Pucker Up Lemon Curd

If you read my last post, you know that I have many egg yolks in the fridge waiting to be used.  And I mentioned those lemons.  I had one Satsuma orange (the ones they use to make canned Mandarin oranges) and several Eureka lemons already in the crisper when I was gifted a bag of wonderful Meyer lemons.  Have you ever tasted these?  They are so good.  Not readily available in stores because they are not as shippable as the firmer and lighter yellow colored Eureka.  Meyers are orange and have a less acidic flavor than Eurekas. They are a cross between a Mandarin orange and a lemon.  So...I juiced the lone Mandarin orange in the fridge along with the Meyers and a few of the Eurekas to make enough juice for one recipe of curd. The commonly seen market lemon, the Eureka, is the light yellow one in the photo.  The Meyer lemon is the orange one (that's not an orange) in the photo.  Isn't it funny to see a lemon with an orange rind?

I have made many lemon curd recipes over the years, but never found one that was JUST RIGHT.  I came up with this recipe by taking the components that I liked the best from several other recipes and combining them to make this one.  I love the tart flavor. 

This curd is rich and has vibrant flavor.  And the bonus...it can be stored for several weeks in the refrigerator (good luck with that!  Mine lasts a day or two; too many nibblers in my house).  Hide it carefully in the back, behind something no one likes to eat.  Or in a clean opaque container that used to store something no one likes to eat.  In fact, you just might want to BUY a container of something no one wants to eat and wash it out so you can hide your curd in it.  But that would just be plain mean, wouldn't it? 

Freeze it.

Serve it on scones or muffins.

Or...you can always top your Lemon Angel Food cake with it.

Bonnie’s Pucker-Up Lemon Curd

2 cups of granulated sugar
12 large egg yolks
1 cup of lemon juice
2 tablespoons of lemon zest, yellow part only
4 ounces (1 stick or ½ cup) of butter, cut into pieces
½ tsp. of pure vanilla extract

Wash and zest the lemons. Juice them. In a heavy-bottomed, non-aluminum pan mix the egg yolks with the granulated sugar. Whisk in the lemon juice. Cook the mixture on medium-low heat until it coats the back of a spoon.

Remove from the heat and whisk in the butter cubes. Strain through a strainer or a chinois. Add the lemon zest and stir in well.

Cover the surface with plastic wrap and refrigerate for at least 4 hours.
This curd can be kept in the refrigerator for 3 weeks or frozen for 3 months.  The texture will be slightly softer after defrosting.

This post was submitted to Two for Tuesdays.