How to Make Lemon Curd

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Making lemon curd is easy if you follow my no-fail recipe. With this recipe you don’t have to worry about the eggs over cooking, and curdling in the delicious lemony mix. This curd is bright, tart, and fresh. And it’s great on bread, scones, or as a tart filling.

You can also eat spoonfuls at a time, but be careful to not eat the whole jar in a day!

close up lemon curd in jar with spoon How to Make Lemon Curd

I know I always say to use organic ingredients, but it is especially important in simple recipes like this one. As you can see the ingredient list is short, so take advantage of the pure flavor and buy the best ingredients you can find.

If you don’t want to spend the time or money buying all organic ingredients, just buy organic lemons. You can avoid zesting a layer of wax into your curd.

organic lemons How to Make Lemon Curd

Recipe Credit: FineCooking.com

To make the lemon curd you will need:

1 cup organic sugar
6 tbsp organic unsalted butter, softened to room temperature
2 organic eggs, and 2 egg yolks
2/3 cup fresh squeezed organic lemon juice (I used about 3 lemons worth of juice)
1 tsp grated lemon zest (about 1 lemon’s worth)

lemon curd mixture before cooking 150x150 How to Make Lemon Curd cooking lemon curd mixture 150x150 How to Make Lemon Curd add in the lemon zest 150x150 How to Make Lemon Curd

The procedure:

  1. In a large bowl beat together the sugar and butter for about 2 minutes.
  2. Add in each egg separately. Then mix in the egg yolks.
  3. Mix in the lemon juice.
  4. Move this mixture to a small saucepan, and turn your burner to low.
  5. Stir frequently, and once the butter has fully melted turn the temperature up to medium-low.
  6. Stirring constantly, bring the mixture’s temperature up to 170º F, it will be much thicker at this point. Do not let the mixture boil! This process took me about 12 minutes.
  7. Remove from the heat, stir in the lemon zest.
  8. Continue stirring for the next 5-7 minutes, and allow the curd to cool slightly.

Pour your curd into a container, I chose a pint sized jar, and cover. Allow cooling for an additional 10 minutes on the counter, and then move to the refrigerator. The curd will continue to thicken as it cools, and has a pudding like consistency after it has fully cooled. Your curd will keep for a week in the fridge, and for 2 months in the freezer.

This recipe yields enough curd to fill a pint sized jar, and have 3 or 4 spoonfuls left.

lemon curd with spoon How to Make Lemon Curd

Comments

  1. Carla Meine says:

    So fun we chose to post the same thing today just in a different way. My lemon curd was used to make fruit tart in phyllo cups. Your recipe & pictures look great.

  2. I LOVE lemon curd! Yours looks soooo good and your photos are just beautiful. :)

  3. Cakewhiz says:

    If i had a jar of that curd with me and i really wish i did right now….i wouldn’t know what to spread it on first…. Bread? Scone? Cake ? Or maybe all of them :D hehe

  4. sarah says:

    Sold! This recipe looks awesome. I am so looking forward to trying it soon! Great pictures too!

  5. Nutmeg Nanny says:

    I love lemon curd! It’s always the perfect balance between sweet and tart.

  6. Liz says:

    Oh, I really need to try this…I have a party coming up and lemon curd in little filo cups sounds really yummy. Thanks for sharing your recipe. PS…nice to find another blogger from Indiana…I’m in Indianapolis :)

  7. Lea says:

    Great recipe :)

  8. Jill Colonna says:

    This lemon curd looks just SO tempting, Erin. Love also how you’ve managed the quantities: fill a pint jar and devour the extra few spoonfuls, just to taste ;-)

  9. Dolores says:

    Just wanted you to know I am going to attempt to make your lemon curd tonight along with Clotted cream. Going to a Royal Wedding viewing party in the morn. I think I’ll just buy the scones…..

  10. Maureen says:

    I made this today and it’s the most devine tasting stuff ever. I made it in my new Thermomix so I had to tweak it just a tad but it’s the creamiest, most delicious lemon curd I’ve ever made.

    I need more lemons now :)

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