Lemon curd is a thick, sweet/tart spread or filling that can be dolloped on biscuits or scones, slathered between cake layers or smoothed into tart shells for lemon tarts. It’s a great building block for making simple, improvised desserts, and on the breakfast table it’s an unexpected and elegant step above the usual fruit preserves.
The Meyer lemon is the smaller, softer, slightly sweeter, orange-y-skinned cousin of the everyday lemon. It’s widely available in the Northeast in winter. I use Meyer lemons when I can find them, but at other times of the year I make lemon curd with conventional lemons – feel free to use whatever lemons you can find if Meyer lemons are out of season or unavailable where you live.
The technique for making lemon curd is quite easy, it just takes a little patience. Unlike lemon meringue pie filling (which is thickened with flour or cornstarch), lemon curd is thickened with eggs, like a custard. Which means that, like a custard, it is cooked slowly over medium heat on the stove top and constantly stirred until – as you may recall from the not terribly clear instructions in time-worn custard recipes – the mixture “coats the back of a spoon”.
Here’s what that really looks like: When you first put the lemon mixture over the heat, it starts out as a thin liquid. As you swirl it with your spoon, keeping it constantly moving, the liquid will close in behind the spoon, like a lake closing in behind the rudder of a boat. As the mixture begins to thicken, you’ll notice that the spoon starts to leave a little bit of a channel through the mixture – it doesn’t immediately close in behind the spoon as it did at first, and you might even start to catch a glimpse of the bottom of the pan behind the path of the spoon. When it starts doing this (usually about 10 minutes into the heating/stirring time but sometimes longer than this), check to see if it will coat the back of the spoon. This is easier to check with a metal spoon than with a wooden one. Lift the spoon out of the mixture and turn it over. If the back of the spoon is coated with a layer of lemon curd that doesn’t run off, run your finger through it. If the path of your finger stays clear with sharp defined edges, as in the photo below, the curd has coated the back of the spoon and is done cooking. If not, keep cooking for a minute or two and then check again. The lemon curd will thicken considerably as it cools so you’re not going for a pudding-like consistency when it’s hot, and you should not let it boil. Just keep checking until your spoon looks like this:
One more note on the process: The recipe instructions say to strain the hot lemon curd before chilling it. This isn’t strictly necessary but it does help to ensure the lemon curd is totally smooth and lump free. If you do this, you may notice that the sieve will catch some of the lemon zest and strain it out, and you may think of this as a loss. Don’t worry, it’s not – the lemon zest will have cooked in the mixture for over 10 minutes and will have imparted much of its concentrated flavor to the lemon curd.
Speaking of which, lemon curd is intensely lemony and a little goes a long way. Here are a few ideas:
- For breakfast or tea, spread lemon curd on warm biscuits or scones, or toast.
- Dollop a spoonful of lemon curd over barely-sweetened vanilla Greek yogurt and top it with a sprinkle of homemade granola.
- Skim it between the layers of a yellow cake, then frost the cake with buttercream icing. Instead of lemon curd between every layer, try alternating with strawberry or raspberry jam.
- To make a fruit tart, spread a thin layer of lemon curd in the bottom of pre-baked tart crust. Top it with a thick tumble of fruit — try berries of all kinds, halved grapes, sliced kiwi, plums or peaches. If you’re feeling fancy, arrange the fruit in concentric circles or another beautiful design. Brush the fruit with melted fruit preserves (apricot or raspberry are nice).
- For a super easy and elegant dessert, make Meyer Lemon Creams: Carefully fold Meyer Lemon Curd into about twice its volume of unsweetened whipped cream, dollop into dessert coupes and chill for a couple of hours to firm it up slightly, then spoon on a small amount of pure lemon curd and sprinkle with Salted Graham Cracker Crumbs.
- Another quick and fun dessert idea: Provide each person with a small plate of shortbread cookies and a little cup (condiment-sized) of lemon curd for dipping. Dunk the edge of a cookie into the lemon curd like you would dip a chicken wing into blue cheese dressing – it may sound a little kooky, but try it.
Making this ahead and what to do with leftovers:
- Meyer Lemon Curd needs time to chill before serving, so if you’re making it on the day of serving, start several hours ahead.
- It keeps for weeks in the fridge and is great to keep on hand for all of its infinite uses for dessert, breakfast, and teatime/coffee-time treats. It can also be frozen.
Meyer Lemon Curd
Ingredients
- 2 or 3 large Meyer lemons (or regular lemons), enough to produce ½ cup plus 1 tablespoon of juice
- ¾ cup granulated sugar
- 2 large eggs
- Pinch of kosher salt
- 4 tablespoons cold unsalted butter, cut into cubes
Directions
- Step 1 Zest one of the lemons into a small saucepan. Add the sugar and eggs to the saucepan and whisk to combine them.
- Step 2 Juice the lemons to produce ½ cup plus 1 tablespoon of juice. Pour the juice into the saucepan. Add a pinch of salt.
- Step 3 Place the pan over medium heat and cook the mixture, whisking constantly, until the sugar dissolves.
- Step 4 Add the butter. Switch to a spoon and cook the mixture, stirring constantly, until the mixture thickens and coats the back of the spoon, about 10 minutes.
- Step 5 Pour the lemon curd through a fine mesh strainer into a small bowl and cool it to room temperature, then cover and chill it until cold.
