The Best Lemon Curd Recipe
An Original Recipe by Not Quite Nigella
Preparation time: 5 minutes
Cooking time: 25 minutes
Makes about 350mls/12.36fl ozs.
- 5 egg yolks (try and remove as much of the white as possible, if you have some egg white attached, strain the yolks through a fine sieve to get rid of the white)
- 3/4 cup/165g/5.7ozs caster sugar for a tart curd or 1 cup/220g/7.7ozs for a sweet curd
- 125g/4ozs butter, cut into cubes
- 3 lemons
Step 1 - Whisk the egg yolks and sugar in a heavy bottomed saucepan. Set on low to medium heat (I set it on 4 out of 10 where 10 is the hottest temperature). Add the butter and heat slowly until the butter melts.
Step 2 - Zest two of the lemons and add the zest to the egg yolk mixture. Juice the lemons to make 1 cup of lemon juice. Wait until the butter has melted to add the lemon juice. Stir using the whisk or a spoon - the egg yolks are more forgiving than if you use whole eggs. It takes about 15 minutes for it to thicken up and stirring every so often is good. It thickens on cooling and I remove it from the heat, put the lid on it and let it thicken from there. When cool, placed in sterilised jars.