Joyfully Domestic: Lemon Curd

We LOVE lemon curd around here. LOVE it. We make it all the time and give it away for hostest gifts, housewarming gifts, Christmas gifts, etc.

It is actually easier to make than you think. And you only need 4 things. Lemons, butter, sugar and eggs. Over the years I've tried dozens of recipies and have developed this one.

You will need:

3 lemons

1 stick butter

2 cups sugar

6 eggs

A juicer, zester and a food processer. And a pot.

Start by dumping 2 cups sugar into the food processer. Then zest the lemons on top of the sugar.

After you zest the lemons, juice them and set aside. You may get anywhere from 1/2 cup to 3/4 cup. Doesn't really matter by the way. Use it all.... whatever you get from 3 lemons.

At this point I line up my stuff. Here it is in the order I'll use it. Lemon - sugar. Butter. Eggs. Lemon juice.

Then process the sugar and zest until the zest is WELL processed. This may take several minutes. You want to get the zest as fine in texture as the sugar if possible. This allows you to avoid the straining step so many curd recipies include.

Drop in the butter. I use salted. You can use unsalted. If you do, toss in a big pinch of salt.

Cream the lemon-sugar and butter.

Add eggs, 1 at a time.

Then the juice.

It should look something like this.

Dump the mixture into a heavy pot. Put over low to medium heat. Stir.

Stir some more. This will take about 10 minutes.

Now you want to stir as it heats up. Don't stop stirring. After about 10 minutes it will noticably thicken. It happens suddenly so don't walk away. This happens at about 165-175 degrees. Feel free to check the temp if you are nervous about missing the "sweet moment". Notice the mixture below looks thick... like warm pudding. At this point take it off the heat. You are done!