Lemon Curd

Last Sunday was a bit of a bake-a-thon for me, yielding, amongst other things, coconut macaroons and leaving me with a number of leftover egg yolks. The last time I made macaroons, I used the leftover yolks for pudding. This time, I wanted to do something different. I’d never had lemon curd before, much less made it. But I’d recently watched The Egg-Files episode of Good Eats in which Alton Brown whipped up a batch in a matter of minutes, so I thought I’d give it a try myself.

Let me start off by apologizing for the lack of in-process pictures. I made this in a bit of a rush when I was getting ready to leave town for a couple days and remembered I still had the yolks in the fridge. I was already running a little late, only to fall even more behind schedule when I stopped to taste the finished product and realized that I needed to take pictures of it, so that I might pass the deliciousness on to all of you. I mean wow, is this stuff good! But what does one do with it? Many things, I imagine, though I haven’t been able to get past eating it with gingerbread, or just straight off my fingers . . .

Lemon Curd
(from Good Eats)

yield: 2 cups

• 5 egg yolks
• 1 cup of sugar
• 4 lemons (zest and juice)
• 1 stick of butter, cut into tablespoon-sized pieces and chilled

Set up a double boiler with an inch of water in the bottom pan. Combine yolks and sugar in a bowl and whisk until smooth (about 1 minute). Measure out lemon juice and, if necessary, add cold water to bring to ⅓ of a cup. Whisk juice and zest into egg mixture. When the water in the double boiler reaches a simmer, reduce the heat to low and add mixture to the top pan. Whisk continually until mixture has thickened enough to coat the back of a spoon (around 8 minutes). Remove from heat and begin to stir in butter one pat at a time, making sure each one has dissolved before adding another. Transfer to a clean container, cover with plastic wrap so that it sits directly on the surface of the curd, and refrigerate for up to 2 weeks.