Loading

SWEET LEMON CURD

There are a million uses for this sweet lemon curd. You can use it between cake layers, or as a cupcake filling. You can use it on hot scones or even toast. You can fold it into sweetened whipped cream for a delicious mousse, anything your imagination can come up with. Slightly sweet, silky smooth and inexpensive to make, you will love this recipe.
 Lemon Mousse Made with Lemon Curd

There are a ton of lemon curd recipes out there and they are all basically made from lemons, sugar, butter and eggs cooked together. The main difference between the recipes is sweetness. We like our lemon curd a little on the sweet side, so I use 1½ cups of sugar in my recipe. I've seen recipes out there that only call for ½ cup of sugar per three lemons...talk about pucker power!!

3 lemons (zested & juiced)
1½ cups granulated sugar
¼ pound of unsalted butter (room temperature)
4 extra large eggs
½ cup fresh squeezed lemon juice (3 to 4 lemons)
1/8 teaspoon kosher salt

Don't waste your time, effort and money making lemon curd with anything but good fresh lemons. I use lemon juice in a bottle for some things, but not for this recipe. 

Wash and dry your lemons before you zest them. When you zest them, be very careful that you only use the bright yellow part of the peeling. Stay away from the white layer underneath because it is bitter.  Zest all three lemons.
Put the granulated sugar and the zest of 3 lemons into a food processor fitted with a steel blade. Pulse until the zest is very finely minced into the sugar.

In a different bowl, cream the room temperature butter until smooth, then beat in the lemon sugar. Beat in the eggs, one at a time, and then the lemon juice and salt. Beat until smooth.

Pour the mixture into a saucepan that has a heavy bottom (this will keep the mixture from scorching easily). Cook over low heat until thickened (about 10 minutes) stirring constantly.

The lemon curd will thicken at about 170 degrees or just below a simmer.  Keep a careful eye on it and keep stirring.

Press the cooked curd through a strainer to filter out any cooked zest pieces and/or tiny lumps.
This last step is not absolutely necessary, but it insures a silky smooth curd. Lay some plastic wrap directly onto the surface of the hot curd, and chill in the fridge.



Lemon Curd

NOTE: Zest the lemons before you squeeze them.

NOTE: If you want to make the lemon mousse that is in the first photo, just whip 1 cup of heavy whipping cream with ¼ cup of granulated sugar until you get stiff peaks, then gently fold in 1½ cups of chilled lemon curd, until well mixed (do this step by hand). Chill completely.

Follow RecipesDream