Easy lemon curd
This easy lemon curd is so much better than store-bought and is a delicious sweet, tart and creamy dessert that can be spread on cakes, biscuits, scones or dolloped onto yoghurt. This recipe uses only 4 ingredients and comes together in 20 minutes. lemon curd can be stored in a jar in the fridge or freezer.
I had so many lemons and leftover eggs from a meringue experiment I thought I had better make this easy lemon curd. My recipe for easy passion fruit curd is very popular on Drizzleanddip and I adapted it to make this lemon curd. The egg yolks of the free-range eggs I used were a deep orange, so the curd came out a lovely amber colour. I also used only the yolks vs a mix of whole eggs and yolks as per the recipe – but I have given both options.
Curd is great to have on hand and I always keep a jar stashed away in the freezer. It freezes so well. Even in glass. I love to stir it through Greek yoghurt and dollop it onto fruit salad or this Dutch baby pancake with blueberries and lemon. Or any of my 4 favourite pancake recipes really.
Its lovely drizzled over a cake-like with this passionfruit curd loaf cake. You could adapt my no-bake granadilla meringues to lemon meringue or convert my passionfruit meringue ice cream into a lemon meringue ice cream. Or fill profiteroles as I did with these passion fruit profiteroles with white chocolate drizzle. It goes really well with muesli or these creamy overnight oats.
Lemon curd is a delicious and tart spread that is perfect to include in many desserts. It can be sandwiched between sponge cakes or biscuits, poured over meringues, dolloped onto pancakes, scones or turned into gooey tarts. It is also wonderful just spooned directly out of the jar.
A few tips when making easy lemon curd
It is important to temper the hot with the cold mixture as per my instructions to avoid scrambling the egg.
Butter can be added before or after a recipe, but with this method, I have melted it with the lemon juice and sugar.
The egg yolks help thicken lemon curd, whilst the butter adds creaminess. The sugar makes it sweet and the lemon juice gives it a tart citrus flavour.
PrintLemon curd recipe
A delicious and simple lemon curd recipe using freshly squeezed lemon juice. This can be adapted to any citrus or passion fruit.
- Prep Time: 15 mins
- Cook Time: 15 - 20 minutes
- Total Time: 13 minutes
- Yield: about 2 cups / 500ml
- Category: Dessert
- Method: Boiling
- Cuisine: N/A
Ingredients
6 large eggs (free-range or organic only) – (or 6 egg yolks if this is what you have)
120g butter
1 cup of sugar
1 cup of lemon juice
Instructions
Heat the juice, butter and sugar in a heavy-based pot until the sugar has dissolved and it reaches boiling point. Remove from the heat and allow it to cool slightly (about 5 minutes).
Beat the eggs until fluffy in a bowl and then very quickly, pour about 1/4 of the warm liquid into the egg mixture while whisking all the time. This helps temper the mixture and prevent the eggs from curdling. Then pour that in with the remaining warm juice.
Place this all back on the heat and whisk constantly until the mixture becomes thick. Allow it to cool in the pot which further thickens it and then empty into a sterilised jar and store in the fridge. If you are using egg yolks only, it will take longer to thicken (about 20 minutes).
Notes
It is important to temper the hot with the cold mixture as per my instructions to avoid scrambling the egg.
Keywords: lemon curd, recipe, easy, how to make easy lemon curd
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Lemon curd is THE BIZNIZ – I can eat it all day every day! Sam, what kind of recipe plug-in / template are you using? It looks very cool!
Hi, just checking recipe.. could you clarify… as when using yolks only …calculations seem incorrect for it states
6 yolks for ?double and ?treble amounts..
If I’m correct
x 2 should read 12 yolks
x 3 should read 18 yolks
thanks
Hi Mairia, The recipe states that you can use 6 whole eggs or 6 whole yolks. Whichever you prefer. I explain this in my blog post too. The feature that extrapolates the recipe up is automated so it cant pick up 2 different types of ingredients. You can surely just double or triple this recipe. simply x by 2 for double and x by 3 for triple.
Hello Maria – I have just checked and the feature does calculate both the eggs and the egg yolks up correctly. 2 x = double which is equal to 12 eggs. 3 x = triple which is 18 eggs.