Estimated reading time: 3 minutes
You’ll be pleased to hear that it is a very easy and straightforward recipe to make, far from the horror stories of curdled eggs and runny result you may have heard. Standard practice is to place all your ingredients into a saucepan and to slowly cook the mix over a bain-marie (double boiler) or even straight on the hob as I do. And this should get you a pretty good result.
However, I had an epiphany one day while making the filling for Key Lime Pie. As I was adding the lime juice to the milk and egg mixture and the custard started souring, I wondered what would happen if I were to beat, actually beat, the eggs, butter and sugar when next making lemon curd. The result? To my taste, a phenomenally smoother and creamier lemon curd!
How to Make Perfect Lemon Curd
First off, get the best quality lemons you can afford and make sure they’re ripe and juicy. A lovely yellow colour with just a little give if you were to push your thumb into the skin.
Make sure your lemons are unwaxed, and organic, if you are going to add zest to your curd. Many commercially sold lemons are coated with a thin layer of wax to prolong their shelf life and you really don’t want this in your lemon curd.
Make sure your lemons are at room temperature, as you’ll be able to squeeze a lot more juice out of them that way. A trick my dad taught me: roll the lemon on your work surface with the palm of one hand, pressing down, to release the juice inside.
Use only the thin outer layer of lemon zest, you don’t want to get anywhere near the white bitter part. Also, make sure your zest is super fine, use a food chopper for this if you don’t have a good grater.
Besides using Lemon Curd as a spread, here are 3 delicious ways you can use it:
That’s it folks, make a batch or two and let me know how it goes with a comment below! Shall we get our aprons on?
If you like the recipe, don’t forget to leave me a comment and that all important, 5-star rating! Thank you!
And if you make the recipe, share it on any platform and tag me @azlinbloor, and hashtag it #linsfood
Lin xx
How to Make Perfect Lemon Curd
Equipment
- 2 sterilised small jam jars
Ingredients
- 180 g white caster sugar
- 100 g salted butter
- 3 large eggs
- 1 large egg yolk
- juice of 4 very ripe unwaxed lemons
- zest of 1 lemon optional
Instructions
- Beat the sugar and butter with an electric mixer in a large bowl until slightly lighter in colour, a couple of minutes will do.
- Add the eggs and yolks, one at a time, beating for 30 seconds in between.
- Transfer this into a medium sized saucepan.
- Get a wooden spoon and add the lemon juice in stirring continuously. Don't worry about the change in texture. Add the lemon zest now, if using.
- Place on a very low heat and keep stirring with the spoon until the mixture becomes smooth and thickens, about 10-15 minutes. You should feel some resistance against the spoon. The mixture will still be a bit runny, it’ll thicken up as it cools.
- Transfer to sterilized jars and keep in the fridge up to 2 weeks. Freezes well.