Tart. Tart. Tart. After chocolate, lemon is my favorite flavor and I love to make lemon curd. I wish we had more free time to make it more often at work, but we only have our small hot plate stove top and it takes a long time to prepare the amount we need for cupcakes. Sadly, we don’t make it as often as I’d like.
Lemon Curd
5 egg yolks
zest and juice of 3 or 4 large lemons
1 cup of sugar
1 stick of cold butter
This is super easy, but you have to be patient so you don’t end up with scrambled eggs! I use a large stainless bowl that sits on top of a pot of simmering (not rolling) water and use it like a double boiler. I put all of the ingredients in the bowl together and whisk, the acid and sugar help reduce my chances of creepy egg curdles. This recipe is done in 6 or 7 minutes- you can tell it’s done when it sticks and coats a wooden spoon. Chop up the cold stick of butter and stir it in until dissolved. I then strain the mixture to remove all of the pulp or seeds that may have snuck into the bowl. Pour the strained curd into a stainless bowl, cover tightly with film and cool in the refrigerator.
Wa la!
The following pictures are a cupcake shop batch- so that’s 30 egg yolks!
Nothing smells better than that bowl of zest. I don’t measure this because I’ll strain it out later anyway.
juice- make sure the lemons gave you at least 1/3 of a cup or you’ll want to juice another lemon until you get there.
lots and lots of eggs for the cupcake shop.
whisk the juice, zest, sugar and eggs.
heat ‘em up. Slow and steady. Once it’s thick and creamy, take it off the heat, chop up the butter and stir it all in.
Strain, then wrap, then chill for a few hours. We usually make this a day in advance.
Deliciousness.
