Where has lemon curd been my entire life? Seriously! How did I just have it for the first time recently? Oh, the missed opportunities…
Lemon curd (or other fruit curds) is a soft, smooth, intensely flavoured spread or sauce and as soon as I had tried it I knew that I would have to make it myself and it could not be easier to do! Lemon curd is made with four simple ingredients: lemons, sugar, eggs and butter that are all heated until it thickens into a decadently smooth and creamy spread like consistency, rather like room temperature butter, only lemon-y and so much better! Now that I am armed with a few jars of fresh homemade lemon curd, he ideas on what to use it in and on are swirling through my head! Simply spreading it on butter or a nice fresh croissant seem like great places to start but I have so many more ideas to try, that is unless I eat all of it by the spoonful before I get the chance to!
Lemon Curd
Cool, smooth and creamy lemon curd; perfect for spreading on toast like butter and so much more!
ingredients
- 4 lemons, juice and zest (~1 cup juice)
- 1/2 cup sugar
- 4 large eggs
- 6 tablespoons unsalted butter
directions
- Heat everything in a bowl over a small sauce pan of water simmering over medium-high heat, whisking continuously until thickened, about 10 minutes.
Note: If some of the egg does cook and turn into little white flecks in the curd, you can push the curd through a sieve to remove them!
Note: Let cool and store in the fridge for up to a week.
Im a sucker for lemon curd!
It freezes extremely well. Then you can use it in a nearly instant tart recipe.
Does'nt your arm get tired? Would Love to try it…..
Do you have to whisk, or could you use an electric beater at the lowest speed? I know nothing about curd. What are some other suggestions for its use?
You can use on pound cake or make a batch of short bread cookies With a thumb size indentation in center. Then after cookie cools you can fill w/ curd and top w/ fresh raspberry & shaved white chocolate. It is also wonderful with scones or biscuits. Or if you’re like me, you can just eat it by the spoon full.
i use it for filling in thumb print cookies.
is this like a lemon pie filling? can it be used for a filling in a cake or used in a pie? need recipes for using this. thxs.
Perfect timing for Easter & spring!
I know right??? We made it for the first time this past week, and lemon is my favorite thing. The minute we tried the lemon curd my daughter whipped up, I was trying to figure out what it would be good on. Cheesecake!! lol
IMHO the best way to enjoy lemon curd is with warm, freshly baked gingerbread!
The only thing that makes this lemon curd better is using Meyer Lemons instead of Eureka. Oh my!
How much lemon juice? Our Meyer Lemons from our tree are huge and each makes about 3/4 to a full cup of juice.
Thanks!
Poppy
Use 2 lemons of that size! Enjoy!
I also like to add a tablespoon of Lemon Curd to a half cup of cottage cheese, 6 oz of plain, greek yogurt, or my oatmeal. I used it to make a lemon tiramisu as well. I've been known to eat with just a spoon too!
Beeje: Love the sound of that combo!
Great mixed with mascarpone to make a lemon cheesecake with crushed amaretti.
Good as a filling for cake. Years ago I made a lemon cake and filled it with lemon curd.
I will never forget my youngest son, Christopher, discovering how delicious lemon curd was! It was after I made my first lemon swirled cheesecake for them and he found the leftover lemon curd in the refrigerator. His comment was similar to yours…that he could just eat it by the spoonful, and so could I! I still love your blog and your recipes Kevin! I can't believe how long we have been around as bloggers and your blog is NEVER boring.
Kevin, can you advise how much this recipe makes? And do you agree that it freezes well? Thanks much.
Kevin, can you please advise exactly how much juice is used in your lemon curd recipe. As you know, lemons vary in size, so having a precise measurement of juice will ensure greater success with the recipe. Thanks.
You want about 1 cup of lemon juice. Enjoy!
Even better is Lemon or Orange Cheese. It has a thicker consistency. I fell in love with it when I lived in Europe. I have not been able to find a source or a recipe.
Food Network has a recipe that came over from England.
https://www.food.com/recipe/lemon-cheese-103796
Kevin this is my first time I will be doing lemon curd the zest has to boil or cook cut in pieces or shredded how gets that texture or after boiling do you place everything in a blender. How do you get that creamy texture with the zest you take the juice from the lemon and place the zest in the bowl how. [email protected] please respond to my email as I do not go in to the comments and maybe I do not find the comment. Thank you!
The lemon zest should be very fine, using a zester (a very fine grater), and you should not notice the zest in the lemon curd. If you want the lemon curd to be super smooth you can push the curd through a fine mesh sieve/strainer to remove the zest after coooking.
Tip: If you do not have a zester, you can use a knife to slice pieces of the peel off of the lemon, very thin pieces with as little white (pith) as possible, and pulse the lemon peel slices along with the sugar in a food processor until the lemon peel is in super small pieces, like zest.
Enjoy!
I made this last night for the dutch babies this morning. It is so delicious. I’m lucky there was some leftover for the dutch babies…. Lemon Heaven is what this should be called!
I have made this recipe several times and it is wonderfully delicious! Do you think Lemon Curd would “can” well if I used a standard canning method?
I’m glad you like it! I have not tried canning it and I would have to look up proper canning methods for it.