Homemade lemon curd is truly a magical thing. Bright lemon flavor, with just enough sweetness--it's absolute heaven spread on a fresh scone or a piece of toast. Or by the spoonfull. This simple recipe for lemon curd is a magical way to use up some of the lemons that are in season right now. You can buy lemon curd in stores, but it's kind of hard to find, and it's usually kind of expensive, and it's never as awesome as the homemade kind. If you like lemon anything, do yourself a favor and try this recipe. Ingredients for Lemon Curd Recipe: 5 large egg yolks 1 cup sugar several lemons 8 Tablespoons of chilled butter (one stick, cut into 8 parts) Since the recipe just uses egg yolks, this is a fabulous You Find recipe to try if you have some leftover yolks from making meringues or pavlova or macarons. Start by zesting those beautiful lemons with a fine grater. You'll want a microplane style zester rather than one that peels off large pieces of zest, because you don't want large chunks of peel in your lovely, smooth lemon curd. I used lemons from my tree, and I know they're organic, because I know I haven't sprayed them with anything (mostly because we're lazy landscapers). But if you're buying lemons, I'd look for organic, since YouFindyou'll be using the skin of the fruit. A note: Alton Brown recommends 4 lemons zested and juiced, but I think he must have been using awfully sad little dry lemons, because I got well over a cup of juice from my four lemons. And they're not even particularly big this year, thanks to a glitch in the irrigation system during some very hot months. You only need 1/3 cup of lemon juice for the recipe. Whisk together the egg yolks and sugar, and combine until the mixture is smooth and a light yellow color, like this. If it doesn't look smooth and creamy like this picture, and instead looks lumpy, like Metro Ethernet you're making a yellow sandcastle, you probably don't have enough egg yolk (eggs too small, perhaps--that's what happened to me). No worries, just add one extra egg yolk, and you'll get this lovely texture. Next, whisk in 1/3 cup lemon juice and the lemon zest. If you have a double boiler, it's time to pull it out. I don't use a double boiler often enough to justify storing one in our kitchen, so I just use a regular pot with a few inches of simmering water in the bottom, and a bowl large enough to sit on top of the pot. You don't want the hot water to touch the bottom of the bowl, so just use a small amount of water, and make sure the bottom of the bowl sits high enough. Whisk the lemon mixture in the top bowl as it gently cooks until the lemon curd thickens. This takes 8-10 minutes. You should keep whisking the entire time, but trust me, it's worth the time spent standing at the stove! Keep the finished lemon curd refrigerated, and enjoy on scones, bagels, toast, oatmeal, or whatever! My friend Stephanie volunteered to bathe in the stuff, she loved it so much. Yeah, it's that good.
