Grapefruit Hibiscus Curd

by autumn on January 9, 2012

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

  1. 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.
  2. 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).
  3. Remove from heat and allow to steep for 5 minutes.
  4. Strain through a fine mesh sieve, pressing the hibiscus flowers to extract as much liquid as possible.
  5. Measure the resulting liquid and add additional grapefruit juice if necessary to make 1/2 cup.
  6. Follow steps 1-5 in David Lebovitz's Lemon Curd Recipe replacing lemon juice with the infused grapefruit juice.

About 

Autumn Giles is the creator of Autumn Makes & Does and the co-host of the Alphabet Soup Podcast.

{ 13 comments… read them below or add one }

1 tigress January 10, 2012 at 2:20 pm

this looks beautiful! do you freeze your curd? or just make a small batch usually? i love the color!

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2 autumn January 11, 2012 at 11:44 am

Thanks, Tigress. I typically just make small, easily consumed batches. Have you tried freezing it?

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3 Chris C. January 13, 2012 at 11:52 pm

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!

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4 autumn January 13, 2012 at 11:58 pm

Chris, that sounds phenomenal. Thanks for sharing the info!

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5 Melanie Ashton January 11, 2012 at 7:50 pm

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

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6 AJ January 12, 2012 at 2:56 am

Wow Autumn, this looks absolutely amazing! I’ve gotta give this a try.

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7 autumn January 12, 2012 at 10:55 am

Thanks Melanie and AJ!

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8 Sarah January 13, 2012 at 11:37 pm

Just gorgeous. I can’t wait to make some!

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9 autumn January 13, 2012 at 11:58 pm

Thank you, Sarah!

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10 Miss Cherry Jones January 16, 2012 at 3:46 pm

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.

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11 autumn January 17, 2012 at 1:35 am

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.

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12 Eszter January 29, 2014 at 8:50 pm

Hi! I come from Hungary. I have question: “T” what means in recipe? And the curd is beautiful!

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13 autumn February 2, 2014 at 11:45 am

Tablespoon! Thanks, Eszter.

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