Quick and easy lemon curd recipe

easy lemon curd recipe

In lieu of not being in a position to jet off to Iceland right now, I thought I should crack on with one of the more affordable options on my 40 things before I’m 40 list, so this weekend I decided to have a go at an easy lemon curd recipe.

I have always loved lemon curd, but had imagined it to be one of those things that would involve large pans and thermometers and possibly a frilly apron. It turns out though that making lemon curd is really easy!

I found an easy lemon curd recipe in my ‘Things on Toast’ book. I was a little anxious at first as the chocolate spread I had a go at didn’t work out quite as planned, but with a title like ‘Quick Lemon Curd’ I thought it was worth a go.

Things on toast

Here’s what you need for this easy lemon curd recipe:

  • 100g of unsalted butter
  • 200g golden caster sugar
  • Zest and juice of 3 medium unwaxed lemons
  • 3 eggs

The recipe said this would make one 300ml jar but I wasn’t convinced, so I sterilised two jars just in case. I did this by putting them through the dishwasher (this makes the labels peel off easily too) but you could just boil them for a little while or follow this handy BBC guide to sterilising jars.

Lemon curd recipe

Then you put everything apart from the eggs into a pan and melt it over a low heat until everything has blended.

Beat the eggs and remove the pan from the heat. Strain the eggs into the melted mixture just to make sure there aren’t any lumps. Put it back over a really low heat and stir for about 5-10 minutes until ‘the mixture thickens and looks like curd’. I wasn’t really sure what the recipe meant by ‘looks like curd’ but I went for a sort of white sauce consistency and this seemed to work well as it sets a lot thicker as it cools.

Spoon the lemon curd mixture into your jar. I used a funnel but if you do this then make sure you do it quickly before it starts to set. My mixture made about a jar and a half.

Lemon curdAnd there you have it – a genuinely very easy lemon curd recipe! I decorated the tops of mine as a little present to myself. It was super tasty and really so easy that even a hopeless chef like me couldn’t mess it up.

That’s three things off my list now – only 37 to go!

Enjoyed this recipe? You might also like my easy passionfruit curd!

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11 Comments

  1. 14 August, 2013 / 9:44 am

    ohh I’m SO doing that today!! It looks great!! I can’t believe how easy it is!!

    • admin
      14 August, 2013 / 10:04 am

      Yay!! Let me know how it goes – honestly, it was so simple, I was dead impressed.

  2. 14 August, 2013 / 10:08 am

    I love this! My husband could eat lemon curd on absolutely anything, so I will definitely give this recipe a go.

  3. nanna
    17 August, 2013 / 6:45 am

    Hi.

    I thought it looked so simple but I must have done something wrong ’cause it wont set :( What have I done wrong? I put the conplete mix on a very low heat and it didnt seem to thicken so I had it on for almost 20 min. Where did I go wrong?

    Apart from that lovely site!

  4. 11 September, 2013 / 7:14 pm

    Thanks for posting! I’ve wanted to try making lemon curd for ages and this post has given me the kick to do it.

  5. Tanya Camilleri
    5 November, 2013 / 11:00 am

    Yummy! going to give this a try x

  6. Julie Smith
    5 February, 2014 / 12:40 pm

    Omy i am soo gonna try this this weekend, im not generally any good at this kind of thing, also your blog looks fab btw x

  7. Julie Smith
    13 February, 2014 / 10:40 am

    Does it have to be golden caster sugar? as i went out and bought what i thought was all ingredients(forgot the butter)

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