Saturday, February 28, 2009

Curdalicious -- Orange Curd!

Knock knock!
Who’s there?
Banana.
Banana Who?
Banana.
Banana Who?
Orange!
Orange Who?
Orange you glad I didn’t say banana?

Ahem. I did warn you a few posts ago about my challenges in the joke telling department. On the bright side, literally, today’s recipe for Orange Curd is top notch in the yummy department!

Most folks have heard of that sweet-tart taste bud tantalizer called Lemon Curd, as well as its cousin Lime Curd. Both are so nummilicious, and can be used as a spread, cake filling, tart filling, over ice cream, with cheesecake, or enjoyed right off the spoon. This past summer, I tasted a wonderful orange curd and was immediately hooked on its bright, sunny color and flavor. A couple days ago, as I was enduring my weekly grocery run, the citrusy scent of oranges was wafting throughout the produce section and immediately I started craving orange curd.

Finding orange curd recipes on the internet, however, proved to be more challenging. So, I made up my own, based on a lemon curd recipe from Fine Cooking found at http://www.finecooking.com/recipes/lemon_curd.aspx. This particular recipe for making the lemon variety was so different from anything I’d seen before, and I just had to give it a try. In this recipe, all of the ingredients are mixed together before cooking. You’ll see what I mean in just a minute. I altered it to make orange curd by including orange juice, taking care not to make it too sweet. The results were so amazing, and it was sooooooo simple to do. Let’s transform some OJ into OC. Are you with me? Let’s go. Orange Curd Ingredients:6 tablespoons of softened room temperature unsalted butter
1 scant cup sugar
2 large eggs
2 egg yolks
Five tablespoons of fresh lemon juice plus enough orange juice to equal 1/3 cup (I used Tropicana orange/tangerine juice. Of course you could use fresh squeezed and strained.)
Zest of lemon and orange to equal about ½ - 1 teaspoon

In a large mixing bowl, using a hand mixer, cream the butter and sugar together for about 3 minutes. Slowly add the eggs and yolks one at a time beating with the mixer until blended, another couple of minutes. Add the juice and zest, and, again, using the hand mixer, beat in until blended, just a minute or less.The mixture will look curdled, but don’t worry, it will cook up perfectly translucent.

In a heavy sauce pan, pour in the curdled mixture and heat over med-low heat, stirring constantly until the mixture coats the back of the spoon which takes about 15-20 minutes. Do not let the mixture boil at any time. The mixture will change from curdled, to opaque, to translucent during that time. To be honest, I didn’t stir it constantly until the very end, but I did keep a very close eye on it. When the mixture coats the back of the spoon, remove from heat. Let cool slightly, and pour into a container and refrigerate. Or, do what I did and pour it slightly warm over some darling individual angel food cakes.Oh mama mia, this is sooo good. It’s sweet and tart, and very refreshing. I served ours over little angel food cakes two ways. One with plain whipped cream and blueberries, and the other with whipped cream and chocolate. The fruit version was very light and reminded me of springtime.The chocolate version was equally good with that terrific orange chocolate flavor combo. Definitely curdalicious! Oh, and the orange curd is gluten free, all the way, baby!

So orange you glad you dropped by to hear about orange curd? Orrrange you? Come on over and have a bite!

19 comments:

Jennifer said...

Woman, I love the idea, I love lemon curd so I know this will be a knockout! Good job!

pam said...

That was my very favorite joke when I was little! My favorite joke and a yummy recipe...perfect!

Jersey Girl Cooks said...

I am lovin this!

Jan said...

A mad joke lol!!
Love the orange curd thanks for sharing.

dp said...

That's awesome! I love making stuff like this, especially when it sounds so easy. I'm totally going to give this a try.

Maria Verivaki said...

it's been decades since i enjoyed lemon curd - it was made by friends in new zealand, but it's virutally unknown in greece, where we use lemons as the main dressing ingredient (apart from olive oil) so often, that we never seem to have enough lemons to use to make such things as lemon curd

mind you, as an orange producing province of greece, now that the price of oranges has fallen so low (and it isnt worth the farmer's effort to sell his oranges - we have 500 trees), we could make all the orange curd we want.

Cathy said...

Beautiful dessert, Paula. I know I would love this. Light and full of flavor. My daughter isn't fond of lemon but I know she would gobble this version up. Me too.

Valerie Harrison (bellini) said...

Yes orange curd would be right up there with the others:D

Anonymous said...

Oh that sounds perfect wow! I love the curd and the chocolate with the orange is one of my favorite flavors.

grace said...

new words and corny jokes and a tasty treat. you win, paula. :)

Tatersmama said...

I love love LOVE lemon curd on English muffins, but I love oranges even more... I can literally eat my weight in oranges!!
Three guesses what I'll be making!!

Marjie said...

My husband adores it when I make him lemon curd. He puts it on his English Muffin Bread, then gripes because I'm making him fat (HA!). And I'm as good a jokester as you are. Our families had better watch out if we ever get together, because we will be joining the 9 to 10 year old set in joking!

Marjie said...

Oh, and here's my favorite joke; it's short enough to remember and not elementary school mentality:

Two men walked into a bar. The third man ducked.

Maria said...

I love orange! I have never had orange curd, it looks awesome!

Esi said...

I've been seeing all these gorgeous curd recipes lately, makes me want to try it! I think I am going to be making your flatty patties sometime in the next week or so :)

Paula said...

Hi Everyone!

Cheryl: It's really good! Even just on toast!

Pam: I'm glad you didn't groan at my joke telling ability!

Lisa: I love it, too.

Jan: Your welcome!

Darlene: It was super easy to make, and the results were terrific!

Med Kiwi: I just typed up notes on my prior post, and I'm repeating myself here ... I miss you already! I'm really, really selfish that way! I've checked your blog out of habit a couple times today. I'll try to be a better friend and wish you a great break!

Cathy: This is good. It's a bit sweeter than the lemon version, and the bright orange color looks so great on toast!

Bellini Valli: I love them all!

Noble: My son loves the orange choc flavor combo, too!

Grace: Corny jokes for sure!

Tatersmama: One of the things I enjoyed best about this was the great orange aroma that filled my kitchen when I made this. I wanted to eat every orange in the house!

Marjie: HA! Love the joke! I can't wait to use it! I suspect we would have so much fun together that they'd think were a tad loony anyway! :-)

Maria: It is awesome!

Esi: The curd is great for all the springtime recipes that will be coming up. Hope you like the flatty patties! They are sooo good!

Pam said...

Beautiful Paula - I love curd. I've only had lemon but I imagine orange being delicious.

Katherine Roberts Aucoin said...

You are so creative Paula! You definitely deserve a gold star for creating this! I can't wait to try this!

Jan said...

I've had lemon curd, but orange curd is a new one on me. Sounds delish.