Don’t save this Quick & Easy Cranberry Curd just for Christmas! The tart berries make a wonderfully thick and luscious fruit curd that’s as delicious in the summer as the festive season. With frozen cranberries available all year round, and this simple recipe taking barely any time to whip up, there really is no excuse not to try it.
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I often but fresh cranberries when they’re available around Christmas time to make cranberry sauce. And I more than often buy extra and freeze them so I have them all year round. As I’ve been obsessed with various fruit curds for a while now, it only seemed natural to try and make a cranberry curd. I wasn’t sure it would be a success – not every fruit and berry I’ve tried has been, but bingo – this was a winner.
Cranberries are actually quite tart so there is more sugar in this recipe than some of my other berry based curd recipes. Despite this, it is still on the tarter end of the scale so bear this in mind if you are on the fence about trying it.
How to Serve Cranberry Curd
Although this curd needs to be stored in the fridge, it is best served at room temperature. Too cold and the flavours are dulled. Too hot and it will become runny and unwieldy (although this might be welcome if you want to use as something like am ice cream sauce!
There are lots of options for what to serve cranberry curd with. I tried it spread on slices of toasted fruit bread. This was a lovely combination of the warming spiced bread and the tart and fruity curd. For the same reason, toasted teacakes and hot cross buns would also make wonderful vehicles. You can also spread it on pancakes – scotch pancakes are especially perfect for this.
If you don’t want to spread cranberry curd on a bread product, it is also great served swirled into yogurt for breakfast. I also added a scattering of dried cranberries and chopped walnuts for extra texture. You can also use curds as a layer in a trifle or little parfaits. Or spoon over ice cream sundaes.
You can also pile it into small tart cases to make unbaked fruit cake tarts in just the same way as my peach curd tarts. Or spread on a pavlova under the whipped cream and fruit layers.
Hints, Tips & Frequently Asked Questions
For more helpful information including ways to serve curds, how best to store them, if they freeze, more about my quick and easy method curd making method and much more info, head over to my fruit curds FAQs post.
Ingredients for Cranberry Curd
Cranberries
As fresh cranberries do tend to be harder to come by outside of the run up to Christmas (and I assume Thanksgiving in the US), don’t overlook frozen cranberries. They’re perfectly preserved and ideal for making curd.
If you are using frozen, they can go straight into the pan but I would suggest giving them a quite rinse under some running water in a sieve or colander. This will remove any excess ice and give you an opportunity to examine the berries and make sure there are no dodgy ones in there. Any rogue bits of stalk etc can also be removed.
Butter
I use salted butter in all of my recipes. If you insist on using unsalted, be sure to add a little salt to the recipe. Salt is essential in sweet dishes to bring out the flavour of the fruit.
Please do not be tempted to use a margarine in the recipe as the curd will not set properly. If you are feeling a bit extra or have a lot of cream to use up, consider making your own homemade butter.
Sugar
I only use white sugars in my curd recipes. Brown sugars can be too strong and overwhelm the fruit flavour.
It doesn’t matter if you use regular/granulated or caster/superfine sugar. Icing/powdered sugar should be avoided as the measurements will be off due to the weight difference.
Eggs
This recipe uses whole eggs so there is no waste. It is best to use UK large eggs to get the best set and texture on the curd. You can use medium if you need but the curd might be slightly looser. I would not use XL eggs as I think being more set would be quite unpleasant.
Make it Allergy Friendly
This recipe is free from gluten and nuts.
Dairy Free Cranberry Curd: To make a dairy-free version, you will need to switch the butter for a dairy free butter alternative. You must make sure it is the hard block type and not a softer margarine.
Egg Free Cranberry Curd: Unfortunately eggs are an essential part of making this curd and there is no easy substitute. I would recommend searching for a dedicated egg-free or vegan recipe if needed.
Please note that this recipe may contain other allergens not referred to above and any variations suggested have not been tested unless otherwise stated. For more information regarding any dietary information provided on this website, please refer to my Nutritional Disclaimer.
More Cranberry Recipes
Don’t forget to let me know in the comments if you try making this recipe – I want to know what you think and if you made any substitutions, how did it turn out?
Still Have Questions?
Simple! Just contact me and I will do my best to help as quickly as I am able. Head over to my Contact Me page, any of my social media channels or post a comment at the bottom of this page and I’ll see what I can do.
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The Recipe
Quick & Easy Cranberry Curd Recipe
Equipment
Ingredients
- 300 g Cranberries - Fresh or Frozen
- 6 tbsp Water
- 80 g Salted Butter
- 200 g Sugar
- 2 Eggs - large
Instructions
- Check the cranberries over and remove any bad ones or bit of stalk. Add to a medium saucepan along with 6 tbsp Water.
- Cook the cranberries over a medium heat until the berries burst and they're soft enough to easily squash with a spatula – around 5 minutes.
- Add 80g Salted Butter and 200g Sugar to the cranberries.
- Continue to stir over the heat until the sugar and butter have melted – around 1 to 2 minutes.
- Pour the mixture into a large jug or blender jug ready to puree. Use a stick blender or regular blender to puree the cranberry mixture until it is as smooth as possible.
- Add 2 Eggs and blend again until everything is incorporated.
- Strain the mixture back into the saucepan. This will remove the remaining pieces of cranberry skin or any rogue pieces of egg.
- Stir the mix over the heat until it has thickened. You can raise the heat a little at the beginning to get the heat up. And you can continue to adjust the heat so that the mixture is no hotter than a very light simmer. If you are underconfident, keep the heat low – it will just take longer to thicken. Keep stirring and make sure to keep scraping along the bottom of the pan. Do not walk away or take your eyes of the pan.
- The curd is ready once it coats the back of a spoon or spatula. This should take no more than 5 to 6 minutes. You will know it is ready when it stops getting any thicker.
- Take the curd off the heat and pour into jars or storage containers.
Lesley says
I had some frozen berries to use so thought I’d give it a try. I’m never a fan of overly sweet fruit curd, so this worked a treat for me. It was delicious with some toasted fruit bread.
Janice says
I was really drawn to the amazing colour of the cranberry curd. I had some cranberries in the freezer so was able to make it straight away. What a delicious tart spread and so easy to make.