When Making Your Own Fruit Curds, Choose Strong Tart Flavors

Fruit curds are a versatile ingredient that can act as the filling for a stunning dessert or a spread for a delicious snack. With their dazzling bright colors and wide variety of flavors, fruit curds can be fun and rewarding to make at home. If you are new to such a project, you may wonder which flavors will be the most successful right off the bat. For a high success rate when making fruit curd, we recommend choosing tart fruits with high acidity.

There are several reasons why you should select tart fruits when making a curd for any type of baked good. For one, the acidity balances the flavors that are found in the other fruit curd ingredients. Sugar and butter alone can make for a cloyingly sweet and rich combination, so a little bit of tart flavor will cut through the heaviness to create the contrast our palates crave. Additionally, the acidity of tart fruits helps the curd form properly and gives the end result a smooth and silky texture.

When it comes to picking tart fruits for curd, classic options include the citruses lemon and key lime. You can also execute a successful berry curd with the added help of some lemon juice. These aren't the only options, however. Many fruits are high enough in acidity to achieve the desired effect. We recommend experimenting with fruits like kiwi, passion fruit, and grapefruit, or creating a combination of any of the above for a new and unique flavor.

You can also base your selections on how you wish to pair the curd. For example, a berry fruit curd may pair best with a blueberry scone with tea. Meanwhile, a more citrusy curd may fare better stirred into yogurt or tucked into a pie and topped with sweet meringue. Finally, we recommend using a tropical fruit curd as a filling to amp up an exotic cake or a batch of doughnuts.