A Tale of Two Curds

I learned this curd recipe from a cooking class and since I love this bakery’s lemon curd I decided to give it a shot at home. Now let me tell you it was not easy for the first curd attempt, I now think curd is something that you need to practice in order to get the feel for how firm the curd should be when you pull it off the heat. So my first curd the tangerine one came out a little thicker more like a butter. As you can see in the picture. But the lime one came out perfectly with that nice creamy mouth feel. Now curds to most people are probably some fancy item that they never have had or maybe even heard of. But to me they remind me of my childhood and little ladies lunches with my mother. We would have finger sandwiches and it was mother daughter time that I cherished (even when my sister would come). There was always some kind of curd that was served with crackers or bread. Now I can’t lie to you I wasn’t too crazy about it at first but eventually it was one of my favorite parts. As a few of the finger sandwiches were not of my liking so I would trade with my mom. I’m sure she loved trading as she didn’t receive the whole experience of every sandwich offering but as all mothers do she happily let me eat her sandwiches. So here’s to you mom.

Tangerine and Lime Curds

105g of Juice ( I used lime for one curd and tangerine for the other)
1 tablespoon of zest from the citrus (unless you are making lemon curd then you don’t need the zest)
72g of sugar
164g of eggs
72g of sugar
206g of butter, cold unsalted, cubed

In a medium saucepan, combine juice with zest and the first amount of sugar. Bring to a simmer. Combine eggs with the second amount of sugar. Temper the eggs with about half of the hot juice mixture and then return the mixture to the pan and continue to cook on a low heat until 165 degrees or until it start to get firm but not when its actually firm. Remove it from the heat and pour into a mixing bowl. Add butter when the mixture has cooled slightly and once most of the butter has been incorporated blend with an immersion blender until smooth but make sure you keep the blender submerged so that you don’t aerate the mixture. Then place in a plastic storage container with plastic wrap pressed against the top of the curd so it does not form a skin.

These biscuits are quick and easy and I needed something to serve with the curd that I made. I can’t just send curd to P’s work. So I made these. Most people probably already have a go to biscuit recipe but if you don’t these are perfect. I learned these in a cooking class but they had orange zest and hazelnuts in them. So feel free to flavor these as you wish. I also learned that you should not twist the biscuit cutter when cutting them. It seals the edges so then the flaky layers can’t steam themselves open. So keep that in mind. But they come out perfectly light and flaky and really highlight the curd.

Biscuits
2 ½ cups of flour
4 teaspoons of baking powder
2 tablespoons of sugar
½ teaspoon of salt
2/3 cup of cold unsalted butter cubed
1 ¼ cups of heavy cream

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. In a mixing bowl combine flour, baking powder, sugar, and salt. Cut butter into the mixture until the mixture resembles coarse crumbs. Add cream until just combined. Dough can be dropped on to a parchment lined baking sheet or patted out and cut into biscuits. Bake 12-15 minutes or until golden brown. I sprinkled the top of these with a little sugar so that they would be a little sweeter to serve with the curd.