Ruby Red Grapefruit Curd Favors + Recipe

Living in Arizona has it's perks.  Although it is well over 110 degrees this month, and we have officially entered monsoon season and the humidity is steadily rising, I have all the grapefruit, lemons and oranges that I could ever use.  Fruit for juice, lemonade, and lots of baking.  My favorite use for the juice of the lemons and grapefruit is curd.

If you've never tasted curd, you may be saying "yuck" right now!  Believe me, curd is far from yuck.
Curd is simply a fantastical emulsion of juice, sugar, zested rind, egg yolks and butter. Cooked slowly until a magical, creamy, slightly tart, deliciously sweet and spoon-able creation forms.  Licking the spoon is optional, but probably necessary as a reward for your patience during the stirring.  You can use any citrus fruit for this recipe.  Lime, lemon, or grapefruit.
Oh, and by the way, my favorite places for curd are: mixed into butter cream, filling for mini tarts with whipped cream topping, dolloped onto vanilla ice cream, spread onto toast, and most definitely tucked into biscuits.

Servings: Makes about 2 cups

Ingredients

• 1/2 cup freshly squeezed grapefruit juice
• 7 large egg yolks
• 1 cup sugar (7 ounces)
• 4 teaspoons freshly grated lemon zest
• 1 stick (1/2 cup, 4 ounces) cold unsalted butter , cut into pieces

Directions

In a heatproof bowl, whisk together the sugar, grapefruit juice, lemon zest, and egg yolks.  Set the bowl over a pot of simmering water to make a bain-marie. Whisking occasionally, cook the mixture until it thickens considerably (to about 172 degrees F). You will know it's done when the creamy mixture coats the back of a spoon.

Remove from heat and strain through a fine mesh sieve into a clean container.  Let the curd cool SLIGHTLY (to about 140 degrees F).  This may take 20 minutes, or it may take less time, depending on the temperature of your kitchen.  

Using a whisk, mix the butter into the curd until it is completely incorporated.  The important thing here is to make sure you don;t just throw the butter into the bowl and let it melt.  Mix it into the curd while it is still cold.  If you have lumps, strain again.  Place plastic wrap directly on top of the mixture to prevent a skin form forming on top and refrigerate until well chilled. Curd will keep for up to 7 days tightly covered in an airtight container in the refrigerator.It also freezes beautifully for up to three months.

For the Favor Jars:

Spoon some of your lovely curd into small canning jars, or any jar that you love.  For these, I wrapped the tops in a burlap, chevron ribbon I found at Hobby Lobby, and cut rounds of decorative scrapbook paper for the tops before I screwed the outer lids on. You can always add a cute thank you tag as well.

 Photography by Diana Elizabeth