What could be more lovely than making lemon curd with fresh, in-season improved Meyer lemons, golden orange egg yolks from the henhouse and raw amber honey as the sun comes up? What a beautiful way to start the day, with all the hues of yellow imaginable.
Lemon curd will bring sunshine into the kitchen any time of day.
Here in Santa Cruz, lemons are plentiful right now and I was looking for a fun seasonal culinary adventure. I had plenty of eggs around as well, so lemon curd was the perfect fit.
Now I have lots of egg whites – perhaps a meringue topping is in the works? I can imagine little flaky crusts filled with tangy lemon curd and topped with fluffy meringue… yum.
To be honest, this was my second batch. On the first one, I tried using whole eggs and the curd came out with a slightly chalky texture. I chalked it up (ha) to the egg whites, and made a second batch with just the yolks.
This time it all came together.
This recipe is adapted from Sunset Magazine’s “The One-Block Feast: An Adventure in Food from Yard to Table.”
I wanted to make a lemon curd with honey instead of sugar, and my aunt lent me the cookbook. I just used less honey and more lemon juice than called for because Meyer lemons are slightly sweeter and less tart than the common Lisbon or Eureka lemon.
Ingredients
- 1/2 C butter
- 2/3 C freshly squeezed Meyer lemon juice
- 1/2 C honey
- 8 egg yolks
Instructions
- Melt the butter in a heavy-bottomed saucepan.
- Remove from heat and add lemon juice.
- Whisk the honey and egg yolks together in a bowl.
- Whisk the lemon juice and butter into the egg yolk mixture gradually, about 1/2 C at a time, tempering the yolks.
- Pour the mixture back into the saucepan and heat and whisk over medium-high heat until thickened and bubbling, about 4 minutes.
- Remove from heat and pour into containers. You can press plastic wrap directly on top if you don’t want a skin to form. Let cool and refrigerate.
Of course, I had to sneak a couple spoonfuls as it was cooling. Certified addictively delectable.