Meyer Lemon Curd

Last week my friend Raul gave me about twenty pounds of lemons. Ok, I may be exaggerating just a bit, but I think he gave me at least ten pounds. The first thing I thought of when he asked me what I would do with all the lemons was to make a curd. Of course there was the small problem of me never having had curd that I could remember and also the fact that I still had a few Meyer lemons that needed to be used. A quick search for lemon curd recipes led to a bunch of Meyer lemon curd recipes and this particular recipe was the best for it's ease and lack of fuss. Besides my Daring Bakers recipes, I like the things I make to be as un-fussy as possible. I also liked the fact that I did not need to halve the recipe so that I would not be left with vats of extra curd in case I didn't like it. Well guess what? I didn't just like it, I loooovvvveeeed it! I could not get enough of the velvety, tart smooth lemon flavor. I am almost embarrassed to admit this, but I just kept sticking my finger the the finished curd and licking it clean. Much like how one does with peanut butter. It was that good. I had heard of people slathering lemon curd on toast and didn't think much of it until I tried it myself. I can tell you, I have been having lemon curd on toast every day this week. I also put the curd to another spectacular use that I will share with you in a few days. If you haven't tried lemon curd, I strongly suggest you go get a couple of lemons and see what the fuss is about. You won't be sorry. You can definitely make this recipe with regular lemons if Meyer lemons aren't readily available where you are. The only change you may want to do is to up the amount of sugar.


Meyer Lemon Curd
(From No Recipes)

1 stick unsalted butter
2 Meyer lemons, zested
1/2 cup Meyer lemon juice
3/4 cup sugar
2 eggs, separated

Drop the butter into a heavy bottomed saucepan over low heat and let it melt (the pan should be just warm enough to melt the butter). Once it’s mostly melted turn off the heat.

In a medium bowl, add the sugar and the lemons into it. Then squeeze the juice and add it to the sugar.

Separate the eggs, dropping the yolks into the pot of melted (but not hot) butter and the whites into the sugar mixture.

Whisk the yolks and butter together until well combined. Then take the whisk to the sugar mixture until well combined. Pour the sugar mixture into the pot with the butter and whisk it all together.

Turn the heat back on to low and use a heat-proof silicon spatula to constantly stir the mixture, scrapping the bottom and sides of the pan to make sure nothing burns. If you have an instant read thermometer, the temperature should read 170 degrees. Otherwise, just keep stirring until the curd thickens enough to coat the spatula. Make sure you don’t over cook it.

As soon as it’s done, take it off the heat and pour it into another container.