Make it Monday! Lemon Curd

When I was in Vermont, I spent $9 on a beautiful jar of lemon curd. The label basically said, “I taste like heaven. Buy me”.

A name like lemon curd intimidates me. However, I wanted to experiment with lemon in my croissants. Being that I was too terrified to even consider making it on my own, this tempting jar of golden goodness was the perfect solution.

Flash forward to only a week or so ago when I made macarons for the first time. Of the four fillings from the macaron recipe my friend, Drew, made in Paris, one was lemon curd. And of the four people making the four different fillings, guess who ended up making the curd?

You guessed it, me.

Let’s rewind real quick, because this little jar of summer flavor deserves to be spoken of to greater lengths. I tried it out in croissants, and my taste testers flipped, some of them claiming it was their favorite so far.

I also may have enjoyed a scoop or two straight from the jar and knew I couldn’t afford to shell out $9 every time I wanted a jar of what should really be called “lemon bar filling”.*

*Lemon bars are my summer staple. Aside from being ridiculously simple to make, they are the perfect remedy to counteract the summer heat.

The French recipe didn’t lend much help by way of instruction. It was a list of ingredients with a lone direction: “In a pan, mix well. Cook and mix it* until boiling point.”

Oh boy.

*Those are the exact words in the recipe.

On one hand, I’d like to thank the French for not over complicating the process*, but on the other, I’d feel a little more comfortable with lengthier directions.

*I mean, macarons are hard enough.

Today friends, I’m going to give those directions to you. Hopefully, you will quickly realize how easy it is to make your own lemon curd and not shy away from it or shell out $9 for what will cost you less than $2 to make.

I’m going to bet you already have most of the ingredients at home.

You’ll need:
-a small sauce pot
-zest and juice of 1 lemon
-1 egg
-1/3 cup, 2 T sugar
-2 tsp corn flour or cornmeal
-1/2 stick of butter, cubed

The first time I made this, I put everything in the pot, and then mixed it together on the stove top.

This led to pieces of cooked egg whites in my curd.

To avoid this, mix the lemon zest, lemon juice, egg, and corn flour together off the heat.

Then, place the pot over medium low heat.

Add the butter and continue mixing until the butter melts completely. This should only take a minute or two.

When the butter is melted, let the mixture boil, while continuing to mix. It should already be noticeably thicker by this point.

After less than a minute of boiling, the edges of the curd will start to pull away from the pan.

Remove it from the heat, stir, and pour into a heatproof container.

Some recipes will have you strain the curd before letting it cool. I’ve found there isn’t a need to with this method.*

*Of course, the first time I made it, I definitely strained those egg whites out!

I leave my curd on the counter for an hour or so and then refrigerate it. You’ll know you did it right if it is thick and free of any eggy evidence.

Spread it on toast, fill macarons with it, top your waffles with it, or just eat it by the spoonful!