Easy Lemon Curd

Lemon curd is one of my all time favourites. Especially, a really tangy curd that makes your jaw seize. It has such a variety of uses; as a tart filling, mixed with Crème pâtissière and my personal favourite, poured liberally over pancakes or French toast.

I feel like there is this misinformed thought that lemon curd is difficult or time consuming to make, and in reality it is anything but. At the heart of it, lemon curd is 4 basic ingredients that you will most likely already have in your pantry. The only thing that can go wrong with lemon curd is the rare and unfortunate event of having the eggs scramble, an occurrence that I have only seen if the curd is cook directly over heat in a pot. By cooking the curd in a bain-marie, the fear of a lemon flavoured scrambled egg is eliminated.

So I say it’s time to chuck out that store bought lemon curd, and break out that citrus juicer because I doubt that you will go back to store bought once you start making your own curd. Why not try swapping the lemons for limes, or try adding in another fruit like blueberries.

Ingredients

3 Lemons, juice and zest

100g Castor Sugar

50g Unsalted Butter

2 Eggs

1 Egg Yolk

Directions

1) In a heatproof bowl, mix together the lemon juice, zest and sugar. Heat over a bain-marie until the sugar has dissolved.

2) In a separate bowl, whisk together the whole eggs and the egg yolk. Add a small amount of the hot lemon/sugar mix to the eggs to temper.

3) Add the tempered eggs to the remaining lemon and sugar mix. Cook for 10 minutes, stirring constantly until the lemon curd has thickened. Add the butter and stir until the butter has melted and emulsified with the curd.

4) Remove the curd from heat, strain through a sieve into sterilised jars.