That’s better! I reverted to the double boiler and it’s much thicker, holding its shape and my, oh my, intensely packed with blackberries. Even better, because we picked the blackberries from the park, free! Well I say ‘free’ – that would be apart from the eggs, sugar and butter. If picking wild fruit doesn’t give you that Hedgewitch glow then nothing will.

I’m loving these curds because the flavour is just so intense, but the butter and sugar temper the intensity. All of the flavour without having to grip the side of your chair.
Versatile too – I think of lemon curd as being something to fill a cake with or smear over fresh bread, but these berry curds are so very good on ice cream – a kind of fruit sauce but better.
Fantastic on crunchy toast and warm croissants, traditional on scones, they are a marvellous thing to have in the fridge. One of our friends ate it by the teaspoonful by the fridge door. That’s about as complimentary as it gets.

As with the blackcurrant curd, make a puree first by putting 450g blackberries in a saucepan with a splash of water, bringing to the boil, then reducing to a simmer for 10-15 mins.

Pass through a nylon sieve – draining initially, then forcing the fruit pulp through until it’s dry and exhausted. Put the puree (I got 350ml) in the top of a double boiler, or in a pyrex bowl over a saucepan of simmering water if that’s what you have.

Add 275g caster sugar, stirring to melt and slowly whisk in 3 beaten eggs

then add 70g unsalted butter and stir whilst that melts too

Then the cooking begins. It takes a long time to thicken this way, but you eliminate the chance of undercooking it because of your fear that it will scorch.

See? It has started to thicken and in fact, fulfils the requirement that a spoon is ‘coated’, but the line is not clean – the right side is drooping, so keep stirring…

Nearly there – the line I made when I drew my finger across is more stable and it’s beginning to leave a trail on the surface of the curd in the bowl, but I feel it could be a little thicker yet.

And we’re there. Not dribbling from the spatula but hanging a bit

and leaving a more purposeful trail on the surface. Excellent. Now you can decant it into two jars and once cool, keep in the fridge.

I had poached some peaches and had some vanilla ice cream. It needed a little something and blackberry curd was the something. Seriously, can’t recommend it highly enough.

Blackberry Curd

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450g blackberries
3-4 tblsp water
275g caster sugar
3 eggs, beaten
70g unsalted butter

Make a puree first by putting the blackberries in a saucepan with the water, bringing to the boil, then reducing to a simmer for 10-15 mins.

Pass through a nylon sieve – draining initially, then forcing the fruit pulp through until it’s dry and exhausted. Discard the pulp and put the puree (I got 350ml) in the top of a double boiler, or in a pyrex bowl over a saucepan of simmering water if that’s what you have.

Add the caster sugar, stirring to melt and slowly whisk in the beaten eggs.
Add the unsalted butter and stir whilst that melts too.

Keep the curd on the heat whilst you continue to stir. Eventually it will thicken, although this may take upwards of 25 minutes.
Once it drops, as opposed to dribbles, from the stirring implement and the curd leaves a trail on its surface, it is there.
Decant into two jam jars, cool and then store in the fridge for up to 3 weeks.