I love lemons! I have been making this lemon curd for decades. I have made it with organic evaporated cane juice and with honey. It just depends on what I am using it for. I prefer to use unrefined sweeteners when possible. This is delicious with honey. You want a mild flavored honey so it doesn’t overpower the lemon flavor. See my note on the recipe if you want to use a granulated sugar.
Lemon Curd uses
Lemon curd has so many uses, if you can stop just eating it by the spoonful! I love it swirled in a vanilla bean cheesecake, mixed with yogurt, used in a berry trifle or parfait, on top of a dutch baby, on top of vanilla ice cream or frozen yogurt. We use it in our Ninja Creami to make an amazing lemon ice cream, in thumbprint cookies instead of jam, in a crepe with fresh blueberries. My mouth is watering just thinking of all the lovely lemon curd recipes.
Making and storing
Lemon curd is relatively easy to make. Just whisk everything except the butter together in a pot. I like to make sure the eggs are well beaten with the whisk as I mix the ingredients. Add the butter, then use a medium-low heat and stir constantly until it thickens. Cooking time should be about 6 minutes or so. I then pour it through a fine mesh strainer into a bowl. Let cool with plastic wrap directly on the curd to keep it from forming a skin. Once it is at room temperature, refrigerate. It will keep 1 to 2 weeks with a well sealed lid. You can freeze it too, and should last in the freezer for a year. It never lasts long in our house, so I have not frozen it.
The recipe below is the amount I always make, but you can do a half recipe if it is too much lemon curd (blashphemy!!) for you. As a small hint, when I zest lemons, I use a microplane grater. I zest as much from each lemon as possible, if I have extra, I dry it and use it in spice blends.
Lemon Curd
Course: DessertDifficulty: Easy10
minutesHoney-sweetened lemon curd that is delicious.
Ingredients
2 teaspoons lemon zest
1 cup fresh squeezed lemon juice
1/2 cup honey
6 large eggs
1 stick unsalted butter, cut into pieces
Directions
- Prep all your ingredients (zest and juice lemons, cut up butter, let eggs come to room temperature). Prepare a bowl with a strainer. Have a whisk, spatula and pot ready.
- Whisk honey (or sugar if using) with lemon juice, lemon zest and eggs until well combined and eggs are thoroughly beaten. If using honey, I mix it a bit and then turn heat on low to melt honey so it mixes better.
- Place pan on medium-low heat and stirring constantly, add butter.
- Continue to stir constantly until the curd thickens and it holds the spoon/spatula marks when you stir. It may still look a bit lumpy, but should be thick. Watch it carefully while stirring as the thickening happens all of a sudden and you don’t want to scorch it.
- As soon as it thickens and holds the marks of the spoon, you want to turn the heat off and remove the pan from the heat.
- Pour curd through a fine mesh strainer into a bowl, pushing it all through. You will end up with a few bits of egg left in the strainer. Scrape the curd off the underside of the strainer and discard any bits left in the strainer.
- Place a piece of plastic wrap directly on the curd to keep it from forming a skin. Cool to room temperature, then place in refrigerator with a tight sealing lid. Will last in refrigerator for 1-2 weeks. Can freeze for up to a year.
Recipe Video
Notes
- If you want to use a granulated sugar, you need to double the amount (so 1 cup of sugar).