I love lemon curd, but I also love tart lemon as opposed to sweet lemon. I was looking for a way to make my lemon curd even more tart recognizing that sugar is essential to the consistency of the recipes. Then in a moment I had it. Though this may not be a ‘purist’ version of lemon curd it certainly served my purposes.
I made the lemon curd from a previous post…. here… then I added 1/4 cup of fresh squeezed lemon juice and a tablespoon of cornstarch (mixed while cold) then added to the mixture. This allowed me to make more of the curd without adding more sugar, thus a more tart lemon curd.
- Juice of 5-6 large lemons (1 cup fresh lemon juice) and zest
- ½ (or less) cup sugar
- 3 large eggs
- 1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, chilled and cut into small parts
- 1Tablespoon cornstarch
Using a double boiler, combine the egg yolks, sugar, lemon juice, and zest in a metal or glass heat-resistant bowl and whisk until smooth. Set the bowl over the simmering water, without letting the bottom touch, and continue to whisk. Whisk until the curd has doubled in volume and is very thick and yellow. Don’t let it boil but bring it up to just about the point of boiling. Remove the bowl from heat and whisk in the butter, a couple of chunks at a time, until melted.
I used this curd to cut the sweetness of a pavlova that I made…that’s why I wanted something with a strong tart component…. recipe of that and pics still to come! 🙂
