Serves: Makes about 550ml
The Seville orange season is coming to a close and as the cupboards are now filled with enough marmalade to last the year I have turned to making orange curd to celebrate the end of these bitter oranges. Use the curd to sandwich Victoria sponges, to fill scones and, for a delicious pudding, have a look at the meringue roulade recipe in the Pudding section which uses the curd to fill a sumptuous, marshmallowy roll. The curd will keep for about 2 weeks in the fridge.
Ingredients
- 200ml Seville orange juice, about 4-5 oranges
- 2 large eggs plus 2 large egg yolks
- 300g golden caster sugar
- 110g unsalted butter, cut into 2-3cm pieces
Method
- Strain the juice through a fine sieve-Seville oranges are very pippy. Find a pudding basin that sits in a saucepan without its bottom touching the base of the pan. Place the eggs, egg yolks and sugar in the pudding basin and whisk until thoroughly combined. Stir in the orange juice and add the butter. Fill the saucepan with 2-3 cm water and sit the basin on top. Place over a moderate to low heat and stir until the butter has melted and the mixture has thickened. You are looking for the consistency of a hollandaise sauce. It will take about 15minutes and if you have a thermometer it should read 81˚-82˚c.
- Take off the heat and immediately stand the pudding basin in a sink that is a quarter full of cold water. This will prevent the curd from cooking any further and quickens the cooling down time. Once the curd is cold, cover and refrigerate for 3-4 hours until it has firmed up.