Perfect Homemade Lemon Curd
Perfect Homemade Lemon Curd Recipe – This creamy homemade fresh lemon curd is irresistibly tangy and sweet, and perfect to spread on all your baked goods!
Golden, creamy, buttery, tart and sweet, Homemade Lemon Curd is an explosion of lemony sunshine dancing on your taste buds.
If you love the fresh zing of lemon, you owe it to yourself to try this delicious lemon curd recipe.
It is an amazing treat you can easily make at home. I had made scrumptious homemade jams for many years with fabulous success, but I had no idea you could make fresh lemon curd at home, so easily.
It’s so luxurious and bright, I hadn’t even considered making it myself… I thought that, surely, a perfect curd has to be difficult to concoct at best.
But it turns out that just five simple ingredients, a saucepan, and a few basic kitchen tools lend way to making several jars of perfect Lemon Curd!
The Best Homemade Lemon Curd Recipe
Aren’t there some foods that seem to always make you feel better when you need a bit of a pick-me-up?
Just thinking about our lemon curd recipe actually helps me to de-stress. Whenever I go to my “happy place” I most definitely take Homemade Lemon Curd with me!
The vibrance, the aroma, the silkiness and citrus pungency are that good. Don’t judge me… We all have our little indulgent joys. Some like chocolate and puppies, I add my Perfect Homemade Lemon Curd to my list of feel-good delights.
Not only is it tasty and uplifting, it is wonderfully easy to make at home and needs only 5 pantry staple ingredients and 15 minutes start to finish.
So please, disregarded the misnomer that curds are tedious and tricky to perfect. It is just not so.
What 5 Ingredients You Need
Silky, sweet lemon curd is a delightful condiment to enjoy particularly during the spring and summer. However, the bright citrus flavor also makes it completely crave-worthy as a cold-weather treat.
It’s wonderful to make at home when lemons are in peak season, between late winter and early summer. But because you can use whatever lemons are available, it is easy to whip up a batch of Perfect Homemade Lemon Curd any time of year!
Here are the simple 5 ingredients you need:
- Lemons
- Eggs
- Sugar
- Butter
- Salt
Really, that’s all!
How to Make Perfect Homemade Lemon Curd
In our perfect lemon curd recipe, you don’t have to separate egg whites from yolks, use a double boiler, or sieve anything. I use a food processor to avoid some of these steps that are sometimes found in more complicated curd recipes.
Here’s how you make our easy, bright, BEST Lemon Curd from scratch:
1. First, zest and juice the lemons.
2. Then, pulse the sugar and lemon zest together in a food processor.
3. Add the butter and cream together with the sugar. One at a time, incorporate the lemon juice, salt, and eggs into the processor.
.4. Next, pour the mixture into a saucepan and set on the stove over medium-high heat. Stir frequently as it simmers and starts to thicken.
5. After about 10 minutes, once the desired consistency is reached, remove from the stove.
You can serve this fresh lemon curd warm or chilled.
To store, allow to cool to room temperature and then keep in airtight containers in the fridge for up to 1-2 weeks.
Get the Full (Printable) Perfect Homemade Lemon Curd Recipe Below. Enjoy!
Are you wondering what you would do with that much Perfect Homemade Lemon Curd?
The possibilities are bountiful. It makes lovely gifts. You can also can it but, you won’t need to. Homemade Lemon Curd is yummy on everything from toast, biscuits and scones to cakes, muffins and cookies.
Use it as a filling for doughnuts, tarts, pies and eclairs. Mix with plain yogurt, ice cream, custard and smoothies.
Try spreading a spoonful (or two) on:
- The Best Sugar Cookie Recipe
- Hawaiian Luau Bread
- Fluffy Southern Cat Head Biscuits
- Jamaican Johnny Cakes
And did I mention fruit dip? Let’s see what you can come up with!
Looking for More Fresh Lemon Recipes?
- Meyer Lemon Tart
- Best Lemon Buttermilk Cake
- Fluffy Lemon Crinkle Cookies
- The Best Lemon Bars Recipe
- Lemon Blueberry Whoopie Pies
Perfect Homemade Lemon Curd Recipe
Ingredients
- 3 lemons, ripe
- 4 large eggs
- 1/2 cup unsalted butter
- 1 1/2 cup granulated sugar
- Pinch salt
Instructions
- Zest outer yellow peel of the lemons, avoiding the white pith. Then juice the lemons.
- In a food processor pulse the sugar and 1 tablespoon of lemon zest until finely ground.
- Add the butter the the food processor and cream thoroughly. Then add 1/2 cup of lemon juice, salt, and eggs one at a time until combined.
- Pour the mixture into a 2-quart sauce pot on stove top and heat on medium-low, stirring until it begins to simmer and thicken. Once it reaches 170 degrees on a candy thermometer, remove from heat. (This takes approximately 8-10 minutes.)
- Serve warm on your favorite baked goods or chill and serve as desired.
Made these yesterday and yummy. My mom’s recipe uses powdered sugar in the crust and a cracked sugar top always happens with her recipe. My children love the crunch but personally I never did.
Help full about curd
This recipe is so easy and delicious! I love a lemon curd and this hit the mark.
Would you be able to substitute another citrus like grapefruit or blood orange into this recipe or would you need to make other changes as well?
Can you use a blender if you don’t have a Prosser
It is easiest is a food processor because it whips in more air than a blender. However, if you have a high-power blender, with a smoothie setting, that might do the trick.
does this really work?
Let me say that no was very skeptical about this recipe because all of the Lemon curd recipes I was researching and considering was all prepared on the stove top. I could not locate my silicone spatula and really didn’t want to risk having a metallic taste leeching into the curd.
So when I saw this one prepping everything in the food processor I went ahead with making my Lemon curd. I watched the video first and figured it was very straight forward and followed the steps exactly. I pour the contents into my sauce pan and began stirring to bring the curd to temperature. And was very excited to see it all coming together as it did within the video.
The taste is out of this world! I’m a lemon curd fanatic and will never ever buy this from the stores again. I’m very glad I double the recipe and served with my Angel food cake . Topped my cheesecake with it, added it to my mousse to layer a cake and lastly my ganache
Seeing how easy this was I wish I had discovered this year’s ago. Thank you for this life changing recipe.
Everyone at my house is enjoying this lemon curd! So good! Thank you!
I have made lemon curd before, and it was SUCH a chore. I think I like your instructions better, lol. Looking forward to trying it the easy way!
I love lemon dishes…this one is amazing :)
Perfect treat for the kids.
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Excellent recipe. Did you borrow it from Ina Garten or did Ina borrow it from you? It is the identical recipe. Either way, one of you needs to give credit to the other.
Cold and dreary here (Ireland) today, Sommer.
Thanks for adding a little zest.
Glenn K.
I’m wondering if this lemon curd will work in to make little empanadas or hand pies ?
Thanks so much for this lemon curd recipe. It sounds so simple and less expensive than buying it in an 8 oz jar! I intend to make some and use it as a filling for my 3 layer coconut cake for Easter Sunday. Sounds yummy.