Meyer Lemon Curd

 

So I had never made lemon curd before.  I definitely enjoy it in baked goods.  Its lush, luxurious, silky, pudding-like texture and its bright, peppy, lemony flavor.  I always figured it was complicated, protracted, or better purchased.  That is!  Until my mom sent me a box of Meyer lemons!  So I made Meyer Lemon Curd!

Right?!  Nice!

I must shop at all the wrong stores here in Chicago as I never come across Meyer lemons.  Though doing a quick perusal online of area grocery stores, the ones that do claim to carry them (and it's shockingly not many) are out of stock.

So maybe it's not just me and Meyer lemons in Chicago are a rarity.

Lucky for me then that my mom shipped me that box filled with fresh ones from California!  Right from a Meyer lemon tree.  Could not get any closer to fresh!

Mike's not a big lemon fan, or a lemon fan at all I should say, though of late I've been getting a sparse few lemony things into him and he's quite enjoyed them.  There's hope yet!

Which is good because lemon baked goods are *mwah,* yum.  Plus yellow, it is my favorite color after all.

What differentiates Meyer Lemon Curd from the regular lemon variety?  Meyer lemons are sweeter rather than tarter though these my mom sent were definitely perky. 

This particular lemon curd is lower in sugar than many recipes I've searched, which I very much appreciated.  Despite sugar being what courses through my veins.

Hey, trust me, I love me some sugar just like I love me some chocolate, but overdoing either, anything, makes for an unbalanced baked good in my book.  Baked goods and related are best when balanced.

I will grant, this Meyer Lemon Curd is perky tart but note, it could be the particular lemons I used so feel free to adjust the sugar amount based on how bright or how sweet your particular lemons are tasting.

Then again, I like perky tart.  I am perky tart.  Yikes, oh my, haha!
 

So happy and pretty, right?!

Anyway!

So again, making lemon curd at home is shockingly easy and this Meyer Lemon Curd is no exception.

What can you use it for?  Lots of things!  And no doubt there will be forthcoming recipes here on the ol' Bake Dept that include it.

All told, this recipe makes about a cup and a half, plenty for a few different recipes or to jar up and give as gifts, if you're able to part with it that is.

As a bonus, you can freeze this Meyer Lemon Curd if you don't expect you'll make it through the batch.  What a great bonus, right?!  I've got some in the freezer as I sit here typing this, mostly because I have too many things I want to try and can't decide.

Oh, right...How many Meyer lemons are you going to need for this?  Ya know, it's a tough call as they tend to vary in size but on average, there's about two to three-ish tablespoons of juice per lemon, so you'll need about three or four of them to reach a half cup.

Right, so ok!

So easy.

Grab a saucepan* and pour about an inch in height of water in there, plop it on the stove on low, get that water simmering.  Very similar plan here as if you were melting chocolate on the stove.

Next, grab a bowl that will sit atop said saucepan* but not in it, then toss in all the ingredients except for the butter.   Drop the butter into another bowl and set a fine mesh strainer* on top of that.

Oh, ya know, when I first read this recipe through, I realized it strains out the zest at the end.  If you want the zest to stay in your lemon curd, you can toss it in at the end, or, if you're ambitious, maybe scoop it out of the strainer and add it back to the mix.

Give that a nice whisk around until everything is thoroughly blended then pop the bowl on top of the simmering water.  Make sure the water's got some nice heat going and that the bowl bottom isn't touching it.
 

Now here's the hardest part of this whole recipe, you gotta stand there and whisk* the entire time.  I know.  But you can do this, I know you can.

You're going to keep whisking and whisking and whisking until things thicken up to, well, lemon curd consistency, a bit thicker or rounds about say, a pudding.

Depending on your heat level, this could go relatively quick or kinda slow and take longer than the time mentioned below.  If you need to adjust the heat, do so but you're not looking for a rapid boil otherwise the eggs will cook up solid, ew.

Now that you're tired of standing there and whisking and it's finally thickened up nicely, pour that lovely Meyer Lemon Curd through the strainer over the butter, straining out any cooked egg bits.

Last bit of whisking here, and trust me, all of this will be so worth your time, whisk that butter in until it has melted and everything is nice and smoooooth.

All righty!  Just like a pudding, lay some plastic wrap directly on the surface of your swanky homemade curd and throw that in to the fridge to chill until it's completely cold.

All set!  Now you've done it!  You've made Meyer Lemon Curd!  Nice!  Congrats!

Spread it on some scones maybe, or toast if you'd like, make something yummy with it, or just lick it off a spoon.

Have fun!

*The first saucepan link, the mixing bowls, whisks, and fine mesh strainers are Amazon affiliate links.  The second saucepan link is a HexClad affiliate link.  Happy baking, thanks!  Please see the "info" tab for more, well, info.