Sweet, sour, and smooth: it’s today’s recipe for homemade Lemon Curd! Most jams and jellies are a delicious way to add some sweet fruit flavors to breakfast breads and pastries (yeah, I said most. Looking at you, marmalade, you weird spoonful of bitter orange pulp). Lemon curd is the perfect balance between sour and sweet. The batch we made for this post did not last long as it was so delicious and goes with a lot of different fruits, breads, and pastries.
Spread on a bagel or english muffin or filling for a pastry, lemon curd adds just the right tart flavors while still being sweet. It’s also great with other fruit you may be eating for breakfast. Lemon always pairs well with blueberries, particularly more mature sweeter ones. (Dreaming of Michigan summer blueberries!) We put it on a homemade cinnamon bagel, and the cinnamon actually went really well with the sour notes.
You’re basically making a lemon custard that’s still spreadable. It’s a fairly simple recipe, though you’ll want to be paying close attention as you cook the eggs on the stove so that they don’t go too fast and scramble. Just in case, it’s worth putting the final product through a fine mesh strainer to ensure any bits of overcooked egg, curdled milk, and all the lemon zest are removed to make the lemon curd as smooth and consistent as possible.
Making custards is a useful skill. They look complicated but aren’t, can deliver lots of taste, and are frequently components of other fabulous foods like ice cream or custard pies. There are ways to use custard in breakfast foods, but why not just dive in and make dessert instead?! No one is stopping you from having dessert for breakfast.
If you for some reason feel like you’ve got enough sugar in your breakfast, then you’ve got a few alternative dessert options for using this lemon curd. You could make it into a tart if you have or are making a crust. You could used it as a topping for a sorbet or fruity ice cream. Or, as we did, you can just layer it in a bowl with some blueberry compote, pipe a bit of homemade whipped cream on there, and add just a dash of freshly ground cardamom.
- 2 eggs
- 1 egg yolk
- 100 g sugar approx. ½ cup
- ½ cup lemon juice approx. 2-3 lemons (120g)
- 1 Tb heavy cream
- ¼ stick of butter 2 Tb
- ½ Tb lemon zest approx. 1 lemon worth
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Whisk eggs, yolk, and sugar together in a heatproof bowl. Set a strainer in a separate bowl. Set both aside.
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In a pan over medium heat, melt the butter with the lemon juice, heavy cream, and lemon zest. Don’t worry if the cream appears to curdle slightly. Heat until nearly boiling, when small bubbles appear on the edges of the pan.
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Very slowly pour the hot liquid into bowl with the eggs and sugar, whisking continuously.
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Now pour all of the contents of the heatproof bowl back into the pan and bring to medium heat.
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Stirring continuously with a wooden spoon and frequently scraping the bottom and sides of the pan, heat the mixture for about 5 minutes. You’re ready to take it off the heat when the mixture quickly thickens to the point where it coats the spoon without dripping off. Don’t heat too fast, and keep stirring so that the eggs don’t overcook and scramble.
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As soon as the mixture has thickened, pour into your remaining bowl through the strainer. Dispose of any solids that stick in the strainer.
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Let cool in the refrigerator for 2 hours.
Refrigerate for up to a week (though we doubt it will last that long!)