Lemon Curd

Oh my gish! I made lemon curd the other day and let me tell you I-AM-IN-LOVE! I've always wanted to try it because I would see it on the shelf in the fancy-schmancy gourmet shops, but I just couldn't justify spending $6+ for something I might not like and knew no one but me would want to try. SO, after seeing this recipe here for Lemon Poppy Seed Muffins with a Twist, I decided to try my hand at making my own lemon curd. Well, I started my research in the usual way by googling "lemon curd recipe" and opening 10 different browser windows and weeding each one out until I found the one I wanted. At first, I was a little dismayed because, it was going to take more effort than I had anticipated. They all had the eggs being cooked in a double boiler, blah, blah, blah, but then, I found this recipe for it:

Lemon Curd for Scottish Shortbread

by Elinor Klivans

Seeing a jar of lovely yellow lemon curd in the refrigerator will brighten anyone's day. Serve overThick Scottish Shortbread, or use as a spread for toast or English muffins, or a filling for cakes and tartlets.

Yields about 2 cups.

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butteregg yolkslemons

3 oz. (6 Tbs.) unsalted butter, softened at room temperature
1 cup sugar
2 large eggs
2 large egg yolks
2/3 cup fresh lemon juice
1 tsp. grated lemon zest

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In a large bowl, beat the butter and sugar with an electric mixer, about 2 min. Slowly add the eggs and yolks. Beat for 1 min. Mix in the lemon juice. The mixture will look curdled, but it will smooth out as it cooks.

In a medium, heavy-based saucepan, cook the mixture over low heat until it looks smooth. (The curdled appearance disappears as the butter in the mixture melts.) Increase the heat to medium and cook, stirring constantly, until the mixture thickens, about 15 min. It should leave a path on the back of a spoon and will read 170°F on a thermometer. Don't let the mixture boil.

Remove the curd from the heat; stir in the lemon zest. Transfer the curd to a bowl. Press plastic wrap on the surface of the lemon curd to keep a skin from forming and chill the curd in the refrigerator. The curd will thicken further as it cools. Covered tightly, it will keep in the refrigerator for a week and in the freezer for 2 months.

variations

For lime curd, substitute fresh lime juice and zest for lemon.

photo: Rita Maas

From Fine Cooking 26, pp. 52-54

April 1, 1998

Because you just mix everything together before you heat it up, I didn't have to strain it or anything. It was super easy! I also didn't follow the directions exactly and added the lemon zest at the very beginning instead of at the end and it still turned out just fine. Of course I added extra lemon juice and zest and wow is it lemony! Its just the way I like it! Here is my lemon curd:

The lemon poppyseed muffin recipe says to put a dollop of lemon curd halfway between the batter and then cook them, but I really want to have the lemon curd be more of a filling, so I piped it in after the muffins were cooked. Here's what I ended up with (Oh and I totally forgot to put the poppy seeds in before I filled about half of the muffin cups, so I just mixed it into the batter that I had left. Haha! So, some are just lemon muffins...):

This is lemony goodness!

Yeah, I know...I can tell you wanna come over and have a tea party with me....hhhhmmmm...a tea party.....we should have one of those....