Easy Passion Fruit Curd Recipe with Fresh Passion Fruit. Sunshine in a jar.

I love curd and I love making passion fruit curd. When I got the box of passion fruits from Rincon Tropics I knew I wanted to make some curd to go with a few recipes.

I also wanted to make this curd with a slightly different technique than I use when I make lemon curd so I could keep the seeds in. Leaving the passion fruit seeds in is totally optional, I love the way they look so they get to stay.

Silky smooth, sweet, tart and tropical. Passion fruit curd is one of the best recipes ever. I love spooning it over yogurt, filling cakes and cupcakes, mixing into sweetened whipped cream for a cheater's mousse, swirling into ice cream, adding to desserts such as meringues or Pavlova, spreading on toast. It is so versatile. 

How do you make passion fruit curd?

Passion fruit curd is similar to lemon curd in which you will need similar ingredients - juice, sugar, eggs, butter. 

For this passion fruit curd recipe I used all fresh passion fruit. I scooped out all the juice, pulp and seeds to a bowl. You will need over a cup to get a cup total since half will be fully strained.

I want to say I used around 14 passion fruits. It will depend on the size of the fruits you use for the amount of juice you will end up with. You could use frozen puree that has been thawed or bottle juice. Make sure they are 100% passion fruit and not any other additives. The texture and flavor will vary if you don't use fresh passion fruit. 

One difference with this curd recipe over other recipes I have made is that I mix everything together with a stand mixer and cook over the stove using a double boiler.  Most other methods have you heat the juice and sugar, temper the eggs then add in the butter off of the heat. I mix it all together first.

This results in the smoothest, silkiest curd I have ever made. The texture is perfect. 

Almost like the start of baking a cake with creaming the butter and sugar together. I find this results in a much smoother curd and I can make it with out having to strain it so I can leave the seeds in. 

The recipe uses a half a cup of passion fruit juice as well as a half of a cup of the juice with the pulp and seeds.  There is a neat, easy trick for separating the seeds from the pulp and juice. Add to your blender and blend for a few seconds on the lowest setting. This will separate the seeds without breaking them. If some do break up, you can strain it just to make sure you got it all.

I only blend half the amount since half of the passion fruit used in this curd is juice and the other half is juice with the pulp and seeds. You will need more than a half a cup with the pulp and seeds to get the half of cup of juice without seeds.  

A few more tips about this passion fruit curd recipe first:

• Make sure all your ingredients are room temperature first. You will start out creaming together the butter and sugar, like how a cake recipe is started, so you want the butter to be nice and soft. Use unsalted butter.
• Add all your eggs to one bowl and just tip in a little at a time to the butter sugar mixture. Stir in the passion fruit and lemon juice with a spatula. You don't want to risk breaking the passion fruit seeds by using the mixing blade. 
• Cook using a double boiler. If you have a dedicated double boiler pan use that, if not use a bowl large enough to sit over the simmering water in a 3-4 quart sauce pan but not touching the water. Cooking curd with a double boiler ensures that the curd won't overcook and will result in a much smoother, silkier curd. 
• Use a non-reactive bowl such as glass or stainless steel. You don't want to use cast iron or aluminum. They will impart a metallic taste to the curd. 
• If you want to be more precise with your curd to make sure no egg separates and cooks and leaves behind little bits of hard, cooked egg, use a candy thermometer and once the curd reaches 165 Deg F (74 C) it is done. This is the same temperature I use for making Swiss Meringue buttercream so I know the egg is cooked enough.
• Chill the curd fully before using, it will firm up more in the refrigerator. I will chill in a larger bowl that has a lid, place plastic wrap over the top pressing into the surface of the curd so a film doesn't form then chill until fully set.