Part I (which is actually Part II):
I've made this twice now, and the second time without butter - yeilding a brighter, even more lemon flavor! Nom! I even made it without the recipe the second time, so it's pretty darn easy.
3 large lemons (organic preferred, well washed either way)
1 1/2 c granulated sugar
1/2 c (or whatever the lemons yield) lemon juice (my lemons gave up about 3/4 cup)
4 - 5 large eggs
Wash lemons. Cut the rind off of all three lemons with a sharp knife - if you get the pith/thicker slice of rind, your curd will be more bitter, like a marmalade. (then juice the lemons. add lemon juice up to 1/2 or 3/4 cup.) You'll end up with about 1 1/2 cups of rind. Place rinds and blend in processor or blender with sugar, until rind and sugar are well incorporated, and rind is is teeny tiny bits. Unless you like chomping on pieces of rind.
With processor whirring happily away, pour (steady stream. not dumping) in lemon juice, and add eggs in one at a time until the entire kit n' kaboodle is well incorporated and smooth.
Now: this is the hard part.
Remember this: LOW AND SLOW. Got it? Low, and slow. If you disobey this advice you will end up with lemony scrambled eggs. I'm serious.
Pour the mixture into a 2 qt saucepan. On a low setting, start stirring. Stir for about 10 minutes (if you have a candy thermometer, you can have a guide of hitting about 170F - this is where it will turn the corner to custard). Stir continually. Low and slow.
When the curd sticks to the back of your spatula or spoon, take it off the heat. Spoon into a bowl, cover with plastic wrap (to keep it from forming a skin) and place in the fridge to cool. Keep refrigerated, and use in place of marmalade or jelly on toast - and if you want to get super crazy, click here for my recipe to make Lemon Meringue French Toast. Oh, if the entire week were made purely of Sunday mornings...
Part II (which is actually Part I, but... whatever)
Lemon curd made today - DH has made it before, using Alton Brown's recipe, but frankly, I read it and thought, "Gah! I can't do that!"
Luckily I found a recipe by The Barefoot Contessa*, and while it was still sort of precision oriented, it seemed easier in the execution. So I gave it a try, and oh, man. This stuff is good. It never did make it up to 170F, but it seems to have set up nicely - I cooked it on low for about 20 minutes, so I suspect that I should have turned up the heat just a tad and then I might have hit the 170F/10 minute mark more efficiently.
At any rate, it turned out well, with a lovely lemon flavor. Delicious!
* (and a note, although not called for in the recipe, I made certain to use organic lemons, since it calls for a fair amount of the zest)
