I have recently started using fruit curds as fillings in my cakes.
I use a master recipe (see below) with different fruit purees.
However, I find that for fruits with a strong color, such as strawberry or raspberry, the color of the curd seems quite washed-out.
It gets tints of grey. I find myself wanting to add food color to it to brighten it up.
Yesterday, I made this using coconut. It came out such a cardboard-shoe-box grey that I wound up dying it red because the grey looked so unappetizing to me.
Is this color issue normal? Should I make changes to my recipe? Thanks in advance!
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Fruit Curd Recipe
3 eggs (200 g)
180 grams caster sugar
Whisk together.
Add in:
140 grams fruit puree
20 grams juice (if needed depending on the fruit)
Whisk together.
Cook on a double boiler for about 10-15 minutes.
Add 5 grams of gelatin.
Stir.
Remove from heat. Wait about 5-10 minutes.
Then add:
300 grams of diced unsalted butter.
Whisk until melted in.
If needed, at the end, use an immersion blender to smooth it out.
Refrigerate.
I am not sure if you ever noticed, but if you don't shake a can of coconut milk very well before opening it, the liquid portion looks a bit gray when poured out... (I just did this yesterday)...
I don't make curds in general... only made lemon curd a few times in the past... but I don't remember adding the white of the eggs in... maybe that is washing out the color... it just seems like you have a lot more of "other things" to drown out the color of the fruit puree itself...
But, again, like I said, I am not that familiar with curds as others...
I was reading somewhere a couple of days ago about making strawberry cake. The author had tried it many different ways. One of the problems she encountered was the fresh strawberries loosing a lot of color and taking on a grayish cast. Probably the same thing with the curds, just the natural process of the fruit chemistry. I always use whole eggs in my lemon curd and it makes for a bit lighter curd, but doesn't wash out the color much at all.
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