Lemon Curd

Lovely, luscious, lemony lemon curd. You can run, but you can't hide because if you like all things lemon or even just a few things lemon, then you just won't be able to resist this stuff. You can do so many things with it, it can be used as a filling for cakes or crepes, spread on pancakes or toast, scooped onto a pie or eaten quickly, with your fingers, so that you dont have to share, preferably while hidden in the coat closet to ensure that your precious lemon curd doesn't get stolen from you. with a spoon. Very few things are so simple to make yet pack so much flavor AND can also impress your friends and neighbors without even having to try very hard. Lemon curd is one of my favorite dessert-ish things, having recenty discovered how easy it is to make while making a cake for my reading group some time ago. I'm currently going to use it again as a filling for a new cake, so I thought, why not finally post the recipe I use here.

While surfing online and scanning through a few of my cookbooks, I found that lemon curd follows the same basic recipe except for a few slight variations. Some recipes us more or less butter, the amount of eggs used varies, some use more or less citrus, some people add zest, and some folks don't. Personally, I like to add the zest and sometimes, depending on my mood, I don't even bother straining it to get the zest out, although quite a few cookbooks suggest doing so. I think the zest adds a nice little extra burst of citrus which helps bring out the flavor of the curd.

adapted from Epicurious

Lemon curd

• 1 cup sugar
• 3/4 cup fresh lemon juice
• 3 large eggs
• 1/4 cup (1/2 stick) chilled unsalted butter, cut into 1/2-inch cubes
• Zest of 1 (one) lemon, optional

Zest one lemon into a medium metal bowl. Whisk the first 3 ingredients into that medium metal bowl. Set the bowl over a saucepan of simmering water (do not allow bottom of bowl to touch water). Whisk constantly until thickened and instant-read thermometer inserted into mixture registers 160°F, about 10 minutes. Remove bowl from over water. Add butter; whisk until melted. Transfer 1 cup curd to small bowl for spreading on cake layers. Reserve remaining curd for filling. Press plastic wrap directly onto surface of both curds. Chill overnight. (Can be made 3 days ahead. Keep chilled.)

Written by Deb on March 31, 2004 12:40 AM