Home-made Lemon Curd – Time to Make this again

 

I have made jams and a chutney before but this was my very first attempt at lemon curd – and it turned out just great!  And was quicker to do than jam or chutney.  What's not to love?

The only thing is that I realised how much butter and sugar goes into it – we have used bought lemon curd up to now – and liked it very much – no wonder with all the butter in there!  We now have it straight on toast rather than buttering first.

Ingredients

8-9 lemons – enough to make 1 ¼ cups of lemon juice (which you strain)

220g butter, cubed (just under 8 oz)

1 ½ cups of caster sugar

Finely grated zest of 1 lemon – I used my microplane

6 large eggs

Now I have put quantities in – because for this recipe the relative proportions are important to the result.  This made 3 normal sized jars.

I won't tell you how to get your jars ready.  You might sterilise etc.  I just rinse clean jars in hot water.  And keep the curd in the fridge.

If you have a double boiler you should use it.  I didn't so put a metal bowl over the top of a saucepan and it worked just fine.

So you get your water to the boil – don't put in too much – it mustn't touch the bottom of the bowl.

Pop your bowl on top and then put in your sugar, butter, lemon zest and lemon juice.  Heat over medium heat until the butter has all melted.

In another bowl whisk the eggs well – now comes the only tricky part.  You put the egg into the butter mixture and then anxiously stir it continuously with a wooden spoon until it thickens.  Now don't stop stirring – but also pull the bowl away from the heat and check that the water underneath is only simmering gently.  If you apply too much heat at this stage things will turn to scrambled egg!  Disaster.

The moment I felt it thickening – which took about 5 to 7 minutes, I pulled it off the heat and stirred furiously to ensure the bottom wasn't sticking.  Don't worry if it is still a bit runny – it will thicken some more when it cools.

Pour the mixture though a sieve and then pour it into the jars – using your jam funnel, if you have one.

I put little waxed paper discs on top of each pot and then put on the lids.  The waxed discs are optional but I think they give a better seal.

The store bought version costs $4.99 a jar and I worked out that my version cost $3.00 for the ingredients.  If you counted my time and the gas it would probably have been cheaper to buy it.  But the result was so perfectly to our taste that I am sure I will do it again.