How to: Lemon Curd

Making your own lemon curd is very easy and, let’s face it, the finished product is bound to taste a lot better than the shop-bought varieties. The recipe is from The Great British Bake Off: The Showstoppers book, which has kind of become my new baking bible. Take your time and don’t rush things, the result is guaranteed to be good. One last note: I do apologise for the “steamy” quality of the pictures, I realised too late my phone camera lens was dirty…

Ingredients

• 125g unsalted butter, diced
• 225g caster sugar
• finely grated zest and juice of 3 medium unwaxed lemons
• 3 large free-range eggs, at room temperature, beaten

Method 

Put the butter, sugar, lemon zest and juice into a heatproof bowl. Set over a pan of just simmering water and stir gently with a wooden spoon until the mixture is completely melted and smooth.

Remove the pan from the heat and strain the eggs into the mixture.

As you can see, the sieve is necessary as it holds back bits of egg white which were not incorporated into the rest of the eggs. Discard what’s left in the sieve.

Stir well, then set the bowl over the pan of simmering water again and stir constantly until the mixture becomes thick and opaque. Take your time, don’t be tempted to turn up the heat because the egg will cook and scramble. The lemon curd is ready when you can draw a clear path with your finger on the back of the wooden spoon.

Lift the bowl from the pan and transfer the lemon curd into a shallow bowl or a sterilised jar.

Leave to cool, then either cover with clingfilm or put the lid on and keep in the fridge.

This recipe makes about 560g worth of lemon curd.

Tips

• Why not trying making curd with other fruit? I hear limes are really good too and you can make it with virtually all the citrus fruits, such as orange, clementines, satsumas… I also found online a very inviting and delicious mango curd recipe, will definitely give that one a try!
• Other than being exceedingly good on toast, lemon curd can be used in a variety of desserts and cakes. I have used it on some Marbled Lemon Squares (recipe to follow), but what about making some small shortcrust pastry tartlets and filling them with some lemon curd topped with some fresh fruit? The possibilities are endless!

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