Make Your Own Lemon Curd (and welcome to my blog)

Hi, I’m Becky and this is my new blog.  The first recipe I’m going to share with you is for homemade lemon curd.  While you may not think you need to make this unless you’re planning on hosting a high tea, I’m going to try to convince you that you actually need to make it right now.  This stuff is ridiculously delicious, plus easy and fun to make.  I made mine to pipe inside the lemon coconut cupcakes I’m making for Easter dinner, but I’m worried I might have to make a second batch.  I’ve been sneaking spoonfuls at every opportunity, and my boyfriend and I each had a generous dollop on the Dutch babies I made for breakfast this morning (recipe for that is here).  If you love lemon like I do, you have to try this!  It would be fabulous on scones.  I’ve never made scones, but will have to try it if I end up with any lemon curd left at all.

This recipe is adapted from Ina’s, in the Barefoot Contessa cookbook and here.  I reduced the sugar, and think mine has the perfect balance of sweet and tart flavors.  She says you can make this with oranges or limes instead of lemons—let me know if you try it!

Ingredients (makes about two cups):

4 lemons, at room temperature

1 cup sugar

4 extra-large eggs, at room temperature

1/4 pound butter (1 stick) at room temperature

Generous pinch of salt

1.   Zest the lemons, avoiding the white pith underneath the yellow rind (I usually scrape each spot across the grater twice).  Place the zest in a food processor with the sugar, and process thoroughly to break the zest up into tiny pieces.

2.   Juice the lemons (roll them under the palm of your hand first so they’ll release more juice) until you have 1/2 cup of lemon juice.  I had to use all four lemons to get that much juice.

3.   Cream the butter with the lemon sugar (I used my stand mixer with the paddle attachment).  Add the eggs one at a time, and then the lemon juice and salt.  Mix well.

4.   Transfer the mixture to a saucepan.  At this point, it probably looks like a big mess.  Mine looked like curdled milk.  Maybe lemon curd is named after its gruesome looks at this stage in the process? Don’t worry though, your lemon curd will smooth right out as soon as it heats up.

5.   Cook the lemon curd over low heat, stirring constantly, until it thickens (10-15 minutes).  I used a thermometer to keep tabs on things—my lemon curd thickened around 155 degrees, and you don’t want to let yours get much above 175.

That’s it!  You made lemon curd.  Now, try not to just eat all of it with a spoon.  I cooled mine and poured it into jars—it will keep for a couple of weeks in the refrigerator, although I can’t see it ever lasting that long at my apartment.  Tomorrow I’ll be piping mine into some springtime coconut cupcakes—I’ll let you know how it goes and share the recipe soon!