Wild Apple Curd Recipe

At the age of 7 I learnt to make sweet, buttery lemon curd. Jars of it, ladled from a hot saucepan, with a few dribbles to lick on the way.

On that day, my mum crossed the boundary of home and school and came into our class room to impart her lemon-curd-making knowledge. I still remember the sense of alchemy of creating this rich dish. I was probably proud of my mum too, but it is that tangy taste that remains in my memory.

As a forager, I often like to replace bought ingredients (that sometimes travel from oversees and clock up the carbon footprint) with wild ones. You know, wild, over-looked ingredients that surround us and are discarded as weeds. That is how this recipe for wild apple curd came about.

Wild apples

Wild apples are one of those local ingredients that are often overlooked. Sometimes left to fall and go rotten in preference of large, rosy, often heavily sprayed cultivated apples. These days, there are many wonderful local varieties of apples too. This all helps to broaden our taste buds, nutrition and celebrate the diversity of our plant life.

Wild apples can often be sour.

That is good. Good for this recipe anyway. Sweet, I love sweet, though I can also get sick of it and sour helps to balance my palate. This wild apple curd recipe can be spooned out straight from the jar, onto toast, or used for Apple Curd and Hogweed Seed Meringue Pie. It is filling and rich and a real treat.

It needs using up relatively quickly though, you'll see why from the ingredients list below.

Wild Apple Curd Recipe

Sour apples are perfect for this recipe –wild apples or crab apples if you can forage enough of them. This is a deliciously more-ish curd, use instead of butter for a sweet topping for toast or crumpets. You’ll need about two thirds of this for the meringue pie recipe, and best to use within a few days. Keep in the fridge.

Ingredients

Makes: 2-3 jars apple curd

• 700g wild apples – cored and chopped
• 200ml water
• juice of 1 lemon
• 1 dessertspoon cornflour
• 300g golden granulated sugar
• 2 large eggs, beaten
• 110g butter
• 2cm chunk of fresh ginger (optional)

In a saucepan over a medium heat, combine the chopped apples, water, lemon juice and chopped root ginger and simmer gently for about 30 minutes until the apples are soft. Remove from the heat. Purée the apples and ginger with a hand held liquidiser and then push through a sieve in to a clean saucepan. Mix the lemon juice and cornflour, sieve and add to the saucepan of apple puree. Mix in the sugar, eggs and butter and cook and stir gently over a low heat until the mixture steams and thickens, but do not allow to boil. Transfer to sterile jars and cover immediately, allow to set overnight undisturbed in the fridge or use immediately in Apple curd and Hogweed Seed Meringue Pie.

If you enjoyed this post, you might want to see what I'm foraging, creating and cooking more regularly. You can check out my facebook page or instagram feed where I post regularly or take a look at the foraging courses I offer. I'd love to hear from you if you try this recipe, do remember to tag me or leave a comment below. x

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