blood orange Archives - A Calculated Whisk

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This dairy free blood orange curd is sweetened with honey and tastes amazing on its own, on ice cream, with chocolate cake, or on top of pancakes.

At the risk of having someone say that there are too many curd recipes on my site, I’m bringing you a dairy-free, honey-sweetened blood orange curd today. The very first recipe I ever posted here on A Calculated Whisk was for a classic lemon curd, and I also have ones for strawberry curd and dairy-free lemon curd. Oh, and there’s a paleo lemon curd in my cookbook, Paleo Planet.

Why more curd? The short answer: because blood oranges (see Exhibit A below–how can anyone resist?). The longer answer is that I wanted to see how simple and wholesome a citrus curd could get by using a base of just freshly-squeezed juices, eggs, and honey. There are two more ingredients–a tiny splash of vanilla extract and a pinch of salt–to help the orange flavor pop a little more, but that’s all you need to make this blood orange curd. It’s simple and it’s real food, but it tastes like the melted creamsicle sauce of your dreams.

If you can’t find blood oranges, you can use regular ones. The color will of course be different, but the curd will still be scrumptious. If you find Cara Cara oranges, those would be a nice compromise–I recently ate one that was darker in color than some of the blood oranges I used to make this curd.

In case you’re not entirely sure what a citrus curd is, I’ll tell you: it’s like a cross between a jam and a custard but it’s better than both, and it’s traditionally served with scones and clotted cream for high tea in England. Lemon curd is the standard, but curd can be made with any kind of citrus, or with citrus and a variety of other fruits. The basic formula is lemon juice, egg, sugar, and butter, but here I’ve omitted the butter and used raw, local honey instead of sugar without making any sacrifices in flavor or texture. This curd does come out a little thinner than other curds I’ve made because of those changes, but that actually makes it perfect for how I prefer to use it: as a sauce to elevate all manner of grain-free desserts and breakfasts from good to just ridiculous.

Blood Orange Mascarpone Panna Cotta | acalculatedwhisk.com

My winter survival strategy goes a little something like this: hibernate, obsessively check the sunrise and sunset calendar to track the slow lengthening of days, and eat all the blood oranges.

I buy blood oranges every time I see them at the store, but I love snacking on them so much that this is the first time all season that I’ve managed to use them for a blog recipe. I’m so used to having a supply of them around that when I turned to the fruit bowl the other day, ready to make this panna cotta, I was surprised to find there was only one orange left.

Luckily, that single fruit yielded just enough vibrant zest and sweet juice to lend the perfect amount of citrusy brightness to this panna cotta. If you’re not familiar with panna cotta, it’s like an eggless pudding. It couldn’t be easier to make. The name means “cooked cream”, but I’d hardly even call it cooking–the cream is warmed over low heat for less than five minutes, just long enough to dissolve the gelatin. For this recipe, the gelatin and cream are whisked with blood orange juice and mascarpone for an extra creamy, cheesecake-like finish. The panna cotta is sweetened with honey, which adds a floral note that plays nicely off the bright flavors of the orange juice and zest.