Homemade Cranberry Curd
This Cranberry Curd is smooth, creamy, and strikes the perfect balance between sweet and tart.
Why You’ll Love This Recipe This homemade curd has a gorgeous cranberry red color, it’s lovely and thick when it cools. Best of all, it is a *delicious* topping for cheesecakes (and everything else we’ve tried it on).
Curds are super versatile and can be use for desserts, they go great with croissants, and are among my favorite mix in for oats.
We came up with this curd recipe for a fun holiday themed topping that goes great with our Orange Cheesecake. Each is great on its own, but they are truly magical when paired together.
We love using our Instant Pot to make curds and fruit toppings! Up next, try our Raspberry Curd, Blueberry Compote, or our Sous Vide Lemon Curd.
Important Tips for Making Homemade Cranberry Curd
Combining the zest and the sugar and then letting them sit together helps bring out the orange flavor in the finished curd. (The technical term for this is called “macerating.”)
If you’re in a hurry, you can skip this step and just add everything to the pressure cooking pot; however, there will be a difference in the finished flavor. Macerating draws out the citrus oils in the orange zest and makes your curd smell and taste better!
We added part water and part orange juice because we didn’t want to overwhelm the cranberry flavor. If you love cranberry-orange, you can use all orange juice in this recipe.
When we tested this recipe using an immersion blender directly in the pressure cooking pot, even when we blended for 5 minutes, there were still small bits of solid cranberry in the finished curd.
For a completely smooth curd, you’ll need to use a high-powered blender or a food processor. We used our Blendtech and scraped the blender jar a few times, with perfectly smooth results.
Helpful Products for Making Orange Cheesecake in an Instant Pot
For this recipe, we recommend the following products:
Frequently Asked Questions about Making Cranberry Curd
Egg yolks add richness to the finished curd. However, in our testing, two whole eggs was too much volume, made the curd too thick, and didn’t taste quite as good as when we tried it using one yolk and one egg.
You can store homemade cranberry curd in an airtight container in the fridge for 1 to 2 weeks.
It also freezes well and can be kept frozen for 2 to 3 months. I prefer to freeze my curd in individual portion sizes and defrost only what I need. Thaw by placing in a refrigerator overnight
Honestly, we developed this homemade cranberry curd specifically to pair with our Orange Cream Cheesecake. The combination is absolutely to die for.
However, this curd is a favorite around our house as a tasty topping for waffles, pancakes, and oatmeal.
MORE Instant Pot Recipes
Again, this recipe was developed specifically for the Orange Cheesecake. They really are a must-try combination.
However, this cranberry curd can provide a sweet-tart blast of flavor that enhances so many recipes, including:
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Instant Pot Cranberry Curd
Ingredients
- 1 bag (12 oz) fresh cranberries
- 1 1/4 cups sugar
- Pinch of salt
- Zest of 1 orange
- 1/4 cup freshly squeezed orange juice
- 1/4 cup water*
- 1 egg
- 1 egg yolk
- 4 tablespoons unsalted butter room temperature, cut into equal pieces
Instructions
- In a medium bowl, stir together the sugar, salt, and orange zest until well combined. Use the back of a spoon to press the orange zest into the sugar for about 30 seconds, then allow the mixture sit for at least 10 minutes.
- Add the cranberries, orange juice, water, and the sugar mixture to the pressure cooking pot and stir to combine. Lock the lid in place. Select High Pressure and 5 minutes cook time. When the cook time ends, allow the pressure to release naturally for 5 minutes, then finish with a quick pressure release.
- Use a blender, immersion blender, food processor, or food mill to puree the cooked cranberry mixture until it is completely smooth. (Don’t rush this step! I’d recommend tasting a small spoonful. If you can taste skins or grit, continue blending; the texture of the blended cranberries will transfer to the finished curd.)
- In a small bowl, whisk together the egg and egg yolk. Slowly, stirring constantly, add about 1/4 cup of the hot cranberry puree to the beaten eggs and stir until combined. Stirring constantly, slowly add the egg mixture back to the pressure cooking pot.
- Check the temperature with an instant read thermometer; if the mixture is 170ºF or higher, remove from the heat. If lower, select Saute and adjust the heat to medium or medium-low. Cook, whisking slowly but frequently, until the cranberry curd reaches 170ºF, and remove from heat.
- Immediately after removing from heat, whisk in the butter, stirring until the butter is completely melted and the curd is smooth.
- Put plastic wrap directly on the curd to prevent a skin from forming and cool to room temperature. Then, if desired, transfer the curd to a storage container (we used a mason jar) and transfer to the refrigerator. The curd will continue to thicken as it cools.
Notes
Nutrition
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