Easy Lemon Curd Recipe

Easy, home-made Lemon Curd

This Easy Lemon Curd Recipe will enable you to make fresh, zesty lemon curd in a matter of minutes. It is so easy to make and is totally different from over-sweetened shop-bought lemon curd which just does not have anything like the same level of sharp lemony flavour. This is one of those recipes where the minimal effort really pays off with a product that is so much better than the ready-made version.

Many people think it is hard to make Lemon Curd and worry about ending up with lemon-flavoured scrambled eggs rather than smooth curd. Do not worry! The acid in the lemon juice prevents the eggs scrambling when they are heated. All you need to do is cook over a low heat and make sure you stir the mixture while it is thickening. The whole recipe only takes around 10 minutes – quicker than going down to the shops to buy a jar of ready-made Lemon Curd.

You can make Curd from a number of other tropical fruit such as lime, orange, mango and passion fruit. I think it works best with strongly flavoured fruit – if you are a fan of rhubarb, have a look at my recipe for Rhubarb Curd.

There are so many uses for Easy Lemon Curd..

So what can you do with Lemon Curd? Well, lots and lots of things, actually! First off, it is great as a spread on bread as an alternative to jam or honey. It is also great stirred into plain yogurt or spooned over vanilla ice cream. However, in my opinion, it really comes into its own as a cooking ingredient. Its punch of lemony flavour is fantastic in all kinds of sweet dishes. It is particularly useful as a filling for cakes and in all kinds of puddings.

Other lemon-flavoured recipes

Lemon is one of my favourite flavours. I will always go for the lemon cake rather than the chocolate cake! If you like lemon too, you might like my Lemon Pavlova or easy Lemon Curd Ice Cream, both of which use my home-made Lemon Curd. Or you could check out some of my other lemon-flavoured recipes such as my Lemon Drizzle Cake, Lemon Biscuits and Lemon Verbena Ice Cream.

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Lemon Curd

Easy Lemon Curd Recipe

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  • Author: Tastebotanical
  • Prep Time: 5
  • Cook Time: 5
  • Total Time: 10 minutes
  • Yield: 300 ml lemon curd 1x
  • Category: Curd
  • Cuisine: English

Description

This Easy Lemon Curd Recipe is fool-proof and only takes ten minutes.  In less time than it takes to go to the shop to buy ready-made Lemon Curd, you can have the far superior zesty, lemony home-made version.


Ingredients

Scale
  • 2 unwaxed lemons
  • 85 g butter
  • 225 g caster sugar
  • 3 eggs

Lemon Curd


Instructions

  1. Finely grate the zest of the lemons into a small, heavy-based saucepan.
  2. Squeeze the lemons and add their juice to the saucepan together with the butter and sugar.
  3. Beat the eggs and add these to the saucepan.
  4. Put the saucepan over a very low heat and stir until the butter has melted and the ingredients have combined.
  5. Continue stirring over the low heat until the mixture has thickened.  This should take around five minutes.
  6. Pour the mixture into sterilised jam jars and allow to cool.

Lemon Curd


Notes

Make sure you use unwaxed lemons which are available in most supermarkets.  You want lemon zest rather than wax in your curd!

Don’t worry about ending up with scrambled eggs!  The acid in the lemon juice will prevent this.

You can sterilise your jam jars by washing them in warm, soapy water, rinsing well and then drying off for 15 minutes in an oven set at 140C/120C fan/gas 1.

The lemon curd will keep for three weeks in the refridgerator.

Loved this recipe? You may also like the following recipes. Or checkout the Recipe Index.

Rhubarb Curd and Rose Ice-cream

Rhubarb Curd and Rose Ice Cream

This Rhubarb Ice Cream is made from rhubarb curd flavoured with rosewater. It is a really quick and easy ice-cream which manages to taste both familiar and exotic and its soft pink colour looks wonderful!    Rhubarb and rose go very well together and each enhances the flavour of the other.  The sharpness of the rhubarb, the sweet floweriness of the rose plus soft billowing cream is a winning combination.    Don’t overdo the rose flavouring as you want it to balance and not over-power the taste of the rhubarb.  The ice-cream should make you think of an English summer garden – with a whisper of rose-water giving a hint of exotic Arabian Nights rather than a full-on Fry’s Turkish Delight flashback!

What you need to know about this recipe

  • You can make this recipe with home-made Rhubarb Curd or with the shop-bought variety. If you have never made Rhubarb Curd, it is very easy and a lot cheaper than buying ready-made!
  • Although you can make this recipe without an ice cream maker, it is a lot easier if you have one. You can buy a basic ice cream maker fairly cheaply.
  • It is best to start this recipe the day before you eat it. This will mean that once you have made the basic custard, it will have time to chill down before you put it in the ice cream maker the next day.
  • You can also make this ice cream well in advance if that is more convenient. I generally make double the quantity and keep it in the freezer where it will last for up to three months.
  • As with most home-made ice creams, it helps to remove the container from the freezer about ten minutes before serving as this will make it easier to scoop.

Other home-made ice cream recipes

I am a great home-made ice cream enthusiast. I make it in the summer, of course, but am happy to eat it in winter too! There are some brilliant, shop-bought ice creams available but it is so easy to make your own. I like to experiment with flavours and some of my other ice cream recipes are listed below.

  • Apple Ice Cream with Salted Caramel – basically a toffee apple in the form of ice cream
  • Blackberry and Bay Ice Cream – foraged blackberries with an underlying note of warm, spicy bay
  • Roasted Cherry Ice Cream – juicy fresh cherries with a bit of booze make this a rich and indulgent dessert (you can leave out the alcohol if you really want to)
  • Coffee Ice Cream – quick and easy, store-cupboard recipe using instant coffee which has an amazingly rich coffee flavour
  • Cranberry Ice Cream – if you have any left-over cranberry sauce, you know what to do with it
  • Elderflower Ice-cream – easy recipe using elderflower cordial – delicious floral taste of summer!
  • Lavender Ice-cream – another gorgeous floral ice cream (bit of a theme here at tastebotanical…) made with fresh or dried culinary lavender
  • Lemon Curd Ice Cream – this tangy, three-ingredient recipe is probably the simplest ice cream recipe you will find
  • Rose Ice-cream – made with culinary rosewater, this ice cream is the essence of an English summer garden
  • Strawberry Balsamic Ice-cream – strawberry ice cream given a lift with a dash of balsamic vinegar to bring out the sweetness
  • Thyme ice-cream with honey and mascarpone – thyme, honey and mascarpone…. in an ice cream – what’s not to like?

Other rhubarb recipes

I love rhubarb and have lots of other rhubarb recipes. It makes a great jam, compote or fruit curd. It is also great in a crumble. Rhubarb is also good in many home-baking recipes such as Rhubarb Upside-down Cake, Rhubarb Crumble Cake, Rhubarb Bread and Butter Pudding, Rhubarb Victoria Sandwich Cake and Rhubarb Roulade. It also makes a good basis for cold desserts such as Rhubarb Curd and Rose Ice Cream or Rhubarb Fool. You can also use it to make Rhubarb Cordial and a pretty good Rhubarb Gin liqueur!

Loved this recipe? Checkout the Recipe Index.

Rhubarb Curd and Rose Ice Cream recipe

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Rhubarb, rose, cream

Rhubarb Curd and Rose Ice-cream

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  • Author: Tastebotanical
  • Prep Time: 30
  • Total Time: 30 minutes
  • Yield: for 6 people 1x
  • Category: Ice-cream
  • Cuisine: English

Description

This is a lovely ice-cream to make in early summer which combines the flavours of rhubarb and rose.


Ingredients

Scale
  • 600 g (1.5 lbs) Rhubarb Curd – you can either make your own (See my recipe for homemade Rhubarb Curd) or you can buy it in good supermarkets or food stores
  • 300 ml (Half a pint) double cream
  • A teaspoon of rosewater
  • A few drops of pink food colouring (optional)

Instructions

  1. Whisk the cream until it forms soft peaks.
  2. Stir in the Rhubarb Curd.
  3. Add a teaspoon of rose-water.
  4. Add a few drops of pink food colouring if you feel the mixture needs to be pinker!  This won’t be necessary if you have already added colouring to home-made  Curd.
  5. Put the ice-cream mixture in your ice-cream maker, process until thickened and transfer to a freezer-proof container and store in your freezer until required.  Alternatively, as outlined above, you can put the ice-cream mixture straight into the freezer if you don’t have an ice-cream maker.

Rhubarb Curd

Home-made Rhubarb Curd

Rhubarb Curd

This home-made Rhubarb Curd is really easy to make and tastes delicious. It is creamy and buttery with a zing of sharpness from the rhubarb.

Fruit curds are a great way of capturing the flavour of a wide range of fruits and work best with strong-tasting ingredients – such as lemon, lime, passion fruit or rhubarb – where the sharpness is softened by the butter and eggs.  The method and ingredients for a fruit curd are very similar to those for making custard – so when you make this recipe you are making a kind or rhubarb and custard combination which is a taste classic.   

You can make Curd from a number of other tropical fruit such as lime, orange, mango and passion fruit. I think it works best with strongly flavoured fruit – if you are a fan of rhubarb, have a look at my recipe for Lemon Curd

What you need to know about this recipe

  • You do not need to add too much water (step 2) as the rhubarb will produce liquid as it cooks.
  • You can either strain your cooked rhubarb to remove the fibres or process it in a blender (step 2). If you choose to blend it, you curd will be slightly thicker. It is important to either strain or blend the mixture otherwise your curd will not have a lovely smooth texture.
  • Allowing the rhubarb mixture to cool slightly before adding it to the eggs (step 3) and adding cornflour to the mixture will prevent the eggs scrambling when it is re-heated.
  • You can add a few drops of colouring (step 5) which will make your curd pink. If you don’t do this, it will still taste just as good!
  • You must put your curd in a sterilised jar and keep it in the fridge. It does not keep as long as jam and must be eaten within a week.

How to use Rhubarb Curd

So what can you do with Rhubarb Curd? Well, lots and lots of things, actually! First off, it is great as a spread on bread as an alternative to jam or honey. It is also great stirred into plain yogurt or spooned over vanilla ice cream. However, in my opinion, it really comes into its own as a cooking ingredient. Its punch of rhubarb flavour is fantastic in all kinds of sweet dishes. It is particularly useful as a filling for cakes and in all kinds of puddings. I use it as a cake filling in my Rhubarb and Vanilla Victoria Sandwich cake and also to make my easy Rhubarb Curd and Rose Ice Cream.

Other rhubarb recipes

I love rhubarb and have lots of other rhubarb recipes in addition to . It makes a great jam or compote. It is also great in a crumble. Rhubarb is also good in many home-baking recipes such as Rhubarb Crumble Cake, Rhubarb Bread and Butter Pudding, Rhubarb Upside Down Cake and Rhubarb Roulade. It also makes a good basis for cold desserts such as Rhubarb Fool. You can also use it to make Rhubarb Cordial and a pretty good Rhubarb Gin liqueur!

Other jam and preserve recipes

Making your own jam and preserves is really easy. They taste delicious, keep for a long time and also you know exactly what is in them. You can moderate the sugar content and also be sure that there are no artificial preservatives. It is also a great way to use a seasonal over-supply of a particular fruit.

My home-made jam recipes use seasonal ingredients and often have a bit of a flavour twist.   For example, my Strawberry Jam is flavoured with rose geranium and my Rhubarb Jam is flavoured with vanilla.    I have some simple jams such as my classic Gooseberry Jam.

Some of my other preserve recipes are a bit more unusual.  I make a delectable Rose Petal Jam which can be used in lots of different ways.  I also have a Chilli Jam which is fantastic as a dip or with savoury dishes.

Loved this recipe? Checkout the Recipe Index.

Recipe for easy Rhubarb Curd

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Rhubarb Curd

Rhubarb Curd

5 Stars 4 Stars 3 Stars 2 Stars 1 Star No reviews
  • Author: Tastebotanical
  • Prep Time: 15
  • Cook Time: 20
  • Total Time: 35 minutes
  • Yield: 2 jam-jars 1x
  • Category: Preserves
  • Cuisine: English

Description

Creamy Rhubarb Curd is fantastic spread on bread or as an ingredient in cakes and puddings.


Ingredients

Scale
  • 800 g (1 and a half pounds) rhubarb
  • 100 ml (3.5 fluid oz) water
  • 4 eggs
  • 300 g (10 oz) caster sugar
  • 4 teaspoons cornflour
  • 50 g (2 oz) butter
  • A few drops of pink food colouring (optional)

Instructions

  1. Wash the rhubarb stalks thoroughly.  Cut into pieces of around 2 cm.
  2. Put the rhubarb pieces into your heavy saucepan with 100 ml of water.  Heat until the mixture is simmering and cook for around 5 minutes until the rhubarb is soft and mushy.
  3. Now you can either strain the rhubarb mixture through a sieve to remove the fibres and use the strained juice to make your curd.  Alternatively, you can blend the mixture in a blender or with a stick blender and use the thicker puree to make your curd.  Allow the rhubarb mixture to cool slightly.
  4. Beat the eggs in a bowl and then add the caster sugar and cornflour which should stop the mixture curdling and turning into scrambled eggs!
  5. Now, gradually pour the rhubarb mixture into the bowl and combine it with the egg mixture.   Add a few drops of pink food colouring if you wish – if you don’t do this, your curd will not look so pretty but will taste just as good!
  6. Put the mixture back into your heavy saucepan, add the butter and heat very gently for around 10-15 minutes until it has thickened to a custard-like consistency.  You will need to stir it often and keep an eye on it.
  7. Remove the mixture from the saucepan and pour into sterilised jam jars – it will fill two medium-sized jars.    It must be kept in the fridge once cooled and will last for around a week.

Notes

You can sterilise your jam-jar by washing it in warm, soapy water, rinsing well and then drying off for 15 minutes in an oven set at 140C/120C fan/gas 1.