Lemon Curd

Ingredients

Equipment Needed

• •Heatproof glass or ceramic bowl
• •Saucepan to fit the bowl as a bain-marie
• •Wooden spoon
• •Fine sieve
• •Microplane or fine grater
• •Two small clean jars with lids

Instructions

1. 1

   Zest and juice the lemons

   Wash the lemons in warm water and dry them. Zest all four straight into a heatproof bowl, taking only the yellow and none of the white pith underneath, which turns everything bitter. Then halve them and squeeze the juice through a sieve into the same bowl. You want around 150ml of juice. If you're a little short, squeeze another. The kitchen should already smell like the south of somewhere.

   Unwaxed lemons matter here because you're using the skin. Supermarket waxed lemons have been treated with things you don't want in a jar of curd. A good greengrocer will know.
2. 2

   Combine over gentle heat

   Add the sugar, butter, and salt to the bowl with the zest and juice. Set the bowl over a pan of barely simmering water, making sure the base of the bowl doesn't touch the water below. Stir slowly with a wooden spoon as the butter melts and the sugar dissolves into the lemon. After a few minutes you'll have a clear, pale yellow liquid that smells of summer windows being thrown open.

3. 3

   Add the eggs

   Beat the eggs and the extra yolk together in a small bowl, then pour them through a sieve straight into the lemon mixture. The sieve catches any stringy bits and gives you a smoother curd in the end. Stir steadily. Don't stop. Don't wander off to check your phone. This is the part where curd lives or dies.

   If the heat is too high, you'll end up with sweet lemon scrambled eggs. Gentle heat. Patience. The curd will thank you.
4. 4

   Stir until thick

   Keep stirring over the gentle heat. After eight or ten minutes the mixture will start to thicken, going from a thin yellow liquid to something glossy and pourable, the colour of butter in spring. You'll know it's ready when it coats the back of the spoon and a finger drawn through the coating leaves a clean line that holds. It will thicken further as it cools, so don't push it too far. Trust your eyes. Trust your spoon.

5. 5

   Jar and cool

   Take the bowl off the pan. Give the curd one last stir, then ladle it into clean, warm jars while it's still loose. Press a small disc of baking parchment onto the surface if you want to be tidy about it, then seal the jars and let them cool on the counter before moving them to the fridge. The first spoonful, eaten warm from the spoon while you're washing up, is one of the small private rewards of cooking.

Chef Tips

• •Unwaxed lemons are non-negotiable here. The zest is doing half the work, and you don't want a coating of fruit wax going into the jar. A good greengrocer or a box of organic lemons will sort you out.
• •Golden caster sugar gives the curd a slightly deeper, more honeyed flavour than white. Not essential, but worth seeking out if you can. White caster will work perfectly well.
• •If your curd splits or turns lumpy, don't despair. Push it through a fine sieve while it's still warm and most of the time you can rescue it. The sieve forgives a lot of small sins.
• •A jar of this is one of the best small gifts you can give someone. A piece of brown paper, a length of string, a label with the date. People remember a homemade jar of curd longer than they remember almost anything you might buy them.

Advance Preparation

• •Lemon curd keeps in clean, sealed jars in the fridge for up to two weeks. The flavour deepens after a day or two as the lemon and butter settle into each other.
• •It freezes well for up to three months. Defrost overnight in the fridge and give it a gentle stir before using.
• •Make a double batch if you're already going to the trouble. One jar for now, one to give away.

Frequently Asked Questions

Nutrition Information

1 serving (about 22g)