For me, grapefruit has been an acquired taste. My mom frequently ate half a grapefruit sprinkled with sugar for breakfast. And I frequently scoffed at her “old people food.” Food that she’d probably throw at me if she ever heard me refer to her as old 🙂

Now that I’m… older, I’ve grown to appreciate the fruit in many forms: broiled, margarita form, cookie form, and cake form. But let’s be honest – mostly in margarita form.

An absolutely delicious way to use up half a grapefruit is to make grapefruit curd, a smooth, citrusy, and tart concoction that you can smear over angel food cake, toast, biscuits, or scones. It makes a great cake filling, too.

Grapefruit juice alone isn’t acidic enough to thicken into the creamy deliciousness that you know as a citrus curd so you have to add a little lemon juice. A fact I discovered years ago before finding this recipe, after wasting 8 egg yolks and 2 sticks of butter in a mixture that just wouldn’t thicken.

The color of your curd will depend on the color of your grapefruit. This batch was a very pale, orangey yellow. A previous batch was from a beautiful ruby Texas Rio Star grapefruit and it was a pinkish, salmon color.

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Grapefruit Curd

A smooth, citrusy, and tart concoction that you can smear over angel food cake, toast, or scones.

Ingredients

• 2 eggs
• 1/3 cup sugar
• 1 Tbsp grapefruit zest (about 1/2 a large grapefruit)
• 6 Tbsp grapefruit juice (about 1/2 a large grapefruit)
• 2 Tbsp lemon juice
• Pinch of salt
• 1 stick of butter, cut into 4 pieces

Instructions

1. Whisk the zest, juices, sugar, and eggs in a bowl set over a saucepan of simmering water. Add butter and whisk constantly, until thickened and smooth (a thermometer should read 160-170F).
2. Strain curd through a fine sieve set over another bowl. Serve warm or cover surface of curd with wax paper and cool completely.
3. Curd will keep a week in the fridge covered.

Notes

Yields: 1 1/2 cups

Adapted from Meyer Lemon Curd

Estimated time: 20 minutes