Homemade Lemon Curd

If you haven't noticed, it's citrus season! And I happen to have a lot of those in my back yard. An orange tree, 2 lemon trees, 2 mandarin trees and a clementine one. And a girl can only use so many lemons in the kitchen 😅. SO I thought.. hmm lemon curd, why not? I also use a lot of egg whites in the Frosting Bar kitchen, so I had some yolks ready to be used.

Initially, I didn't know exactly what to do with the curd. I just wanted to make it. And then I remembered my auntie's lemon cake with lemon curd, and thought: Lemon Curd Pound Cake!! So after I made the lemon curd, I whipped up a pound cake, a plain one and a lemon swirled one.

And then, inspiration hit!! There are just so many things you can do with this curd!! These are the recipes I ended up using it in:

• Lemon Curd Pound Cake

• Lemon Thumbprint Cookies with Pistachios and a White Chocolate Drizzle

• Lemon Curd Pancakes (this was a suggestion for someone on YouTube!)

Here is your shopping list for the curd:

• sugar

• lemons (both the zest and the juice)

• egg yolks

• unsalted butter

How to make the curd:

Firstly, you need to bring the sugar and lemon zest and juice to a boil. Then, you are going to gradually add that to the egg yolks, slowly, so that the eggs don't seize. You do that by adding a little juice mixture to the yolks, and then you add the yolk mixture back into the juice. Meanwhile, you keep whisking. I know it sounds scary if you haven't done that before, but trust me, it is super easy!

Cook the mixture for about 10 minutes, on medium heat. This is KEY! If you rush this and raise the temperature, then your curd will smell egg-y. This will reach a pudding like consistency. Don't be afraid to cook a couple of extra minutes.

You can start adding the cubed butter in small batches. Keep whisking, constantly! You will stop when the butter melts completely and is well blended after each addition. If you want, you can pass this through a sieve to get it silky smooth.

Place plastic wrap directly on the curd, and place it in the fridge for at least 3 hours. We place the wrap directly on the curd, to avoid a film from forming.