Lemon Curd

Dear Lauren,

Some things sound hard but they're easy. Some things sound easy but they're hard. This is just life. Lemon curd sounds complicated to me. Or it did. So I went to the grocery store to buy some without even looking up a recipe. Because it sounded way too hard. I couldn't find any at the store. So I came home and looked up a recipe. And guess what? I had everything I needed right here at the house. And the recipe was easy. Lesson learned.

Here's an example of something that sounds easy but it's hard. Editing a lemon zest photo should be a breeze. As you can see, it wasn't.

 Here's Max.
He's just lazing around sitting atop his giant scratching post, otherwise known as our couch. This has nothing to do with the lemon curd. I'm just showing you what was up while I was cooking tonight.

After you whip all the ingredients together, you just put them in a saucepan and turn the heat to low.

And stir.

And stir.

Yes, more stirring.

This is known as "stirring constantly". Sounds hard but it's easy (a little monotonous).

Then you cool (this is the best part, it means you get to go check Facebook and have a snack).

Then you're done! Lemon curd! All ready for lemon tarts tomorrow for Dad.

Love,

Mom

P.S. Here's the recipe.

Lemon Curd

adapted from Ina Garten's recipe (I love her, she's perfect.)

zest from 3 lemons
1 1/2 cups sugar
1/4 pound unsalted butter, room temperature
4 extra-large eggs
1/2 cup lemon juice (from the three lemons you zested plus you might need one more if your lemons aren't very juicy)
1/8 teaspoon fine sea salt

Zest of 3 lemons with a Microplane zester. If I haven't gotten you one of these yet, shame on me, but go buy one immediately, they're indispensable! When you zest any citrus, just take the very top of the skin off the fruit. You don't want any of the white (pith) because it's quite bitter and it'll sort of ruin things for you. Put the zest and the sugar in the food processor and pulse it til the zest and the sugar are completely combined (the sugar will look yellow).

Cream the butter and beat in the lemon sugar. Add the eggs one at a time, and then add the lemon juice and salt. Mix until combined.

Pour the mixture into a saucepan and cook over low heat until thickened (about 10 minutes), stirring constantly. Ina says the lemon curd will thicken at about 170 degrees F, or just below simmer. Mine looked perfect at 165. If in doubt, do what Ina says. Remove from the heat and let it cool completely and refrigerate. You will definitely want to lick the spatula.