Fuss-Free Lemon Curd
Week 4 of my Saturday Morning Breakfast Bread series found me craving – lemons!
Nothing says summer like the tartness of a lemon. I am really partial to anything lemon. Lemon pie, lemon bars, lemon in drinks. Name it…I love it.
This week I attempted and succesfully completed making something I’ve always wanted to.
Lemon curd.
I love this stuff. You can spread it on muffins, scones or toast. You can fill German pancakes or crepes it with and sprinkle on some raspberries or blueberries. I’ve never understood the word “curd” though. It makes me think of chunky things like cottage cheese and this is smooth and creamy, and to die for!
However, I’m always intimidated by the whole – cooking eggs in a sauce thing. They almost always seem to curdle when you add the eggs to the hot part of the sauce..you have to temper them and all that other fussiness.
This way does it fuss-free. Keeping the egg whites in the lemon curd gives it a light, creamy texture and best of all – no curdling and having to strain.
I’ll show you how I did it. This makes four cups. If you want less, you can halve it. ( I actually doubled the recipe because I was canning it.)
Start by juicing and zesting 4 lemons. You’re looking for 2/3 cup of lemon juice and about 2 tablespoons of zest. Four was almost perfect.
Take 6 tablespoons of butter and 2 cups of sugar.
Beat it up for a couple of minutes.
Add 4 large eggs, one at a time, including the egg whites and yolks.
Beat until mixed well for about one minute. With mixer on, slowly drizzle in the lemon juice and the lemon zest.
Don’t be alarmed at this point if it looks like it’s curdling. It’s just that your butter hasn’t melted and it’s separating from the juice.
We’re going to fix that in a minute.
Congratulations! You just made curdled lemon curd.
Just teasing.
But seriously, that’s ALL the ingredients. Wasn’t that easy?
Now, pour your mixture into a saucepan over medium-;low heat.
Using a whisk, begin to stir your liquid. Once it begins to warm up, the curdled look will begin to start smoothing out.
That’s because your butter is melting causing the chunks to go away.
Keep stirring this until it begins to look like thin pudding.
It will change from a creamy look to a darker yellow glossy look and coat the back of a spoon. This should take about 10 minutes. Pour it into a bowl.
Mmmm…you can see the creamy custard with little flecks of the zest. the zest is where the flavor is baby.
Now you’ll need to cool this. And once it cools, it will thicken up considerably more.
To keep a “skin” from forming on top of the curd, press a piece of plastic wrap down right onto the curd.
Cool in your refrigerator for 2 hours. And it can be kept in refrigerator one week.
- 4 lemons zested (about 2 T)
- 4 lemons juiced (about ⅔ c.)
- 6 T. butter
- 2 c. sugar
- 4 large eggs
- Zest and juice the 4 lemons. Beat together butter and sugar with mixer. Add eggs, including whites, one at a time. Leave mixer on and slowly drizzle in lemon juice. Don't be alarmed if it looks like it's curdling. Keep mixing. Pour all into a medium saucepan over medium heat on stove. Whisk until the mixtures gets smooth and creamy. (Will look like thin pudding, about 10 minutes). Pour into glass bowl, Top with plastic wrap lightly pushed onto surface of lemon curd to keep air from forming a crust. Refrigerate for a minimum of 2 hours.
