It seems like all over the foodie blog world Lemon Curd is all the hype the last few weeks. Maybe its because lemons are in season and cheaper or people are wanting more spring flavor, I’m not sure but I decided to find out for myself what the big deal was. I’ve never tried Lemon Curd before but the word curd just has negative connotations for me. Apparently, it has negative connotations for others too because when I told Josh what I was making he gave me a strange look and said I should change the name before blogging about it. Well I don’t think I can just change the name but here are some alternatives, none of which sound much better: Lemon Butter, Lemon Crème, or Lemon Spread. Your thoughts? Anyways, if you can get past the name and try the stuff I promise you’ll love it unless you don’t like sweet lemon buttery goodness.
Some things you can do with Lemon Curd: spread onto toast, drizzle over a scone, mix into whip cream for a lemony mousse dessert, spoon over some ice cream, or use in between layered cake. Lemon curd could have many uses I’m sure so you can use your imagination. I made a Lemon Icebox Cake with it. I’ll post that recipe also.

Lemon Curd
adapted from No Recipes

INGREDIENTS
1 stick unsalted butter
2-3 Meyer lemons zested
1/2 C Meyer lemon juice
3/4 C sugar
2 extra large eggs separated
*If you can’t find Meyer lemons any ol’ lemon will work. Right now Sunflower Market is selling lemons 3 for $1!

DIRECTIONS
Drop the whole stick of butter into a heavy bottomed saucepan over low heat and let it melt (the pan should be just warm enough to melt the butter). Once it’s mostly melted turn off the heat.

In a medium bowl, add the sugar and zest a few lemons into it. Then squeeze about 1/2 C of juice and add it to the sugar.
Separate the eggs, dropping the yolks into the pot of melted (but not hot) butter and the whites into the sugar mixture.

Whisk the yolks and butter together until well combined. Careful not to overcook you don’t want to scramble the eggs! Then take the whisk to the sugar mixture until well combined. Pour the sugar mixture into the pot with the butter and whisk it all together.

Turn the heat back on to low and use a heat-proof silicon spatula to constantly stir the mixture, scrapping the bottom and sides of the pan to make sure nothing burns. If you have an instant read thermometer, just get the temp up to 170 degrees and you should be golden. Otherwise, just keep stirring until the curd thickens enough to coat the spatula. Make sure you don’t over cook it!

As soon as it’s done, take it off the heat and pour it into another container.

For a full list of VintageMixer recipes click here.