Sunday, March 8, 2009

If Life Gives You Lemons, Make Lemon Curd!

I recently came into some wealth- a box of Meyer lemons fresh off the tree courtesy of my friend, Ana. And I decided to make some lemon curd with these beautiful lemons.

Meyer lemons are lovely. They taste a bit sweeter and less acidic than traditional lemons. I have found that they seem to have a thinner peel and more juicy flesh. Their peel can also have an orange tint. They taste wonderful and they are so easy to juice- as you can see from these well-juiced lemons.

So that's what I did...I juiced and juiced using our vintage Juice-O-Mat.

I followed the Perfect Lemon Curd recipe from AllRecipes.com and added eggs, butter, and sugar to the lemon juice.

And I cooked it and here's is where the trouble started. Last time I made some lemon curd, I followed the recipe and undercooked the curd. It didn't set up and I had to reheat it. This time, I tripled the recipe and I knew it would take more than the 6 minutes. And so I heated and heated. It seemed to thicken but not as much as I expected and I ended up overheating the mixture.

So, after much more google research, I found that the curd should get to about 170-175F and my curd got to more like 185F. And I think I could have whisked the eggs first before adding them to the juice instead of afterwards. The final texture of the curd was a bit grainy and not quite as thick as I would have liked. But the flavor was fabulous and I have a ton of this curd so perhaps a lemon curd filled cake is in order.

I also had some leftover lemon juice and at the suggestion of my neighbor, Des, I froze it for future use in a glass of water or perhaps a glass of vodka. A deconstructed lemon drop might also be in order.