SWEET LEMON CURD

There are a ton of lemon curd recipes out there and they are all basically made from fresh lemons, sugar, butter and eggs cooked together. The main difference between the recipes is the degree of sweetness.  We like our lemon curd a little on the sweeter side, so I use 1½ cups of sugar in my recipe.  I've seen other recipes that use only ½ cup of sugar for every three lemons...talk about tart!!

There are a million uses for this sweet lemon curd. You can use it between cake layers, or as a cupcake filling. You can use it on hot scones or even toast. You can fold it into sweetened whipped cream for a delicious mousse, anything your imagination can come up with. Slightly sweet, silky smooth and inexpensive to make, you will love this recipe.

1/2 cup fresh squeezed lemon juice (3 or 4 lemons)
1½ cups granulated sugar
¼ pound of unsalted butter (room temperature)
4 extra large eggs
1/8 teaspoon kosher salt

Don't waste your time, effort and money making lemon curd with anything but good fresh lemons. I use lemon juice in a bottle for some things, but not for this recipe. 

Wash, rinse and dry your lemons before you zest them. Be very careful that you only use the bright yellow part of the peeling. Stay away from the white layer underneath because it is BITTER.  Zest three lemons.

Put the granulated sugar and the zest of 3 lemons into a food processor fitted with a steel blade. Pulse until the zest is very finely minced into the sugar.

In a different bowl, cream the room temperature butter until smooth, then beat in the lemon sugar. Beat in the eggs, one at a time, and then the lemon juice and salt. Beat until smooth.

Pour the mixture into a saucepan that has a heavy bottom (this will keep the mixture from scorching easily). Cook over low heat until thickened (about 10 minutes) stirring constantly.

The lemon curd will thicken at about 170 degrees or just below a simmer.  Keep a careful eye on it and keep stirring.

Press the cooked curd through a strainer to filter out any cooked zest pieces and/or tiny lumps.

Straining it is not absolutely necessary, but it insures a silky smooth curd.

Lay some plastic wrap directly onto the surface of the hot curd, and chill in the fridge.

NOTE: Zest the lemons before you cut and squeeze them.