Passion Fruit Curd (Passion Fruit Butter)

Passion fruit curd (aka passion fruit butter) is bold and brazen in colour and full of tropical fruit flavour. Not only that, it’s easy to make at home and has a multitude of uses.

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Tropical passion fruit curd is fun, fruity and guaranteed to pop a smile on the face of anybody lucky enough to taste it. It’s gorgeously creamy with a vibrant buzz of tangy tropical fruit flavour. Use this fruit curd as a spread or slip some into your baking – it’s a very useful jar to have in the fridge.

This recipe makes precisely one jar (340g) of fantastically yellow passion fruit curd but it can easily be scaled up to make more should you wish to gift a jar to somebody special.

I urge you to read this post in full to get the most out of my recipe for passion fruit butter. There are some key points explained in the text that will help you achieve the best homemade tropical fruit curd you could wish for.

What is passion fruit curd?

Passion fruit curd is a sweet fruity dessert spread or topping made from eggs, sugar, butter and passion fruit. These ingredients are cooked very gently until thickened. As it cools, the curd firms up further, forming a smooth and zesty spread with a bold fruity flavour.

It is sometimes known as passion fruit butter and it’s part of the same family of spreads as lemon curd.

Why this recipe is worth making

• The sweet, tart and tangy taste is a delight.
• And the bold yellow colour is gorgeous.
• It’s a great way to use up leftover passion fruit puree or fresh passion fruit.
• It’s versatile – choose whether to include seeds or not.
• The recipe is small batch so it’s easy to use up before the curd goes past its best.
• But it’s easy to scale up the recipe to make more.
• It’s quick and simple to make, taking around 15-20 minutes to prepare.
• The taste makes a welcome change for lovers of lemon curd (we all need a change once in a while).

If you love passion fruit make sure you take a look at my no-bake passion fruit cheesecake and my passion fruit gin and tonic too.

Ingredients notes

There are only 5 ingredients when making passion fruit curd, so it’s important to understand their purpose in the recipe.

Passion fruit: quite clearly, this fruit is the headline act here. But there are a couple of options to consider when making this recipe:

• Fresh passion fruit: arguably, for the freshest tasting passion fruit butter, surely whole passion fruit is the way to go? Well yes, but this fruit can be expensive and fiddly to use. You’ll need around 4 medium passionfruit for this recipe.
• Store-bought passion fruit puree: this is an alternative option for anybody thinking of making a larger batch of curd or with some puree leftover from another recipe. it’s also a great option for anybody who just cannot abide messing around with the fresh fruit. Store-bought passion fruit puree has, however, usually been sweetened, so the amount of sugar used in the recipe for passion fruit curd will need to be adjusted (don’t worry, I’ve detailed this in the next-but-one section).

If using store-bought puree do check the list of ingredients and avoid any that contain water – this is not quality puree and will not result in a full-flavoured curd. Go for one that contains only passion fruit and sugar (and the less sugar the better).

Sugar: use only white caster sugar here. It’s quicker to dissolve than granulated sugar and has a neutral taste and colour.

Butter: use real butter, not baking margarine. Proper butter has a far superior taste and a fabulous firm texture. Both of these attributes are essential for homemade fruit curds.

Eggs: some curd recipes use just the yolks instead of whole eggs. Yolks add richness to the curd and help it to thicken. In this instance, I wanted the tropical fruit flavour to shine brightly and I didn’t mind my curd being medium thick. For this reason I settled on using 2 whole eggs. For a thicker curd one of those eggs could be replaced with 2 yolks.

I recommend anybody in the UK uses eggs that have the British Lion mark (these are deemed safe to eat raw) and elsewhere in the world select pasteurised eggs. Regardless, the curd is cooked to a temperature of 70C/ 160F which is sufficient to ensure any bacteria in the eggs are destroyed. This means the curd is safe to eat.

Lime juice: this just helps liven up the zingy tropical fruit flavour of this passion fruit curd. A small amount makes a huge difference to the final flavour, so don’t omit it.

Preparing fresh passion fruit

Before the passion fruit butter recipe can be made the fresh fruit must first be prepared. It can be a fiddly process to seperate the seeds and pulp from the passion fruits but here is a great way to approach this task:

1. Cut the fruits in half and scoop out the juicy flesh and seeds. Discard the skins.
2. Put the flesh and seeds into a blender and pulse briefly to loosen the seeds from the flesh (around three 1-second pulses should suffice).
3. Strain the fruit through a sieve to separate the seeds and puree. Stir with a metal spoon – the puree should now easily fall through the sieve leaving the seeds behind.
4. Either discard the seeds or reserve a few to stir through the passion fruit curd once cooked.

Important note: definitely do remove the seeds prior to making the passion fruit curd as the curd does need to be strained through a sieve once cooked. This is harder to do if the seeds have been left in. Aside from this inconvenience, the recipe has been developed on the basis of seedless puree (100ml of seedless puree is not the same as 100ml of seeded puree). Anybody wishing to add a little crunch to their passion fruit butter can always stir a few seeds back in once the curd has been made.

Adjusting the recipe for store-bought passion fruit puree

As mentioned, store-bought passion fruit puree has added sugar that fresh passion fruit does not contain. Anybody using store-bought puree must therefore make a minor adjustment to the quantity of sugar used in this recipe accordingly. Check the carton for details of how much sugar the puree contains.

• If your puree contains 10% sugar then that equates to 10g of sugar per 100ml. Since this recipe requires 100ml of puree, this means we need to reduce the sugar by 10% which is approximately 10g. In other words, use 110g of sugar instead of the 120g listed in the recipe card.
• Similarly, if your puree contains 20% sugar, this means for every 100ml of puree used we should cut out around 20g of sugar from our curd recipe (so use 100g sugar instead of 120g).

These are just 2 possible examples. Use the information on your own pack of puree to guide the adjustment necessary. If you’re unsure, feel free to get in touch and I’ll do my best to help you work it out.

Bought a carton of passion fruit puree and looking for ways to use it up? Try my passion fruit cheesecake or drop some into a cocktail or a tropical gin and tonic.

Step-by-step instructions

There are two ways to cook this passion fruit butter – using either direct heat or indirect heat. Both methods are simple but the direct heat is quicker. There is, however, a higher risk that the eggs will begin to overcook using the direct heat method. For this reason, less experienced cooks might prefer to use the indirect heat method. The details for both techniques are listed below.

Cooking passion fruit curd over direct heat

1. Measure all of the ingredients into a small heavy-based pan.
2. Set the pan on a low heat and stir continuously to melt the butter and dissolve the sugar.
3. Keep on stirring until the temperature reaches 70C/ 160F on a digital food thermometer.
4. Strain the curd through a sieve.
5. Stir a few seeds in (optional).
6. Decant into a jar.

Cooking passion fruit curd over indirect heat

Essentially this method involves using a bain-marie (a double boiler) by placing a heatproof bowl over hot water. Here’s how to do this:

1. Measure all of the ingredients into a heat-proof bowl.
2. Suspend the bowl over a saucepan holding 1-2cm of barely simmering water (ensure the bowl is not touching the water).
3. Let the contents of the bowl slowly melt and dissolve, whisking frequently.
4. Continue to cook, again stirring frequently, until the temperature reaches 70C/ 160F.
5. Strain the curd through a sieve.
6. Stir seeds in (optional).
7. Decant into a jar.

Expert tips

• Whichever method used, never cook the passion fruit butter over a high heat as this increases the risk of the eggs beginning to scramble.
• If the eggs do begin to scramble, don’t panic. Just remove the pan from the heat, plunge the base of the pan into cold water and keep on stirring. This will help the curd to cool a little and halt the cooking. The cooked pieces of egg can be sieved out at the end.
• Don’t stop stirring at all if using the direct heat method.
• Passion fruit butter gets thicker as it cools, so don’t worry if it looks quite thin whilst cooking. By the time the temperature reaches 70C/ 160F it should have the consistency of custard and be able to coat the back of a spoon.
• For a change stir through ½ teaspoon of vanilla bean paste to add soft, creamy and fragrant undertones to the zesty tropical flavour of the passion fruit curd.
• Once strained stir through 1 tablespoon of the reserved passion fruit seeds if desired. This will add a little crunch to the texture of the fruit curd.

Frequently asked questions

Ways to use passion fruit butter

• Spread it on toast or crumpets
• Or drizzle some over pancakes and waffles
• Try it swirled into yoghurt (or go fancy and make a layered parfait)
• Top a cheesecake with some
• Spread on a layer cake (and on top too)
• Swirl it into whipped cream and use to top Pavlova
• Or use it to sandwich cookies or macarons together

Recipes using passion curd

If you’re tempted to make this passion fruit butter then take a look at the following recipe ideas for how to use it in baking and desserts:

• Coconut tarts
• Pavlova
• Passion Fruit Cake
• Tropical pancakes

More preserves and spreads to try