Luscious Lemon Curd

Yum

Oh the weather outside is frightful!  So make lemon curd and take a big bite full!

And the only thing better than my impeccable timing is my poor attempt at serious rhyming.

Sorry.  haha.  Seriously, though– is there anything more light, citrusy, and bright than a flash of lemon?  I think it’s the perfect way to bring a little sunshine to our cold and sterile month of January.  But what exactly is a curd?

(What sort of word is this crazy word, curd?  And why are you being a weird, rhyming nerd?)

I can see your brows knitting in suspicion.  You are thinking about how curds eventually brought poor Miss Muffet a nasty spider.  If curds=spiders, then NO CURDS for me!

Don’t worry.  Lemon curd is nothing like the curds and whey that Miss Muffet was eating (Bleck).  Lemon curd is a light, gorgeous jewel of a condiment that can be used on anything from your morning toast, to a bagel with a smear of cream cheese.  Place a dollop over bread pudding, drizzle it over warm gingerbread (yum!), or smear it onto anything, really, that needs a little zip of fresh citrus.

Bring a little sunshine to someone’s day, and give this curd a try, today! (Just don’t let bad rhyming get in the way)

What are we waiting for?  Let’s do this!

Luscious Lemon Curd

(adapted from Elaine Corn)

Ingredients:

5 lemons, both juice and zest

5 eggs

1 cup white sugar

1 stick melted butter or margarine

Directions:

Pulse all ingredients except melted butter in a food processor.  Slowly pour in melted butter while pulsing.  Pour mixture into a medium saucepan and heat over medium heat for 5-10 minutes until mixture has thickened.  Cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate until ready to use.

This sweet, sunny little delight couldn’t be easier.  Let’s take a look at the process in pictures. 🙂

To start with, zest and juice 5 lemons.  Trust me . . . it’s much easier if you do the zesting before you juice them.  Don’t make the mistake of juicing and then try to smoosh the empty peels up against the grater. Nope.  That’s making it so much harder than it has to be.

Place your lemon juice, zest, eggs, and sugar into a food processor.

Give those little babies a whirl.  Mmm.  Lemon milk.  Well . . . sort of.

Then, carefully, drizzle in your melted butter while the mixture is whirling around in the food processor. I took the top off to take a photo for you, but put the top on before you do this, obviously 😉

Now dump the mixture into a medium saucepan.  Heat over medium low heat for 5-10 minutes, whisking or stirring every so often so that nothing sticks.  After a few minutes, the mixture should be nice and thick, again– kind of the consistency of gravy.

When you can leave small marks in the mixture by whisking it quickly, turn off the heat, because the sunshine has arrived!

Some people like to strain their lemon curd through a sieve, to make sure it is ultra smooth and creamy.  And you can certainly do that.  But, personally, I found that the texture was plenty smooth, as it was, and I saved a lot of time by not straining, without really noticing any difference.  But feel free to go your own way on that one.  Place your lemon curd in a bowl, cover with plastic wrap, and refrigerate until you’re ready to eat your lemon curd.  Try to make sure that the plastic wrap is actually touching the surface of the lemon curd so that you don’t get a “skin” on the top.

Honestly, I think you’re probably ready to eat it, like . . . now.  Grab yourself a cup of tea and a piece of toast, and smear golden, luscious loveliness over your toast.  Inhale deeply (well, don’t eat toast and inhale deeply at the same time.  That could be bad).

Look out onto beautiful, bare January . . . and take a bite of sunshine.  It’s really not so bad, is it?

You did it.  And I’m just so proud of you.

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