Rhubarb curd is divine. There, I’ve started with the main point of the whole post. It’s really, really good, and I’m mortified that I have no gorgeous photos to show you just how beautiful it was in these dainty little individual tartlets I made – buttery crust, rhubarb curd filling, meringue top. Can you imagine them? I hope so, because as luck would have it, I have no pictures. *sigh* Anyway, you do need rhubarb curd in your fridge, on your toast, in your cookies, and on your pies, so make some!

 

The pale pink colour comes courtesy of food colouring. The organic egg yolks I used were a particularly vibrant orange, and combining them with the pale red rhubarb juice resulted in an orangey yellow curd and not a pink one at all, so I turned to artificial means to get a curd that looks rhubarby. Feel free to skip the colouring – it is the taste that counts, of course! I also used some sugar with pectin to make extra sure the curd would thicken, but plain old granulated white sugar should work just fine: it’s the yolks that do the thickening.

 

Rhubarb Curd (makes about 300 ml)

 

250-300 ml unsweetened rhubarb juice

3 egg yolks

75 ml sugar with pectin + 75 ml granulated sugar OR 150 ml granulated sugar

50 g butter, cubed, at room temperature

red food colouring, optional

 

First, reduce the rhubarb juice to make a more concentrated base. Place rhubarb juice in a saucepan and bring gently to boil. Simmer until the juice has reduced to about 100 ml. Allow to cool.

In a saucepan, whisk together reduced rhubarb juice, egg yolks and sugar(s). Heat the mixture gently over medium heat, whisking, until it comes to boil. Turn the heat down a little, and continue to simmer until the mixture begins to thicken (5-7 minutes).

Pour the mixture into a bowl and place the bowl in a cold water bath. Whisk mixture at low speed until it lightens and becomes a little foam-like. Add butter cubes and whisk until smooth. (Add food colouring if you prefer – I used about ½ teaspoon)

Transfer the cooled curd into a glass jar and refrigerate. Keeps for about two weeks.