A simple yet truly delicious fresh Mulberry Curd that is fantastic dolloped on scones, tucked into crepes, or swirled through yoghurt. It is also pretty great eaten straight off the spoon.
It started with a doughnut. It was the last one, and it sat there, right next to the till, as I waited to pay for my meal. The doughnut oozed a luscious, purple cream, which upon closer enquiry turned out to be blackberry curd. Not normally prone to sweet impulse purchases, I just had to try it. The curd was delightfully tart, but not too tart, providing a wonderful foil to the sweetness of the doughnut. Mulberries are in season at the moment, and I thought that if blackberry curd could be a thing, why not mulberry curd.
As a child, we would climb the large mulberry tree in the middle of the chicken run, wedge ourselves in a fork of the tree and feast on the many plump, deep purple berries within our reach. We would return home, our clothes covered in pinky-purple blotches that were resistant to most efforts of removal. However, until I had the idea for mulberry curd, the only thing I had have ever actually made with mulberries was mulberries jam.
With abundance comes a lack of appreciation. Now that I actually want mulberries I don’t have ready access to them. We don’t have a mulberry tree of our own (yet … I’m working on Mr Grumpy), so I have been out raiding the neighbourhood for fresh berries. After picking my neighbour’s tree clean of ripe fruit, I ventured further from home hoping to find enough berries to make another batch of curd. I knew of a tree that overhung one of the suburban lane-ways, and thought I had timed my foray well enough so as to limit my chances of discovery, yet still managed to be sprung by someone I knew. Good thing lane-ways are considered public property in Perth, and anything overhanging the fence is fair game.
It turns out that mulberry curd is very, very good. Just as good as lime curd. I’ve been doling jars out to the neighbours, which have received rave reviews. I love it on scones, swirled through yoghurt, stuffed into crepes, or even just spread on toast. And if you have a surplus of mulberries, can I suggest doughnuts.
Ingredient Substitutions
Frozen mulberries are readily substituted for fresh in this recipe. I like to stock the freezer when mulberries are in season, so I can make this curd whenever the mood strikes. If you can locate mulberries, use any other berry instead. You may just need to play around with the sugar levels depending on the sweetness of the berries.
Use standard white castor sugar in place of the golden caster sugar.
Tips for Great Fresh Mulberry Curd
This curd contains a lot less sugar than citrus curds, and will therefore not keep as well. Eat the curd within two to three weeks of making it. If you can’t eat it within that time, share with your neighbours – they will love you.
Many curd recipes advise you to sieve the eggs prior to adding them to the butter and sugar. The reason for this is to avoid little clumps of egg white in your finished product. I find if you whisk the eggs enough before adding them to the butter/sugar you can avoid this problem. If you do end up with wispy bits (and you care), you can sieve the curd prior to putting it in the jars.
Mulberries vary in sweetness, so I have provided a range in the recipe for the amount of sugar required. Start with the lower amount, and taste the curd after about 15 minutes of cooking. You want it to be tart, but not so tart it makes your tongue shrivel. Add more sugar at this point if required.
I prefer to make the mulberry curd in the Thermomix as it is easier, but have a provided the stove-top version below if you don’t have a machine.
Simple & Delicious Fresh Mulberry Curd
Ingredients
- 400 g (3 cups) mulberries
- 2 Tablespoons lemon juice
- 175 g ( 3/4 cup) butter room temperature
- 100 - 150 g (1/2 - 3/4 cup) golden castor sugar
- 4 large eggs approximately 225ml (1 cup)
- You will also need 5-6 125ml glass jars and lids.
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 120C.
- Wash the jars and place them in the oven for 20 minutes. Turn the oven off but do not remove the jars.
- Boil the lids in a saucepan for 5 minutes. Remove from the heat but do not drain the water.
To make the mulberry puree
- Wash the mulberries, then place the wet mulberries in a small saucepan.
- Simmer on a medium heat for 5 - 10 minutes, or until the mulberries have softened and are starting to fall apart.
- Push the mulberry pulp through a fine sieve with a spoon into a bowl. This will separate any seeds and stalks from the puree. Reserve the puree and discard any solids left in the sieve. I typically have about 1 to 2 Tablespoons of pulp left that I discard.
- Allow the puree to cool before proceeding. This is important as the puree will curdle the eggs if it is too hot.
To make mulberry curd in the Thermomix
- Insert the Butterfly into the Thermomix bowl.
- Add all the ingredients to the Thermomix bowl.
- Cook at 80C for 20 minutes on Speed 3.
- The mixture will have thickened, and should coat the back of the spoon. If not, cook in 2 minute increments at 80C until the desired thickness is achieved.
To make the mulberry curd on the Stove Top
- Place the mulberry puree, lemon juice, sugar, and butter in bowl over a saucepan of barely simmering water.
- Stir until the butter is melted and the sugar has dissolved.
- Whisk the eggs until frothy then pour into the mulberry puree. Stir in gently.
- Stir continuously until the mixture has thickened and coats the back of a spoon. Do not allow the mixture to boil or it will curdle.
Bottling Instructions
- Remove the jars from the oven and ladle the curd into the warm jars.
- Wipe the rims of the jars with a clean cloth to remove any spills.
- Remove the lids from the saucepan, shake them to remove excess water and seal the jars.
- Allow to cool then store in the fridge.
Notes
Nutrition
P.S. Looking for other sweet spreads? Try my Lime Curd or Small Batch Low Sugar Strawberry Vanilla Jam.
How exquisite!
Thanks Liz 🙂
Firstly Hello, have followed your Blog since we did a Dim sum class together over a year ago – Love the BLOG !!!
In the recipe above how much lemon juice, like you love mulberries and something new to do with them is always good. Try soaking them in vodka to make a liquer (delicious served like limoncello straight from freezer!!)
Hi Mark. Great to hear from you! I still cook things from that class. It was good wasn’t it. Thank you for your lovely words about the blog. I’m glad you are enjoying it 🙂
Nice catch on the recipe. I have fixed it now, but I used 2 Tablespoons of lemon juice. Just enough to bring out the taste of the berries, but not enough to overwhelm them.
Sounds like I need to raid my neighbours tree again. That liqueur sounds divine!!
I love mulberries! I had them outside my bedroom window growing up…pinning and sharing and I love your photos, by the way, very romantic!
Thanks Sara 🙂 It’s nice to know I am not the only one with fond childhood memories of mulberries.
Such wonderful memories, and a gorgeous recipe. Loved this post xx
Thanks Liz 🙂
I can’t wait to try this… going out to pick some off our tree right now. Side note: did you know that rubbing/squashing green (or even the light red) mulberries gets rid of the staining?
I hope you like it Kit. If you have mulberries to spare try them in ice cream as well. And yes, I learnt the mulberry trick way back when I was a kid and we would sit in the mulberry tree stuffing our faces, then rubbing the colour off our hands with the green berries to hide the evidence 😀
I forage Mulberries while biking our trails. I also love them and have very fond childhood memories. I froze several quarts and pulled them out in February to satisfy my craving for warmer weather. I made this curd and used it as an icing over flourless chocolate cake. It was wonderful. The nice berry flavor followed by the fudgy chocolate was brilliant. Thank you!
There is something very special about mulberries and childhood isn’t there Stephanie 🙂 I love the sound of your chocolate cake with the curd. Thank you for your lovely feedback.
Hi Tania, I made your Mulberry Curd today. It is creamy and lovely but I definitely don’t have a real mulberry flavour, just the colour. My problem was that after pureeing the freshly picked mulberries, I washed them and cooked them as you advised then put them through a sieve and at least half of the pureed berries would not go through. All the seeds and stalks were left in the sieve, which was great, but half the fruit was too. I moved up a sieve size and repeated with no luck. I moved up another but the seeds starting passing through. So I proceeded with the recipe in my Thermomix, with 1 cup berry paste left in my sieve, and although it is a lovely curd, it could be anything at all. Secondly, I have a lot of butter rising to the outside rim of the jars as it cools. Any idea about that?
Hi Lulu. I’m not too sure what to tell you, as I have no problems sieving the mulberries. I usually only end up with a small amount of dry sticks and seeds at the end. Did you try blitzing the cooked mulberries in the Thermomix then sieving before proceeding? This might help you extract more pulp from the cooked fruit. I think the taste was affected as you had so much pulp left in the sieve.
As to the butter, I’m not too sure about this. It sounds like the butter didn’t completely emulsify with the eggs. You do need to have almost a cup of eggs, so if your eggs were on the small side I would probably use 5 instead of 4. You could try adding an extra egg to the curd to fully emulsify the butter, which should stop the separation issue.
I hope that helps but please let me know if you still run into problems.
I appreciate your in-depth reply. Thank you so much Tania. I am wondering whether the mulberries might be much seedier here too? Possibly another reason. Anyway, I will try your suggestions and let’s see how it goes. Many thanks.
I’m not sure if this would help, but I just made this recipe this evening. After I gathered the mulberries and rinsed them, I sat and cleaned them by hand (picking out unripe berries, leaves, and sticks… fortunately two family members helped and we got inspected 2 gallons of berries in under an hour!). I found very little issue with stems, etc because it was just berries going into my food mill.
That is dedication CJ 😀 I don’t think I could convince my family members to help me like that. You are right though, that would make a huge difference.
I had these exact two problems as well. I am in New England in the States and the mulberries were smaller and seedier than the pictures here. My sieve seemed too tight and my food mill the holes were wrong. I tried adding extra mulberries and blasting in blender before sieving but in the end I ended up with a bit seedy puree and the same butter problem. Haven’t tasted yet.
You will need plump English mulberries (the variety that is) to get a good result with this curd. If you only have seedy thin mulberries I would probably use at least one and a half times the amount of mulberries in the recipe.
I have the same type of mulberries. I made this twice – the first time, 400g of mulberries was not enough and I ended up halving the rest of the ingredients. It turned out great!
The second time I used 600g mulberries, blended the cooked berries and left the seeds in. It still tired out delicious!! Didn’t mind the seeds at all.
Is there a way to can this recipe? How long will unopened jars in the fridge last?
Sounds lovely.
Hi Joyce. I’ve never canned any curd recipe so I have no idea. I wouldn’t think so due to the eggs in the recipe. The higher heat required for canning will just cook the eggs further, and you would end up with scrambled eggs. You would be better off freezing a surplus of mulberries and just making it on demand.
As to how long it keeps, I wouldn’t keep it longer than a month (at the extreme outside) in the fridge unopened.
Do you have a measurement for the amount of purée you should have after seiving the berries? Looking forward to trying this recipe with some blackberries I picked this summer!
Thank you!
I’m sorry Wendy, I don’t. I just try to squeeze as much pulp as I can out of the fruit. I think as long as you stick to the same amount of berries, and get as much pulp out as you can, the recipe will work fine. Love the sound of blackberries!! Let me know how it turns out.
This is an excellent idea! Mulberry curd is on my list of things to make when I harvest my mulberry trees. Thank You, this is just what i was looking for!
Pleasure Euan. I hope you enjoy it.
Hi I was wondering if this curd could be used as a pie filling please
I look forward to hearing from you Thanks in Antica
Regards
Rene
Hi Rene, I’m sorry but I have no idea, It is quite thick so it might hold up in a baked pie crust but it is not something I have tried so I can’t be sure. Please let me know if you try it.
I have made lemon curd in the past and absolutely love it. Today I made mulberry curd per this recipe and it was very good. I feel like it needed to be a little more tart. I use the lower amount of sugar. And prepared it exactly per the directions on stove top. This curd ended up being more like a custard . Very good but not Tart enough for me.
It probably depends on how tart your mulberries were to begin with Darlene. You could add a small amount of lemon juice if you wanted to increase the tartness.