pounds of quinces.) Give it a try; let us know how it goes.

[OliverB]

funny, never would have thought to look in that book! Will do so this week, when I make my second batch.

Since we're on this topic, supposedly it keeps a month or so in the fridge, can you freeze this too, or will that turn into a mess?

[mkayahara]

Truth be told, I didn't think to look there either; I found it through Eat Your Books.

[Mjx]

I think the pectin level in quinces must vary from year to year: My boyfriend's mother makes this every autumn, and most of the time it is a no-brainer, but this year (and it's happened now and then, previously) it just would not set up. Normal procedure is to boil the stuff up, spread it and forget it, but this year she had to air dry it in the oven (very low convection setting).

We tried making one batch by just steaming the quinces, so nothing was poured away, but it didn't make much difference. It did finally set up, though.

On a side note, I don't get the use of vanilla, which seems standard: I think it muddies the scent of the quinces.

[cakewalk]

I was looking around for a recipe for orange curd, and I came across this old thread. I'm bumping it up because it is so worth being bumped! 

[jmacnaughtan]

1 hour ago, cakewalk said:

I was looking around for a recipe for orange curd, and I came across this old thread. I'm bumping it up because it is so worth being bumped! 

 

Take your favourite lemon curd recipe, and replace the lemon juice with freshly squeezed orange juice that you've reduced by around 2/3 or 3/4.  Depending on what you want to do with it, adding 1% of the final weight in bloomed gelatin will improve the set, and/or 3% in cocoa butter will improve the texture.

 

I generally use gelatin and cocoa butter together when I want to use less butter.

 

ETA: don't reduce the juice with the rind, or it can become bitter.  Add that to the sugar and egg mix.

Edited June 9, 2016 by jmacnaughtan (log)