This lemon curd recipe makes the easiest lemon curd with 4 simple ingredients and in under 30 minutes. It has a smooth velvety texture, and sweet, tangy taste is so unique and delicious, you can eat it on its own.
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❤️Why you will love this recipe
- This is an easy recipe for easy homemade lemon curd with only 4 simple ingredients.
- It is a made from scratch recipe and you get to make your own lemon curd in under 30 minutes.
- This simple recipe makes a fairly small batch of lemon curd, so if you do not want to make too much curd at one time, this is the best lemon curd recipe for you.
- It is a great recipe to use up extra bunch of lemons you have at home.
- The recipe makes perfect lemon curd every single time, with a deliciously intense lemon flavor.
- The recipe uses whole eggs so there is no hassle of separating egg yolks and egg whites.
- With a perfect combination of sweet and tart lemon flavor, this luscious lemon curd is perfect for lemon lovers. You can use it if your own favorite way to make baked desserts, or simply use it as a topping or filling or as a spread.
Like this homemade lemon curd recipe? Here are my other posts you might want to check out:
- Lemon Curd Cheesecake (The Ultimate Lemon Cheesecake)
- Lemon Chocolate Chip Cookies
- Old Fashioned Lemon Pound Cake
- Candied Lemon Slices (How to Make)
- Candied Lemon Peel (How to Make)
- Lemon Blueberry Cake Loaf with Lemon Glaze
- Moist Sour Cream Lemon Cake
- Frozen Lemonade Concentrate
- Lemonade Popsicles
- Lemonade Sorbet (How to Make)
- Brown Sugar Lemonade
📋Ingredients
- Lemons - you will both the zest (rind) as well as the juice. Use fresh lemons. Always strain your lemon juice before measuring and adding to your curd to remove any seeds and pulp.
- White sugar - either coarse sugar or granulated sugar will work for this recipe.
- Whole eggs - use room temperature, large eggs.
- Butter - I use salted butter. The butter enhances the taste of the curd.
*Refer to the recipe card below for full list of ingredients and exact quantities. For best results, use a digital kitchen scale where applicable*
🧾Substitution and Variations
- The recipe above calls for the use of salted butter. If you prefer to use unsalted butter, you would need to add ⅛ teaspoon of fine salt to your curd along with the butter.
This recipe has not been tested with other substitutions or variations. If you do try, please let me know in the comments section below!
👩🍳How to Make
Preparing the zest and sugar
Here is the step by step guide on how to make lemon curd from scratch:
- Start by getting your lemons ready. Zest the skin and juice the fruits.
- Strain the juice and set it aside.
- Mix the zest with sugar.
- Blend both in a food processor to a fine powder.
Cooking the curd
- Add the blended sugar into a heatproof bowl. Add the lemon juice and double boil over medium-low heat until the sugar is melted while whisking occasionally.
- Once sugar is melted, add the lightly beaten eggs and butter and continue to double boil until the mixture starts to thicken. Keep whisking the entire time.
- Once the curd has thickened, check its consistency by dipping a spoon into the curd. If the curd covers the back of the spoon as you lift it out, the curd is cooked and can be removed from heat.
- Strain the curd with a fine mesh strainer to remove any lumps, especially the eggs. At this stage, if the lemon zest was not finely blended earlier on, it will get strained out here, so it actually helps to finely process it.
- Wrap the lemon curd with a piece of plastic wrap. Make sure the cling wrap touches the entire surface of the curd to avoid skin from forming on top of the curd as it cools down.
- Let the curd cool down completely and keep it in the refrigerator until ready to use.
🍽️Serving & storage
- When cooling the curd, cover the surface with a plastic wrap. Make sure the wrap touches the surface of your curd. This will avoid your curd from forming a skin that can affect its smooth consistency.
- Keep the curd refrigerated. It can be refrigerated for about a week.
- If frozen, this delicious tangy curd can be kept for a good 3 months. Bring the curd to room temperature before using it.
💡Expert Tips
- When zesting and juicing the lemons, always zest first and then juice them. It is so much easier to zest the skin when the fruit is still full of juice and round.
- When adding lemon zest to the curd, you have two options. The first option is to blend it together with sugar to form a fine powder so that you get a really smooth curd without any obvious lemon skin bits in it.
- The other option is to skip the blending process and add the zest directly to the curd. With this option, you will get to feel the lemon skin in your curd. If you like it this way, then add the zest without processing it into a fine powder.
- The curd need not be cooked until it is absolutely thick. Constantly check the consistency with the back of a spoon. If the curd covers the back of a spoon, it is ready and can be removed from heat. The curd will continue to thicken as it cools.
⭐What can you use the lemon curd for?
- Lemon curd is used in many desserts like lemon meringue pie, lemon bars, lemon tart, lemon pie, cheesecakes like this lemon curd cheesecake, cakes like this Earl Grey pound cake and cookies.
- It also pairs well as a delicious spread on your toast, French toast or even scones and as fillings in round shaped brioche doughnuts and between layers of cake, just to name a few.
- Try it as a topping for simple homemade churned ice cream, pancakes or waffles to a lovely tangy lemon flavor.
💭FAQs
Always use fresh lemon juice. Any kind of bottled lemon juice will not produce the same results as fresh lemons, so it is really worth using fresh fruit.
When cooking the curd, always do it on a double boiler. Never cook the curd over direct heat as the heat can burn the curd.
Even on a double boiler, keep stirring and scraping the bottom of the bowl until mixture until it thickens. This is to avoid the eggs from getting lumpy in the curd.
If you do not have a double boiler, you can make one. Pour some water (about 2 or 3 inch height of water) into a small pot and place a heatproof bowl (stainless steel metal bowl or glass bowl) on top. Make sure the bowl is larger than the pot so that it rests on the rims of the pot and does not touch the water. Turn on the heat and the the steam from the hot water heat up the bowl and cook the curd.
If you do not keep stirring the curd after adding the eggs, the eggs will cook into lumps in the curd and this will cause lumpy texture in your curd.
Remember to keep stirring the curd as soon as you add the eggs, until it thickens. If you still find the curd with lumps, strain it after cooking to remove the lumps.
There could be a few possible reasons.
The recipe is not fully adhered to and the ingredients measurements are not accurate. Make sure you follow the recipe and the ingredients measure accurately.
Secondly, the curd may not have been cooked well. To achieve a thick consistency, you should cook the curd sufficiently. Try to return it to heat and cook a little longer until it reaches the desired consistency.
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📖Recipe
How to Make Lemon Curd (A Homemade Recipe)
For best results, use the metrics measurements. US customary measurements have not been tested and are only meant for guide.
Ingredients
- 3 eggs
- 200 g granulated sugar
- 1 tablespoon lemon zest (zest of one lemon)
- 90 ml lemon juice (approximately 1 and half lemons)
- 85 g salted butter
Instructions
- Zest the lemons. Cut and squeeze the juice. Strain the juice and set it aside.
- In a food processor, blend the sugar and the lemon zest until fine. This is an optional step but it helps in making sure the lemon zest becomes really fine so that it does not appear obvious in the curd.
- Add the sugar and lemon juice into a heatproof bowl and double boil until the sugar is melted.
- While the sugar and lemon juice is double-boiled, beat the eggs lightly and add to the sugar-lemon juice mixture. Keep whisking to avoid the eggs from turning lumpy.
- Add the butter and continue whisking until the mixture thickens. Use the back to of a spoon to test the lemon curd consistency. If the curd covers the back of the spoon, it is done and can be removed from heat.
- Strain the curd in a sieve to remove any lumps.
- Let the curd cool down. Cover the bowl with cling wrap, making sure the wrap touches the surface of the curd completely (to avoid a layer of skin forming on the surface of the curd as it cools).
- Refrigerate until cold and keep it refrigerated until ready for use.
Notes
- If using unsalted butter add ⅛ teaspoon salt.
- When zesting and juicing the lemons, always zest first and then juice them. It is so much easier to zest the skin when the fruit is still full of juice and round.
- When adding lemon zest to the curd, you have two options. The first option is to blend it together with sugar to form a fine powder so that you get a really smooth curd without any obvious lemon skin bits in it.
- The other option is to skip the blending process and add the zest directly to the curd. With this option, you will get to feel the lemon skin in your curd. If you like it this way, then add the zest without processing it into a fine powder.
- The curd need not be cooked until it is absolutely thick. Constantly check the consistency with the back of a spoon. If the curd covers the back of a spoon, it is ready and can be removed from heat. The curd will continue to thicken as it cools.
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