A twist on the classic lemon curd, cherry curd is sweet, tart, and packed full of cherry flavor! It's thick and creamy, and has a silky, luxurious mouthfeel. It's made using tart red Montmorency cherries, which give it a vibrant, tart cherry flavor and bright pink natural color. This cherry curd makes the perfect topping for ice cream, yogurt, spread it on toast and scones, or even as a refreshing tart filling. Or a cake filling!
Use this in place of lemon curd or other fruit curds in your recipes - like my lemon curd thumbprint cookies or even my easy, no bake lemon curd cheesecake.
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🍒 Why you'll LOVE this recipe
- Tart and sweet: Tart red cherries create the perfect mouth puckering sour and sweet curd with loads of intense cherry flavor.
- Bright pink color: Montmorency red cherries give the curd a gorgeous natural bright pink hue.
- Cherry flavor: This cherry curd has so much bright and intense cherry flavor! Think cherry pie filling, but as a tart and creamy curd.
- The perfect topping: Serve it over ice cream, spread on toast or scones, on yogurt... the possibilities are endless!
📝 Key ingredients
Read through for all the tips you will need for success!
Full steps and ingredients in recipe card below.
- Tart Montmorency cherries: Tart, red, Montmorency cherries are packed full of bright, sweet and tart, intense cherry flavor. They make the perfect base for this cherry curd. Frozen pitted Montmorency cherries are available at your local grocery store, health store, or Farmer's market. I don't recommend using sweet cherries for this recipe - only use sour or tart cherries.
- Lemon: A bit of lemon juice helps the tart cherry flavor pop even more.
- Eggs: Three whole eggs thicken the curd without making it appear brown from using too many yolks.
- Butter: A bit of butter mixed in at the end creates a silky and creamy spread and thickens it up even more. If you use salted butter, omit the salt from the recipe.
👩🍳 How to make tart sour cherry curd
Step 1: Combine tart cherries, sugar, and lemon juice in a saucepan. Stir and let it come to a boil on medium-low heat, stirring occasionally.
Let the cherry sauce bubble until reduced by half.
Step 2: While the cherry sauce simmers down, whisk the eggs together in a medium bowl.
Step 3: The cherry sauce should be a deep, thick red. This will take about 15 minutes after it starts bubbling.
Step 4: Gradually add spoonfuls of hot cherry sauce into the whisked eggs, whisking well between each spoonful to prevent the eggs from scrambling.
Once all of the cherry sauce is added, transfer the cherry egg mixture back into the saucepan.
Step 5: Place the saucepan back on low heat. Cook, stirring constantly to ensure even cooking. Once it thickens well and starts to bubble, take it off the heat.
Step 6: Strain the curd through a sieve into a bowl. Use a whisk to help strain it faster.
Step 7: Add butter into the hot curd and stir with a whisk until melted and smooth.
Step 8: Transfer the curd into a jar and refrigerate for one hour or until thick and creamy.
✔️ Expert curd tips
- Use a non-metal coated saucepan to prevent a metallic aftertaste. The acidity of the tart cherries can react with a metal saucepan, giving the curd a slight metallic flavor. You can also prevent this by storing and mixing it in glass or non-metal containers.
- Cook the cherries down: The more you cook them down, the thicker and more flavorful the cherry curd will be. Cooking it down by half, until it's a deep red color, gives the perfect texture.
- Temper the eggs: By gradually adding the hot cherry sauce into eggs and whisking well, you prevent the eggs from cooking too quickly and turning into lumpy scrambled eggs. Don't skip this!
- Stir constantly: Once the eggs are added, it's important to constantly stir the curd so that it cooks evenly and has a silky smooth texture.
- Strain the curd: It's important to strain all of the cherry skins and fibers out of the curd so that it's silky smooth.
🥄 Make ahead and storage
This cherry curd will store well in a jar or airtight container, for up to 5 days in the fridge. To store it for longer, you can freeze curd in an airtight container or bag for up to 2 months.
🍒 Why tart Montmorency cherries?
Tart cherries are amazing for cooking and baking because they have more flavor and a higher acidity than sweet cherries. The vibrant cherry flavor really comes out when you bake or cook the cherries. I find that the tarter the fruit that I use for curd, the better it tastes! Sour cherries were just made to be turned into curd.
Montmorency cherries are the most commonly grown tart cherry variety grown in the United States. Because they're quite delicate and don't store long when they're fresh, it's much easier to find them frozen in the freezer section all year long. I found Montmorency cherries at my local health food store, at larger grocery stores, and baking suppliers because they're most commonly used for pies in the baking community.
📖 Recipe FAQs
No, sweet cherries that are most commonly sold for snacking won't work because they don't have much acidity, aren't as flavorful, and have a very different moisture content.
Yes, the darker European cherry varieties will work. I prefer the flavor and bright red color of the Montmorency cherry, but those will also work since they have a similar acidity and moisture content.
You can always pop the curd into a blender to blend out any lumps. Don't do this instead of straining though or else the texture will be very grainy.
No, once you strain the curd, the cooked cherries will release more juice and it will thin it out some more! That is intentional.
🍋 More curd recipes
I love making fruit curd - here are my other favorite curd recipes:
Did you make this recipe? I would love for you to rate this recipe and hear what you think in the comments below! Share your creation on Instagram and tag @flouringkitchen. Follow me on Pinterest to save and for more recipe ideas.
📖 Recipe
Cherry Curd
Equipment
- saucepan preferably non-metal coated
Ingredients
- 3 cups frozen red tart cherries Montmorency cherries, 430g, 15 oz, 0.95lb
- ½ cup granulated sugar
- 2 tablespoons lemon juice freshly squeezed, about ½ a large lemon)
- 3 large eggs
- ¼ cup unsalted butter
- ⅛ teaspoon sea salt omit salt if using salted butter
Instructions
- Combine cherries, sugar, and lemon juice in a saucepan. Heat on medium-low heat, stirring frequently.3 cups frozen red tart cherries, ½ cup granulated sugar, 2 tablespoons lemon juice
- Once it comes to a boil , stir frequently to prevent burning. Adjust the stove temperature so that the mixture remains at a slow bubbling boil. Boil for about 10- 15 minutes until reduced by half. It's ready when there is a combined total of 1.5 cups of liquids and solids left.
- Whisk the eggs in a separate bowl briefly by hand until smooth.3 large eggs
- Pour a few tablespoons of the hot cherry sauce into the bowl with eggs. Whisk vigorously to prevent the eggs from curdling. Continue adding the rest of the cherry sauce, whisking vigorously.
- Then, pour the mixture back into the saucepan and heat on medium-low heat, stirring constantly to prevent lumps and burning. Once it starts to bubble, remove it from the heat.
- Use a whisk to push the cord through a mesh sieve to strain the cherry skins and fibers out of the curd.
- Add butter and salt to the curd and whisk until smooth.¼ cup unsalted butter, ⅛ teaspoon sea salt
- Transfer the cord into a jar and refrigerate for one hour or until thick and creamy.
Notes
- Use a non-metal coated saucepan to prevent a metallic aftertaste, and store the curd in glass or non-metal containers.
- Cook the cherries down by half, until it's a deep red color, gives the curd the perfect thick texture.
- Temper the eggs by gradually adding the hot cherry sauce into eggs and whisking well to prevent scrambling the eggs
- Constantly stir the curd so that it cooks evenly and has a silky smooth texture.
- Strain all of the cherry skins and fibers out of the curd so that it's silky smooth.
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