Do you think that you have already tried everything and nothing will surprise you? You shouldn't think so. It was this recipe that became something of a revelation for me! You know, my emotions, when I was preparing it, reached peak power! From delight: “How lovely!”, to: “So simple?!”, and again to delight: “Wow!”
What is lemon curd? First I'll tell you about my impressions. This is tenderness, so magical, velvety that you take a spoonful of curd into your mouth and freeze with happiness while the cream melts in your mouth, spreading with all shades of sour-sweet-airy pleasure.
Now it remains to dispel the last secrets and tell how this tenderness is prepared. I’ll introduce you to the basic recipe that I picked up from Chadeika. And right away I will be happy to thank Irina Chadeeva not only for this recipe, but also for the tips and recommendations on her website.
Classic lemon curd
This dish of English cuisine is a custard, where the main ingredient is lemon. By the way, there are only 4 ingredients: egg, lemon, sugar and butter. Well, let's mix everything together to make a classic lemon curd?
I looked at Irina to see what the ratio of products should be. And based on this I prepare the portion I need. She advised taking 1 lemon for 1 egg, 10-15 g butter and 50 sugar.
I have accordingly:
- Lemon – 4 pcs.;
- Eggs – 4 pcs.;
- Sugar – 200 g;
- Butter – 40 g.
How to make lemon curd at home
I zest two lemons.
I add sugar to the zest. Mix well.
I squeeze the juice out of all four lemons. I add it to the zest and sugar. I stir.
I beat the eggs separately. No need to be overzealous, no foam needed, just a homogeneous mixture.
I add it to the rest of the ingredients. I mix everything well.
Now I let the future cream brew. The next step will be straining to separate the zest.
Therefore, an additional half hour gives the cream a chance to soak in and take on the taste and aroma of the zest.
Straining. This provides another advantage. Proteins that do not mix well with the bulk are also separated. And then, during heat treatment, white flakes will not form in the cream.
Place the saucepan with the mixture on medium heat.
I add oil.
Stir constantly until the cream thickens. If you run your finger along the spatula, the trace should not spread; in this case, the cream is ready (this is a standard test when preparing any cream).
The cooking process itself took about 10 minutes (not taking into account the half hour when the mixture with the zest was infused), of which 4-5 was for cooking.
There's just a little bit left to do. Pour into beautiful jars and place the curd in the refrigerator.
All! The bright, aromatic and incomparably delicious cream is ready! After it sits in the refrigerator, its consistency will become quite thick and incredibly tender.
And I will tell you about its advantages:
- Beautiful bright color;
- Useful;
- Delicious;
- Prepares quickly;
- Simple and affordable ingredients;
- Amazing aroma;
- Also, it can become the basis for other variations of the cream;
- You can use it to diversify your breakfast, prepare a number of desserts, or decorate a birthday cake.
In a word: how did I manage without it before?)
And one more plus! It keeps for a long time! Up to 2-3 weeks. Really, I would like to see the person who actually keeps this yummy food! Everything quickly and without a trace disappears before our eyes. Only a pleasant aftertaste remains, and the feeling that I myself am completely saturated with the freshness of lemon.
Lemon curd is perfect to balance the sickly sweet taste of meringue.
Traditionally, the British liked to spread lemon curd on their toast. Today this cream is used much more widely. They decorate some ready-made dishes, for example, cakes or pastries, where the curd acts as a cream. Kurd can be used as a filling for. 
You can fill baskets, grease pancakes, pancakes or crumpets. This cream can also be used as a basis for the preparation of some desserts, where it is added in a semi-liquid state or already frozen. For example, these could be tarts. But who will stop us from “spoiling” the tender Kurd with anything and crushing this yummy with a spoon?
Now let's diversify the recipe!
The principle of preparing lemon curd as a basis
You guessed it right! And instead of lemons, you can take any other citrus or berry that is quite sour. It could be oranges or limes. One of his friends said that he tried it with pomegranate and currants. All these ingredients can be either basic or additional. I'll tell you about lemon-tangerine curd.
Its advantage is a very delicate taste, the acidity of the lemon is so muted that the tangerine notes we love for the New Year holidays clearly appear.
Recipe for tangerine curd:
- Tangerines – 4 pcs.;
- Lemons – 2 pcs.;
- Eggs – 2 pcs.;
- Sugar – 110 g;
- Butter – 130 g;
- Starch – 30 g.
This is how quickly and easily you can please yourself and your loved ones with a wonderful cream!
- It is better not to use juice from the store for Kurd. This may ruin the cream itself. And one more thing: now the finished zest is on sale. Don't be tempted! Use fresh! It will be much tastier with it.
- To better squeeze the juice out of lemons, roll them on the table.
- The zest in this dish is not an indulgence or a decoration. She is one of the main ingredients. That’s why it’s worth adding it even if it’s, for example, pomegranate curd.
- If the eggs are small, take an extra number, 1 or 2, depending on the size.
- Sometimes the taste depends on the quality or variety of lemon. Therefore, to make the cream exactly the way you want it to be, you can add the juice of other citrus fruits: tangerine - to reduce acidity; lime - to increase it.
- Want to quickly zest? Place the lemon in the freezer for a few minutes.
- You can cook the curd in a water bath. This procedure will take more time, but the cream is guaranteed not to burn and the eggs will not curl.
Now, it seems, that’s it!)
Classic lemon curd makes an excellent filling for French macarons. You can watch how to make these delicious cakes on our You Tube video channel:
If I forgot something, or if you, my dear friends, have something to add to all of the above, leave a comment. I will be glad to know that you are interested in my experiments in the kitchen!
Bye bye!
In contact with
Lemon curd is a wonderful sweet cream that can be used both as an independent dessert and as a filling for pies and tartlets.
You can make ice cream based on it.
Lemon curd. Recipe
The method of preparing Kurd is similar to the technology for preparing custard, which is traditionally prepared with milk, but here lemon juice plays its role. Particular attention should be paid to carefully heating the egg mixture, because it can curdle, and then the taste and attractive appearance that lemon curd has will be spoiled. If you use a water bath, then you don’t have to worry about this - this method will ensure the desired degree of heating uniformity. It will take no more than 10 minutes to prepare all the ingredients, and no more than 20 minutes to boil.
Lemon curd can be prepared using varying ratios of eggs, sugar and butter. To make the cream low-fat, tender and have a rich taste, it is recommended to take the number of eggs equal to the number of lemons; 2 tbsp. l. white sugar, 15 g butter. Prepare lemon curd first according to the basic recipe, and later you can experiment with taste. For example, dilute with tangerine, orange or lime juice.
Rub the zest from the lemons with a grater or a special device (try not to touch the white part of the peel, it can cause bitterness). Mix it with sugar. Mix the eggs with a fork (do not beat!) and add to the juice squeezed from the lemons. Add zest to the same mixture. In order for the remaining ingredients to become saturated with the lemon aroma, they must stand for half an hour. Be sure to strain the mixture through a fine sieve or several layers of folded medical gauze - this will help separate the zest, which has already given off its flavor, and also filter out pieces of egg white that can turn into unsightly flakes when heated.
We continue to cook the curd in a water bath
Heat the strained lemon-egg mixture over low heat. It is convenient to do this in a water bath by placing a smaller pan in a larger container. It is necessary to constantly stir with a whisk and make sure that the mass does not burn. After some time, the lemon curd will thicken. It should be poured into glass jars and cooled. Keep refrigerated.
Using Kurd in baking. Lemon ice cream
The consistency of the resulting cream will resemble jelly. It can be served on toast for breakfast, and can also be used to soak cakes (especially good in combination with buttercream) or as a filling for pies and tartlets. In the latter case, you can not boil it in a water bath, but pour it into a pre-baked piece of chopped dough and place it in the oven. You can also make very tasty ice cream with a silky texture from Kurd, which is a bit like. To do this, mix a portion of lemon cream made from four eggs, ml of maximum fat cream, add 4 yolks and a third cup of sugar. Boil the resulting preparation for 15 minutes in a water bath, and then freeze it in a container, stirring with a whisk every half hour.
Hello, my dear girls and boys!
For most of us, desperate housewives and just housewives, autumn is the time to return to the kitchen, oven, hot dinners and freshly baked pastries. And no matter how much we resist it, in such cold weather it is simply impossible to resist the temptation to treat ourselves to a tasty, airy, aromatic and, most importantly, hot piece of fresh homemade pie. After all, we must not forget that food is not only carbohydrates and proteins, it is also the positive energy with which homemade pies are charged, if they are prepared with love. I began to notice with pleasure how my social media feeds gradually began to be filled with delicious homemade baked goods and the happy faces of the owners of these same baked goods.
But it's still summer in Greece! There are no yellow leaves (although there are never any here), people wear shorts and flip-flops, on weekends they still go to the sea to swim and sunbathe, and on the islands you can still meet belated tourists, in taverns and cafes people still sit outside even in the evenings . And only lemons and oranges ripening on the trees remind us that winter is coming.
I didn’t wait for the neighbor’s lemon tree to ripen and went and bought them at the market. Because it has been my plan for a long time to show you how to prepare real correct and rich lemon curd with fresh yolks and quality butter.
Who is a “Kurd” and what does lemons have to do with it?
The editor of a well-known culinary magazine, whom I respect very much, is actively fighting for the right to be called lemon curd. cream . She insists that the word “Kurd” in Russian can only mean the definition of an ethnic group living in Turkey. I can’t disagree with her, but you can’t go against the will of the people. But in the minds of the absolute majority of the Russian-speaking population of the planet, a stable phrase, a tracing-paper from the English language, has already formed and taken hold - “lemon curd”. So, it is this phrase that I will use in this context. Forgive me, dear Marianne.
Essentially, lemon curd is the same custard, or to be precise, a crème anglaise in which egg yolks are brewed, only instead of milk, lemon juice and zest are used.
Very often in recipes starch is added to lemon cream for thickness. In my opinion, this significantly spoils not only the taste, but also the texture of the Kurd. With the correct and only correct preparation, the curd turns out to be quite thick and homogeneous.
What I like most about lemon cream is that it's ready in no time!
Where can you apply lemon cream?
Fans of sour tastes can use lemon cream as a spread in any combination: with bread, buns, pancakes, pancakes, cheesecakes, etc.
I have a friend here, so give her a jar of Kurd, a larger spoon and she will be happy, and she won’t need anything else. Those who treat lemons more carefully can fill tarts, cakes, rolls, pastries or cupcakes with them. I usually cook with it and.
For me personally, the most optimal use of lemon curd is just a classic lemon pie with meringue. It is with neutral shortbread dough and sweet airy meringue that sour lemon curd goes perfectly well.
Anticipating your question, I will say: Yes, instead of lemons you can use oranges, tangerines, limes, and even various berries (preferably sour ones). At the same time, the preparation technology and ratios will remain the same. It’s just that such a cream will no longer have the characteristic lemon sourness. I advise you to try blood orange curd. The color turns out to be fire!
So, let's get down to step-by-step preparation!
From this amount of ingredients we will get a 250 ml jar of the finished product.
We will need:
- freshly squeezed lemon juice - 115 ml (2-3 pcs.)
- grated lemon zest - 2 tsp. (2 pcs.)
- sugar - 75 gr.
- egg yolks - 4 pcs.
- butter - 60 gr.
Step-by-step preparation:
For filling tarts, it is better to use Kurd while still warm. And for cakes, lemon cream must be cooled.
On this bright yellow note, I say goodbye, but not for long.
Good luck, love and patience.
This is a fragrant and very tasty delicacy that is easy to prepare at home. It is cream-like in consistency and has a thick gelatinous texture. It can be used as a filling for pies, pancakes, buns, muffins, cakes and that's not the whole list. Kurd cream can be served for breakfast on toast, a freshly baked bun instead of jam, poured over creamy ice cream, cottage cheese dumplings and sweet cheesecakes.
Lemon curd is often found in recipes for cakes with sponge cakes (for example, it is ideal with a combination), and serves as an excellent filling for puff croissants, macarons, shortbread tartlets, cupcakes, muffins, and sponge rolls. we have an article.
Pie with curd and meringue will give you great pleasure. The curd is prepared from eggs, a large amount of lemons, sugar and butter. Lemon juice gives the delicacy a pleasant sourness, and grated zest gives it a distinct tropical aroma. To decorate desserts during the cooking process, you can add a little starch to make the curd cream thicker.
Historical facts
Kurd, or a creamy fruit dessert, is most often prepared in the UK and northern regions of the USA. Historians claim that it was invented in these countries. At the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries, housewives served this delicacy for tea with buns and white bread, replacing lemon curd with berry jam.
More than a hundred years ago, American and English women used Kurd as a filling for homemade baked goods. Since the mid-20th century, when confectionery factories in America and Great Britain began to actively develop, they began to prepare lemon curd on an industrial scale. Part of the sweet and sour cream was used to produce fillings for delicious puff croissants and buns, and part was packaged in jars and went on mass sale.
Supermarkets in our country also sell small jars of this delicacy, but they are quite expensive. In addition, they often contain preservatives. And to prepare the cream in your kitchen, you will need a minimum of ingredients and a little precious time. 
There are a lot of recipes. First of all, the cream differs in its composition. In addition to lemon, tangerine, strawberry, raspberry, banana, currant, cherry, blueberry, made from several types of berries, as well as chocolate curd are also known. It can also be prepared with or without the addition of starch, in a water bath or in another way.
Recipe with starch
I suggest checking out the recipe with the addition of starch and in a water bath. Deviations from the basic version allow you to get a thick cream that is convenient to use in cakes. So let's cook.
Ingredients:
Recipe Information
- Cuisine:English
- Type of dish: cream
- Method of preparation: in a water bath
- Servings:3
- 30 min
- lemons – 3-4 pcs.
- chicken egg – 3 pcs.
- granulated sugar – 150 g
- butter – 90 g
- salt – 1 pinch
- corn starch – 1 tsp.
How to do
First of all, prepare the lemons. It will take 3-4 medium fruits to get 100 ml of juice. But before squeezing the juice, remove the zest from all the lemons. Place citrus fruits in a colander and scald with boiling water, dry with a towel. Place a sheet of parchment on a fine grater to reduce zest loss. Remove the yellow part of the lemon, carefully wiping it from all sides. Afterwards, peel off the parchment with a knife. 
Now squeeze out the juice in a way convenient for you. Roll the lemons on the table before squeezing. Cut in half and squeeze out the juice. You should get 100 ml of juice. 
Add medium-sized chicken eggs to a deep heatproof bowl. Pour in granulated sugar. Mix a little with a hand whisk. No need to beat. 
Add a pinch of salt and lemon zest. Stir. 
Pour in the squeezed juice, add pieces of butter and cornstarch. Stir.
Corn starch can be replaced with potato starch.
Now let's figure out how much to cook so that it turns out to be the desired consistency. . Pour water into a saucepan and boil. Place the bowl with the egg-sugar mixture in the bath. The bottom of the bowl should not touch the liquid, and the water should simmer slowly. Take a whisk and stir constantly until the mixture thickens. This process usually takes 2-3 minutes.
Once the mixture thickens, remove the bowl from the water bath.
Pass the cream through a fine strainer to remove any remaining zest and any lumps that have formed. This step is convenient to do with a hand whisk, turning it in a circle.
Prepare a bowl of ice water in advance. Place the bowl of cream in cold water and stir vigorously until the temperature drops below room temperature. In this way, we will prevent the appearance of a film on the surface of the cream.
Done, help yourself!
Delicious desserts to you!
I recommend using the above recipe for beginners. Beginners do not feel the products so well; the cream can curdle, burn, or end up with lumps. And in a water bath nothing will burn or curdle; starch will act as an excellent thickener. And you will get a good result. When you get the hang of it, you can try a recipe from professional confectioners. I'll bring him.
Classic recipe
Prepared without starch and without a water bath.
Ingredients:
- lemon juice – 150 g (4 lemons)
- chicken egg – 3 pcs.
- zest of one lemon
- unsalted butter – 80 g
- sugar – 150 g.
Cooking method
- Wash the lemons well and squeeze the juice out of them. Grate the zest of two lemons on a fine grater and add to the lemon juice.
Attention!
You only need to rub the yellow part of the peel, without touching the lower white layer, otherwise the cream will turn out bitter.
- Break eggs into lemon juice and add sugar. Now you need to mix the mixture well.
- Pour the mixture into a thick-bottomed saucepan and place on the stove over medium heat. Heat the mixture by continuously stirring with a spoon or whisking.
- Bring the cream until it thickens, but do not let it boil. When bubbles appear, beat the curd especially thoroughly. The heating process will take approximately 4-5 minutes.
- The result is a fairly thick mass, into which you need to immediately add butter, without waiting for it to cool. Beat everything together with a whisk or mixer.
- Kurd is ready. You can put it in the refrigerator to cool. After cooling, the cream becomes thick and is quite suitable for use as a filling for macarons.
About storage
Housewives who prefer to prepare food and dishes for future use are often interested in shelf life. Pour the cream into clean, dry jars and store it in the refrigerator for one to one and a half weeks. Can be stored in the freezer for up to 6 months.
Fruit or berry curd has a lot in common with the custard that we are used to preparing, for example, for Napoleon cake. The fundamental difference is that the custard is prepared with milk, while the curd is based on the juice of lemon, orange or other fruits and berries.
Useful video
For visual learners, I suggest you look at another version of the recipe - without starch, but in a water bath.
Culinary Etude 12/31/2017
In coffee shops you can often find tartlets, meringues with lemon filling, and some supermarkets sell glass jars with a citrus delicacy. But in fact, this dessert can be prepared at home. This does not require expensive ingredients, and the end result always tastes good. Today, regular blog reader Yulia Khoroshilova will share with us a proven recipe for lemon curd.
Good afternoon Today I would like to continue the topic of ideas for delicious New Year gifts for family and friends, which I started in the article.
In the cold winter, it is impossible to resist the temptation to please yourself and your family with a fragrant and delicious dessert. On the eve of the New Year holidays, I offer you a simple and proven recipe for aromatic lemon curd. Many may think that the delicacy is too high in calories, but let's forget about carbohydrates for a while. After all, food is primarily positive emotions and energy, especially if it is prepared with love.
What kind of dessert is this
Lemon curd is very popular in Great Britain and America; it is often served for breakfast in bowls with pancakes and crispy honey toast. Many confectioners add citrus curd to pies, meringues, and tartlets. Due to its consistency, this dish is often called lemon cream, and its bright and rich taste will appeal to true gourmets. Many compare this delicacy with the classic version of fruit custard, but there is one significant difference - no flour or starch is added to the curd.
Lemon curd is quite easy to make and comes in a variety of variations. For example, popular culinary blogger Irina Chadeeva (Chadeyka) makes a cake with lemon curd and meringue. She confirms that even novice cooks can master this recipe, since it is simple both in terms of ingredients and preparation. Another famous chef Andy Chef adds lemon curd to cupcakes and macaroons. Believe me, dessert will add variety, even if you eat it with regular pancakes.
Lemon cream recipe
When I first looked for how to make lemon curd, I was amazed at how many recipes there were for this delicacy. In this case, the cream can be prepared with the addition of lime, strawberries, orange, but lemon remains the base ingredient. Even if you are not a fan of this citrus fruit, you will definitely appreciate the taste of Kurd for its harmonious combination of sourness and sweetness.
Most of the recipes are slightly different. For example, according to Jamie Oliver's recipe, lemon curd is made from 5 yolks and 2 whole eggs. This ratio is considered classic, but this recipe didn’t suit me because I didn’t have time to think about where to put the remaining whites (although I later remembered that you can make airy meringues from them). Therefore, I offer a version of a step-by-step recipe with a photo of lemon curd, which uses whole eggs, which further simplifies the preparation process.
You will need the following ingredients:
- zest of 2 lemons;
- freshly squeezed juice from 4 lemons;
- 220 g sugar;
- 120 g butter.
First you need to grate the lemon on a fine grater, trying not to touch the white crust of the fruit, so that there is no bitterness in the taste. The best and easiest way to do this is to keep the lemon in the freezer for a while.
You need to add lemon juice to the grated zest. There are a few tricks to extract more juice. To do this, you need to heat the lemon in the microwave for 15 seconds, and then cut it crosswise rather than lengthwise.
You need to add eggs, sugar to the mixture and stir everything thoroughly, and then place the container in a water bath.
Cook the curd over medium heat, stirring constantly, for 5-7 minutes. Add the diced butter to the citrus cream and continue stirring until thickened for another 2 minutes.
If you don’t like the taste of the zest, then the resulting curd can be strained through a sieve or cheesecloth. I like the thick consistency of lemon cream, so I add 5 g of gelatin at the end. If you add more, you will get a fragrant citrus jelly. From the specified amount of ingredients I got 600 ml of curd.
As you can see, the recipe is quite simple and takes 10-15 minutes including preparation. This time I poured the cooled lemon curd into jars and put it in the refrigerator to steep. I prepared such a delicious gift for my loved ones!
Popular dessert recipes
If you are not afraid of difficulties, then you should be interested in recipes for making citrus cream from famous chefs and food bloggers. For example, Andrey Rudkovsky, better known as Andy the Chef, shares a recipe for lemon curd on his blog, which is closer to the classic version. The result is a bright yellow cream with a thick consistency.
Lemon curd. Recipe from Andy Chef
It uses the following proportions of its constituent components:
- zest of one lemon;
- lemon juice – 115 g;
- egg yolk – 4;
- sugar – 75 g;
- butter – 60 g.
The ingredients in this recipe are almost identical to many others, the only difference is that only egg yolks are used. So, first you need to grate the zest from one lemon. At the same time, Chef Andy believes that it is not necessary to use a fine grater, since he always strains the citrus mixture afterwards.
In a saucepan, whisk the sugar, yolks, squeezed juice and zest and place over medium heat. As soon as the sugar dissolves, you need to add butter and stir constantly. Gradually the cream will begin to thicken. Andrey advises using 3 tablespoons of starch if you want to achieve a dense consistency. After 5-7 minutes, remove the saucepan from the heat, strain through a sieve or cheesecloth and pour into glass containers.
Lemon curd from Jamie Oliver
I am a devoted fan of the English chef Jamie Oliver, a popular restaurateur and popularizer of home cooking and healthy eating principles. Many people love his recipe for making lemon curd, although at first glance it may seem a little more complicated than others.
I suggest watching a video in which the author prepares citrus cream according to Jamie Oliver's recipe.
Experienced chefs and pastry chefs who often prepare this dessert share their tricks on how to make lemon curd even more tasty and aromatic. First of all, they remind you that lemons without zest cannot be stored. If you were unable to immediately use them to prepare a dish, then you need to immediately squeeze out the juice and place it in the freezer to preserve the taste and beneficial properties.
As I wrote above, it is easiest to grate the zest from a chilled lemon, and some chefs say that you can even freeze it a little. According to the classic recipe, you must add zest to lemon curd. If you don’t like its taste, you can strain the cream, but without this component the cream will not be fragrant.
If you are using small eggs, increase the quantity. It's better to have more of them than less. Otherwise, the curd will not thicken and will remain liquid. In this form, you can certainly enjoy its unique taste, but you won’t be able to make a cake with lemon curd with this consistency.
Remember that before adding eggs to lemon juice, you need to beat them well with sugar so that there are no lumps left, which can then curl in a water bath. Ready lemon curd can be stored in the refrigerator for 1 month, but I am sure that you will eat it much sooner.
