My friends ask "OK, what do you do with it? Well, many things, my favorite, which I made the other night for a dinner party at my house, was to take the angel food cups you buy at the store in packs of four, sliced strawberries with sugar over them to sweat out the juice of the strawberries (did that a few hours before), then layer it, first the cup, then the curd, strawberries over it and a large spoonful of Cool Whip over it, what a great summer recipe! You have the sweet and sour taste which has summer written all over it! YUM!
I put it on my bagel, add it to the filling of cakes, use it with scones, and use it as a dip for fruit, just to name a few.
So, off I went to try as many lemon curds as possible to find the best one. I went from very expensive to cheap (from $9.00 down to $2.25) trying to find the best one. I have really wanted to make a recipe but scared to because of the possibility that the eggs will cook and have bits of eggs in it, I don't think so EWWWWE!
Looking and looking I saw one that I FINALLY decided to try it, what the heck, if I don't like it I will just throw it away.
Wow! Was it fun to make, and boy is it fabulous!
So here are the instructions. Let me what you think....
These are the tools you will need:
Mixing with the hand mixer: Don't get scared, it is supposed to curdle.
Putting the mixture into the saucepan, but NOT on the....
Stove! See what happens when I try to take pictures and pour at the same time!
This is low heat, just keep stirring, MAKE SURE YOU DO NOT HAVE IT BOIL, or you will be eating eggs in it, YUCK!
After 15 minutes, the curd will turn beautiful yellow and thicken up so you can see the separation on the back of the spoon.
It will thicken up once it cools down and I almost immediately put it into a canning car, wow isn't it gorgeous!
The recipe is as follows:3 oz. (6 Tbs.) unsalted butter, softened at room temperature
1 cup sugar
2 large eggs
2 large egg yolks
2/3 cup fresh lemon juice
1 tsp. grated lemon zest
In a large bowl, beat the butter and sugar with an electric mixer, about 2 min. Slowly add the eggs and yolks. Beat for 1 min. Mix in the lemon juice. The mixture will look curdled, but it will smooth out as it cooks.
In a medium, heavy-based saucepan, cook the mixture over low heat until it looks smooth. (The curdled appearance disappears as the butter in the mixture melts.) Increase the heat to medium and cook, stirring constantly, until the mixture thickens, about 15 min. It should leave a path on the back of a spoon and will read 170°F on a thermometer. Don't let the mixture boil.
Remove the curd from the heat; stir in the lemon zest. Transfer the curd to a bowl. Press plastic wrap on the surface of the lemon curd to keep a skin from forming and chill the curd in the refrigerator. The curd will thicken further as it cools. Covered tightly, it will keep in the refrigerator for a week and in the freezer for 2 months.
Variations
For lime curd, substitute fresh lime juice and zest for lemon.
From Fine Cooking 26, pp. 52-54
April 1, 1998
Man, I love the internet!
