Easy Lemon Curd
This easy lemon curd recipe takes 10 minutes to make and has only 4 ingredients, so whip up a batch of this sweet dessert filling today!
Servings: 8
Calories: 123kcal
Equipment
- Saucepan
- Whisk or Fork
- Fine Mesh Strainer or Cheesecloth (optional)
Ingredients
- 3 egg yolks
- 2 whole egg
- ½ cup sugar
- Zest of two lemons about 1/4 cup
- Juice of two lemons about 2 tablespoons
- 3 tbsp butter
- pinch of salt optional, if using unsalted butter
Instructions
- Mix or whisk egg yolk, egg, and sugar in heavy bottomed saucepan until light and pale.
- Add lemon juice and zest
- Stirring constantly, cook over medium heat until thick and bubbling, about 5-7 minutes
- It should be thick enough to coat the back of a spoon
- Remove from heat and stir in butter one tablespoon at a time
- While still warm, strain through a mesh sieve
- Let cool and then cover and refrigerate until ready to use. It will thicken as it cools.
Notes
- Zest the lemon them juice it! This seems very obviously, but it's very easy to forget.
- Try to only zest the yellow parts of the lemon. The white part can be bitter.
- Make sure to continuously stir the lemon curd mix as it cooks. The constant stirring helps ensure the egg whites don’t separate and cook.
- Straining out the lemon zest is optional. I personally prefer a perfectly smooth curd, so I like to strain it, but you don’t mind the zest you can skip this step.
- This recipe makes about 1 cup of lemon curd and can be doubled or tripled as needed.
- This recipe will last up to two weeks in the fridge or up to 3 months in the freezer.
Nutrition
Serving: 2tbsp | Calories: 123kcal | Carbohydrates: 13g | Protein: 2g | Fat: 7g | Saturated Fat: 4g | Cholesterol: 125mg | Sodium: 56mg | Potassium: 23mg | Sugar: 13g | Vitamin A: 288IU | Calcium: 16mg | Iron: 1mg