An egg, a lemon, some sugar and butter was all it took to awaken a flood of memories for Kim. It’s amazing how food affects so many aspects of our lives. We were taking our new stand mixer for its trial run and decided to do a cake recipe from the ABC television series, “the chew”. Strawberry lemonade cake was our cake of choice. One of the main ingredients in this recipe is lemon curd. Not pudding or filling but curd. I’m sure in the greater scheme of things, substitutions could be made. However when making a recipe for the first time, we like to keep it as close to original as possible. I have a vague recollection of a lemon curd or spread from my childhood. I remember it being in a small funky looking jar. Thats all I’ve got. We were shopping anyways, so after searching the grocery store in vain, Kim checked with customer service only to learn they no longer carry it. Hmmm must have been a big seller. Never afraid of a challenge I decided that it looks like not only am I baking a cake, I’m going to be learning how to make lemon curd.
Eggs, Eggs and more eggs
After doing some research, lemon curd has some common ingredients. Most recipes call for a ton of eggs, egg yolks, reaps of sugar and more butter than I eat in a month. Not only that, I need a cup of lemon curd. I don’t want a mason jar of it in the fridge, knowing that in a week it will be going to waste. I’m also leery about using four eggs, plus four egg yolks, a quarter of a pound of butter and a cup of sugar in a cake that already requires three eggs. That’s eleven eggs, sorry thats not going to happen. Add to that the two eggs I ate for breakfast, well maybe we should have bought eggs at the grocery store. I’m exaggerating but I’m sure you catch my drift.
A cup of curd
This is what I did. One extra large egg, whisked over low heat with the zest and juice of one lemon. Add to that, two thirds of a cup of sugar and two tablespoons of butter. This resulted in a scant cup of lemon curd.
Nailed it!
This was confirmed when Kim tasted the lemon curd. There is nothing more satisfying than producing a dish that can trigger a flood of good memories. In Kim’s case it was memories of her father, who absolutely craved and loved lemon curd. It was a staple in the fridge.
There are many recipes out there for this, from simple to complex. This is a very basic one. As an added ingredient to another recipe it worked out perfectly.
Recipe: Lemon Curd