Easy homemade passionfruit curd recipe

When Belle was a toddler I used to walk her down to Taunton farmers’ market every Thursday in the pushchair. She would get an oat and raisin cookie from the bakery that only used spelt flour and I would always stop at the stall that sold lemon curd. The lemon curd maker – preservatier? curdmonger? – would give me little bits of lemon curd to taste on the end of a thin, wooden stick and honestly, it was a delight.

(I don’t know if you’ve ever been on extended maternity leave with a child who dislikes being more than zero cm away from you? You learn to enjoy the simple pleasures.)

It was because of that little window of happiness every Thursday that I added ‘make my own lemon curd’ to my list of 40 things to do before 40. The taste of it had been so magical all of those years ago that I think I imagined the process to be something complex and mysterious, only to be undertaken after years of curdmongery training. Turns out it’s not though, and homemade lemon curd is actually very quick and easy and barely magical at all, other than the results of course.

Homemade passion fruit curd then? Just as easy. The only thing with passionfruit curd rather than lemon curd is you do have to buy quite a few passionfruit and so it’s not necessarily cheap, but then that’s hardly the point is it? If someone asks what you did with your day, which would you rather say – ‘Oh I made my own passionfruit curd’ or ‘I bought a cheap jar of passionfruit curd.’

Exactly.

I decided on passionfruit curd after something Bee said a few months ago. ‘Have you ever had passionfruit curd?’ she said. ‘It feels like something I would like.’

It did feel like something she would like, so I decided to make her some for her birthday in July, and it went down very well, so here we are, in this blog post.

This recipe makes approximately two jars of passionfruit curd. I used some empty Bonne Maman jam jars to look fancy. I sterilised my jars and lids in the oven like this.

Homemade passionfruit curd – ingredients

• 75ml of passionfruit juice, made by scooping and straining the passionfruit insides through a sieve. Bash them about a bit to get as much liquid as possible.
• 75ml orange juice (this can be from a carton.)
• 200g caster sugar
• 170g butter, cubed
• 1 tbsp lemon juice
• 3 medium eggs + 2 additional egg yolks

It’s a bit hard to say exactly how many passionfruit you will need to make 75ml of juice.

Some you cut open and they look all juicy and delicious, (like the picture below.) Others are kind of dry and empty and shrivelled, a bit like how, on a bad day, I imagine my reproductive system might look.

Maybe go for about 8-10ish? Better to have too much though, as you can always freeze extra passionfruit pulp in ice cube trays for your next batch. If you’re feeling decadent you could do the whole 150ml as passionfruit juice, but I found going half and half with orange juice still produced a good passionfruit flavour.

I don’t use any of the passionfruit seeds in my passionfruit curd recipe as neither of my daughters are fans of bits, but you could add a few spoonfuls back in for extra flavour if you wanted to.

How to make passionfruit curd

To make your passionfruit curd, pop everything bar the eggs and yolks into a saucepan and heat gently until the butter has melted and the sugar had dissolved, giving it all a good stir from time to time. Meanwhile, in a jug, whisk together the eggs and egg yolks.

Once the saucepan mixture is smooth, gradually add the beaten eggs, whisking the whole time and keeping the pan over a gentle heat. Keep whisking for about five minutes or so until the mixture gets thick enough to coat the back of a spoon and then pour it into your sterilised jars. Keep your homemade passionfruit curd in the fridge for a couple of weeks, as if it’s going to last that long.

I recommend serving your passionfruit curd on some hot buttered toast or, if you’re feeling nostalgic, on the end of a small wooden stick.