Last week, I saw this stunning Orange Cardamom Curd that Marisa posted over at Simple Bites and I realized I hadn’t taken proper advantage of citrus yet this winter. In the Northeast, eating in season has such urgency in the summer that in the winter it’s easy to forget that there are things that are at their best when we’re the coldest, even if they’re not right in our backyards.
I paired a pink grapefruit with hibiscus to help retain the pretty color in my final product. My egg yolks were super orange and I still ended up with a rosy curd: success! Hibiscus is known by many names and has cultural and medicinal uses all over the world. Here it provides color and little extra sour kick. In addition to being a lovely hue,  I was happy that the curd retained a very slight bit of the grapefruit’s bitterness.
I followed David Lebovitz’s method for lemon curd exactly, just made adjustments to the ingredients. I love this recipe because it’s no-fuss and I’ve had great success with using it for lemon curd in the past. I know I can’t improve on his description of the process, so I’m going to give you my slight adjustments to the ingredients and send you over to him for the rest of the instructions.
PS: Be sure to save your grapefruit peels with the pith on. I’ve got a little grapefruit juniper bitters experiment going and I’ll share the results with you in about a week.
Grapefruit Hibiscus Curd
Ingredients
- 1/2 cup (plus a bit more) freshly squeezed pink grapefruit juice (about 1 grapefruit)
- 1 T dried, chopped hibiscus flowers
- 1/3 cup sugar
- 2 egg yolks
- 2 eggs
- pinch salt
- 6 T butter, cut into about 1 T pieces
Cooking Directions
- Squeeze 1/2 cup of grapefruit juice and reserve any extra. I had an average size grapefruit and it gave me just enough juice for the recipe.
- Pour the 1/2 cup of grapefruit juice into a small saucepan. Add the hibiscus flowers and heat over low until it's just warm to the touch (just a couple minutes).
- Remove from heat and allow to steep for 5 minutes.
- Strain through a fine mesh sieve, pressing the hibiscus flowers to extract as much liquid as possible.
- Measure the resulting liquid and add additional grapefruit juice if necessary to make 1/2 cup.
- Follow steps 1-5 in David Lebovitz's Lemon Curd Recipe replacing lemon juice with the infused grapefruit juice.
About autumn
Autumn Giles is the creator of Autumn Makes & Does and the co-host of the Alphabet Soup Podcast.
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this looks beautiful! do you freeze your curd? or just make a small batch usually? i love the color!
Thanks, Tigress. I typically just make small, easily consumed batches. Have you tried freezing it?
I freeze my lemon curd all the time, and it works great. I can barely taste the difference between the fresh stuff and the curd that’s been frozen. Plus, a still-slightly-frozen spoonful of lemon curd is one of my favorite treats. It’s like super-rich ice cream!
Chris, that sounds phenomenal. Thanks for sharing the info!
Wow – this looks lovely. I just blogged on pink grapefruit. The added hibiscus is a fabulous idea. If it’s in sterilised jars, it should last in the fridge for 3 months.
http://segur-le-chateau.blogspot.com/2012/01/tangy-pink-grapefruit-curd.html
Wow Autumn, this looks absolutely amazing! I’ve gotta give this a try.
Thanks Melanie and AJ!
Just gorgeous. I can’t wait to make some!
Thank you, Sarah!
I cannot find hibiscus flowers anywhere around here. But I did find hibiscus tea. Do you think I could use that? I love me some curd.
I can’t say for sure, but I’d bet it’s worth a try. Especially if your hibiscus tea isn’t much more than dried hibiscus.
Hi! I come from Hungary. I have question: “T” what means in recipe? And the curd is beautiful!
Tablespoon! Thanks, Eszter.
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