Homemade Lemon Curd

Lemon curd is one of my FAVORITE things to make and use in my bakes. It’s tangy, lucious, and super easy to make. Seriously, DO NOT BUY LEMON CURD. Take the 15 mins and make it yourself. You will thank me later. 

The thing about fruit curd is you don’t have to stop at lemon. You can tweak the recipe a little and make any fruit based curd. I’ve made raspberry curd, blueberry curd, and blackberry curd. You can swap out the lemons for limes or oranges, there are so many yummy possibilities. 

The only thing not to like about curd is its name. I Googled synonyms for curd to see if I could find something that sounds more appetizing but once I looked up the definitions of some of the synonyms they were worse, like rennet, it’s worse...go look it up. 

So what is lemon curd...

As I said curd is not a yummy word or process.  Traditionally, curd is when you take a dairy, add an acid, and heat it so the dairy clumps together and curdles. The process is used to make cottage cheese or yogurt. In a fruit curd you use a citrus fruit and heat to slowly cook egg yolk. Doesn't that sound delicious? I know it doesn’t but trust me Homemade Lemon Curd is so so so delicious.

A few key notes:

1. To make curd use a double boiler. You can make your own by adding and heat proof bowl on top of a pot of boiling water. 

2. You need to stir the curd continuously while it’s cooking so the yolk cooks evenly. If you have a small Whisk you can use it, but i actually prefer using a fork. 

Homemade Lemon Curd

Zest of 1 large lemon

Juice of 2-3 lemons, about 1/3 cup of lemon juice

2/3 cup sugar

Pinch of salted

6 Tbsp unsalted butter cut into 1 Tbsp cubes

1. Fill a small pot with 2-3 inches is water and set on the stove on medium heat. 

2. Add all the ingredients except the butter into a heat tolerant bowl and mix together. 

3. Place bowl on top of the pot and stir continuously for about 10 minutes until the mixture starts to thicken and look slightly paler in color. 

4. Take the bowl off the pot and stir in the butter, cut into 1 Tbsp cubes, until completely melted. 

5. Curd should look silky and smooth. It will thicken more once cooled.

6. Place in a jar and put a layer of plastic wrap on the top of the curd so it doesn’t make a film. Once the curd is fully cooled the plastic wrap can be removed.

7. Curd will keep in the refrigerator for 7-10 days. 

So there it is, quick, simple, delicious and so worth the time! Now go make it and put it on some scones or add it to my Pavlova.