Orange Curd

Oranges are in season, and Orange Curd is the perfect way to showcase the fresh citrus as a breakfast spread! Fresh orange juice is combined with butter, sugar, egg yolks and orange zest to create a condiment that showcases the natural sweetness of the oranges.

Overhead view of Orange Curd in glass jar

Real talk: This post was supposed to feature an Orange Curd King Cake. As some of you might know, Fat Tuesday is tomorrow, and I desperately wanted to have some Mardi Gras-centric goodness for y’all to appreciate.

Except… I botched my king cake dough. Like, suuuuuuper botched it. The yeast either died in the fridge because it accidentally froze when we turned the temp down on New Year’s Eve for our giant pot ‘o gumbo, or I killed it by dumping it in too-hot water to start my recipe.

Either way, I didn’t realize the dough wasn’t rising until an hour and a half after I set it down for the first rise. And then I didn’t have another day to devote to king cake making… and then my in-laws came in town this past weekend and brought four king cakes (!!!) with them, so I didn’t make one myself.

Orange curd spread on top of sliced muffin

The thing is… I’d made this lovely orange curd the night before my disastrous king cake attempt, and it was just hanging out in the fridge, calling my name.

It’s orange season, and we received a behemoth bag of citrus from our bi-weekly CSA. Instead of squeezing all the oranges to make the largest pitcher of orange juice ever seen, I’ve been trying to use them for different and delicious dishes. Some have been more successful than others, and we’ve still got more oranges to enjoy, so expect more orange goodness sometime in the near future.

One of the winning dishes is this here orange curd.

Glass jar of Orange Curd and spread onto sliced muffin

I’d never made a curd before, and I was unsure how it would go. If you’re anything like me, you fret over making something new, and because you’re fretting, you don’t try the new something for a long time because you’re scared something is going to go horribly wrong.

Something I knew how to make went horribly wrong for me last week. It turned out that the new recipe I made was the non-disaster. So take some cooking risks! You’ll get an occasional flop, but sometimes, you’ll find a hidden gem.

This orange curd is a delight, and now that I’ve conquered my fear of making a curd, I bet this recipe would be delightful when made with any seasonal fruit.

Not surprisingly, I want to eat orange curd on everything. We devoured some of it yesterday morning on the last of our blueberry English muffins, and I have a feeling that I’ll be running out to the store today to get some more because this curd deserves to be enjoyed!

Here’s how I made it:

Orange curd spread on top of sliced muffin
Yield: 1 pint orange curd

Orange Curd

Prep Time: 10 minutes
Cook Time: 15 minutes
Total Time: 25 minutes

Oranges are in season, and Orange Curd is the perfect way to showcase the fresh citrus as a breakfast spread! Fresh orange juice is combined with butter, sugar, egg yolks and orange zest to create a condiment that showcases the natural sweetness of the oranges.

Ingredients

  • 6 tablespoons unsalted butter, softened
  • ½ cup granulated sugar
  • 6 egg yolks
  • 2/3 cup orange juice, freshly-squeezed
  • Zest of one orange

Instructions

  1. Using a hand mixer (or a stand mixer), cream the butter and granulated sugar together in a glass bowl.
  2. Add the egg yolks one by one as the mixer runs. Blend together until all egg yolks are incorporated.
  3. Add in the orange juice, stirring until smooth.
  4. Heat a large saucepan over low heat. Pour in the orange curd mixture, stirring constantly and cooking until thickened. Do not bring to a boil -- you want this to simmer and thicken.
  5. Remove the saucepan from the heat when the mixture has thickened, and stir in the orange zest.
  6. Transfer to a bowl or a mason jar, and store in the refrigerator for up to a week.
  7. Enjoy spread on biscuits, English muffins or muffins for breakfast or brunch.

Nutrition Information:

Yield:

8 servings

Serving Size:

2 tablespoons

Amount Per Serving: Calories: 184Total Fat: 12gSaturated Fat: 7gTrans Fat: 0gUnsaturated Fat: 5gCholesterol: 161mgSodium: 8mgCarbohydrates: 17gFiber: 0gSugar: 16gProtein: 2g

Nutrition facts are an estimate and not guaranteed to be accurate.

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Orange curd on top of sliced muffin

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12 Comments

  1. Yum! I love making curds. There so easy and so luscious. I just posted a recipe for an orange curd chocolate mousse tart and I use lemon curd for my lemon bars, but honestly you could just give me the container of curd and a spoon and I’d be perfectly happy.

  2. Ooh I have never made curd but now I feel like I have to! You make it look so easy. I loooove lemon curd but have never thought to try it with other citrus.

  3. I so know what you mean. Yeast can be so finicky! So sorry about the cake. I’ve never made a king cake or the orange curd. It looks so good – I NEED to make it!

  4. Oh, yum! This looks so good. I’ve made lemon curd before, but never orange! Definitely pining for later. Thanks for sharing! 🙂

  5. I love orange curd. What did you display it in on the last photo – a blueberry or cinammon raisin english muffin? yum!

  6. Oh my word I cannot even begin to explain how much I love Lemon Curd! I cannot wait to try this since A) I love Orange & B) I love curd. So it should be a perfect marriage right? 🙂

  7. Honestly, I had never heard of orange curd–only lemon curd. This really does sound perfect for breakfast!

  8. Yum- this recipe looks fantastic! It feels odd because I haven’t seen very much citrus in the stores yet, but I’m definitely thinking I need to hunt down some good stuff soon because I absolutely love a little bit of tang!

    I’m thinking if I made some sort of simple bundt cake that this might work nicely with it…

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