For someone who claims to hate lemons, I sure cook a lot of lemon-based Cakes & Bakes recipes!
This week, I needed one lemon for something or other but saw one of those string bags of lemons in the supermarket for a whole 25p – cheaper than buying it singly.
I ended up with half a dozen lemons in the fruit bowl that needed using up. More drizzle cake? Cookies? Sorbet? Meringue?
I’ll let you in on a secret. Even though I generally can’t bear the taste or smell of lemon, I LOVE lemon curd – I don’t know why! Lemon curd on hot, buttered toast is divine – and it’s a doddle to make.
I found a really simple recipe in my favourite celebrity chef, Delia Smith’s Cookery Course Part Two. I scaled up her recipe which made enough to fill two 400ml Mason jars. As well as being good on breakfast toast, you can use it in a sponge sandwich like I did here, lemon curd tarts or lemon roulade.
Don’t worry if your mixture looks like it’s curdling when it begins to cook. Once the temperature is low, you keep stirring and the butter begins to melt – it will all be fine!
Lemon curd
Ingredients
- 300 g/10½oz caster sugar
- 4 large lemons finely grated zest and juice
- 8 large eggs
- 200 g/7oz butter
Instructions
- Put the grated lemon zest and sugar into a large bowl
- In a large measuring jug, whisk the lemon juice together with the eggs
- Pour the lemon juice & egg mixture over the zest & sugar mixture
- Add the butter cut into small cubes and put the bowl over a pan of just simmering water
- Stir frequently until thickened - about 30 minutes
- Decant into sterilised jars before screwing the lids down tightly