Lemon Curd

Lemon curd is one of those things that I forget how much I love until I have it in something. Then I’m reminded that I should make some soon. I feel like I saw a bunch of lemon curd recipes pop up recently in the blogs I read and was once again reminded that I should mix some up myself.

I have made lemon curd before but I wanted to find a simpler recipe. I found this one and while it was simpler than the one I had tried before, it didn’t go completely smoothly.

To start things off, the mixture was all curdled at the beginning of the cooking process.

I figured the butter would melt into the mixture as it heated and sure enough, it did. But then I had issues getting the curd to thicken. After 24 minutes of stirring, I added a tablespoon of cornstarch to the mixture. Another 6 minutes and the curd had thickened to my liking. Since the recipe said 10 minutes total, that was a bit frustrating. It did thicken up more as it cooled so that was a good thing.

This recipe yielded a great lemony curd and with the modifications I made below, it definitely will be made again. Hopefully sooner rather than later!

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Lemon Curd

Yield: 3 cups

Ingredients:

3 lemons
1 1/2 cups sugar
8 Tbsp butter, room temperature
4 eggs
1/2 cup lemon juice (3 to 4 lemons)
1/8 tsp salt
1 Tbsp cornstarch

Directions:

Remove the zest of 3 lemons, being careful to avoid the white pith. Put the zest in a food processor fitted with the steel blade. Add the sugar and pulse until the zest is very finely minced into the sugar.

Cream the butter and beat in the sugar and lemon mixture. Add the eggs, 1 at a time, and then add the lemon juice, salt and cornstarch. Mix until combined.

Pour the mixture into a 2 quart saucepan and cook over low heat until thickened (about 10 minutes), stirring constantly. The lemon curd will thicken at about 170 degrees F, or just below simmer. Remove from the heat and cool or refrigerate.

Recipe adapted from Ina Garten

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13 Responses to “Pumpkin Cranberry Pecan Upside Down Cake”

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    1
    Sarah — November 24, 2010 at 4:58 pm

    This is the perfect recipe for all of the leftover ingredients I have! Hubby made me buy a 3-pound bag of cranberries because he loves them, but you only use 12 ounces for cranberry sauce so I’ve got about 2 pounds of cranberries left to use, plus lots of pumpkins and pecans. This is definitely being made this weekend!

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    2
    Megan — November 24, 2010 at 5:18 pm

    Oh man. That does sound good. And I know it must be if you’re repeating it because I am the same way. I’m going to make a cranberry maple pecan cake on Friday… but this is really tempting too.

    Happy Thanksgiving!

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    3
    Stephanie — November 24, 2010 at 5:55 pm

    Oh, man! If I only had more time for Thanksgiving dessert table – this is certainly one I would try.

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    4
    We Are Not Martha — November 24, 2010 at 5:58 pm

    Oooh this cake looks so ooey gooey and delicious! I wish there weren’t already so many desserts coming to my Thanksgiving table because I’d totally make this!

    Sues

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    5
    Fun and Fearless in Beantown — November 24, 2010 at 6:02 pm

    This looks super delicious and your photos look great too! Happy Thanksgiving to you and hubby!

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    Shannon — November 25, 2010 at 3:48 pm

    ooooh, my, i must try this 🙂 happy thanksgiving!!

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    7
    Nutmeg Nanny — November 28, 2010 at 10:14 pm

    What a fabulous recipe! All the flavors sound delicious to me.

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    8
    Shandra — November 29, 2010 at 4:45 am

    This looks amazing! It looks so moisty yum, I should try to make this sometime, Love your blog! this is my first comment for you so I thought I’d show some appreciation for your blog, because I’ve been drooling over all your recipes for a while
    Shandra-http://shandrita.tumblr.com/

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    9
    "pup" — November 29, 2010 at 1:13 pm

    Your photos are beautiful! The pictures I took of the actual cake didn’t look to appealing, the photos I took of the bite sized cake bites looked pretty though lol
    Good job!!

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    10
    freefoodboston — December 1, 2010 at 3:21 pm

    What a great recipe! You totally had me at caramel/pecan/cranberry topping.

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    11
    Sophie — January 1, 2011 at 3:14 am

    Just finally made this cake and it is astoundingly good! Truly the best dessert I’ve had in…oh, a very long time. Thank you for your post!

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    12
    Nancy Blume-Watson — November 30, 2013 at 1:57 pm

    I tried to be good, I really did! This cake was so delicious, I not only had seconds, I had a piece for breakfast the next day and for a snack later that day. This one goes on my Christmas menu!

    • beantownbaker — December 1st, 2013 @ 6:52 pm

      I doubled the recipe this time and you’ll remember the middle didn’t quite bake through. It also spilled over a bit, so next time, I’ll put a pan under the cake in the oven.

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