Homemade lemon curd is one of the best tangy spreads you can make at home! With just 4 ingredients and a simple method, it’s also an easy recipe to make yourself. Perfect for topping crepes and cupcakes, or swirling through ice cream.
Photography by Alexandra Daum.
Curds are a traditional English staple and go far beyond lemon! Raspberry, strawberry, passion fruit – the list goes on, and curds can be made with any number of fruits. Lemon curd is a classic, though, and well deserving of a spot in your kitchen.
It’s made with just lemons, egg yolks, sugar, and butter. This zesty spread is a fantastic addition to any numbers of cakes and other sweet treats, and well worth adding to your repertoire.
This is a simple recipe, but does require about 15 minutes of active time. You’ll be stirring at the stove for 10 minutes, so grab a stool or wear some comfy shoes!
Use the JUMP TO RECIPE button at the top, or scroll to the bottom of the post to see the printable recipe card with full ingredient measurements and complete instructions.
Recommended Tools
- Fine zester
- Heat safe bowl or double boiler
- Wooden spoon or spatula
- Whisk
- Glass jar
- Measuring cups and spoons or a digital kitchen scale
Ingredients
- Lemons: you’re using both the zest and the juice, so try to get organic, unwaxed lemons for the best flavour.
- Sugar: plain white or cane sugar.
- Egg yolks: at room temperature. Keep the whites for other uses or freeze them.
- Butter: unsalted butter, cut into small cubes and at room temperature.
Keep scrolling to see clear and detailed process shots, as well as tips and notes to help you make Lemon Curd perfectly the first time!
Method
TOP TIPS
1. Keep stirring! It is 10 minutes of constant stirring, but if you don’t stir, the curd will scramble. Low and slow is key.
2. Don’t let the water touch the bowl. As always with a double boiler, the simmering water can’t touch the bowl the curd is in. This results in too much direct heat.
3. Be patient. It will seem like it’s taking ages to thicken, but it’ll come together quickly at the end of the cooking time.
Recipe Notes
- Egg whites can be frozen for later if you don’t want to use them right away. After separating the eggs, place the whites into an airtight container and freeze up to a month. Just remember how many are in the container!
- A curd is not a fruit cheese, and should still be quite liquid when it’s done cooking. It’ll thicken as it cools. Think ice cream or custard – it should coat the back of a spoon when it’s ready, but not be hard or difficult to stir.
- Stirring constantly is key to making lemon curd. As with most egg-yolk thickened recipes, it will curdle or scramble if not stirred over low heat.
- It is possible to make lemon curd without a stove top! Kelly has a great whole-egg microwave lemon curd recipe if you prefer a quicker method.
- While it can be processed and canned, we aren’t providing instructions for this as it requires a different set of steps.
How to Store and Freeze Lemon Curd
- To Store: refrigeration is best. Depending on the temperature, it can be refrigerated in a sealed container for a week or two.
- To Freeze: lemon curd can be frozen for a month or longer in a sealed container. Thaw in the refrigerator before serving.
Substitutions
- Use a good vegan butter for dairy-free lemon curd.
- Any kind of granulated sugar can be used, since it dissolves when cooking. Regular white or raw cane are ideal.
- If you want to use a liquid sweetener, try this honey lemon curd recipe.
Ways to Use Lemon Curd
- Spread on scones or soda bread
- Top white chocolate mousse for a tart kick
- Sandwich between almond flour biscuits
- As a filling for choux pastry
- Swirled through rhubarb clafoutis
- Topping sourdough pancakes or waffles
- Serve alongside financiers
- Top meringue nests (a great make-along recipe, to use up your egg whites!)
- Add as a surprise filling to sourdough blueberry muffins
- Serve with a Dutch baby
FAQ
It’s a preserve rather than a jam or jelly. Curds use a different method than jam and are much richer, but can be preserved like jams.
This will likely be due to using metal bowls for cooking the curd in. A heat-safe glass bowl is best for the ideal flavour.
As with any recipe using lemon zest, it’s important not to use any of the pith, or white part, from the peel. Only zest the yellow skin of the lemon and don’t go so deep that you take any of the white part, which is very bitter.
More Lemon Treats
Lemon Chess Pie
Lemon Lavender Sugar Cookies
Strawberry Lemonade Sangria
Lemon Buttermilk Cake with Raspberry Compote
No Churn Lemon Curd Ice Cream
If you make this recipe, let us know by tagging @baked_theblog + #bakedtheblog on Instagram! We love to feel like we’re in the kitchen with you.
Recipe
Lemon Curd
Description
Equipment
- Mixing bowl must be heat safe
- Double boiler optional, in place of the heat safe mixing bowl
- Saucepan
- Wooden spoon
- Whisk
- Glass jar
- Measuring cups and spoons or a digital kitchen scale
Ingredients
- ¾ cup sugar
- 3 egg yolks, room temperature
- Zest of a lemon
- ½ cup lemon juice, ~3 lemons
- ¼ cup butter, cut into small cubes, at room temperature
Instructions
- Add the sugar, egg yolks, lemon zest, and lemon juice to a heat-safe bowl or double boiler. Whisk to combine.
- Place the bowl over a saucepan of simmering water (don’t let the base of the bowl touch the water). Cook, stirring constantly, for about 10 minutes.
- After 10 minutes, the curd should be thickened. It’s ready when reduced significantly and coats the back of a wooden spoon.
- Add the butter to the hot curd and whisk to melt and fully incorporate.
- Pour your finished lemon curd into a glass jar and loosely cover. Set aside to cool to room temperature before sealing and refrigerating.
- After refrigerating and cooling fully, the curd should be set and pudding-like in texture. It will keep up to a couple weeks in the refrigerator and can be frozen up to a month.
Notes
- Egg whites can be frozen for later if you don’t want to use them right away. After separating the eggs, place the whites into an airtight container and freeze up to a month. Just remember how many are in the container!
- A curd is not a fruit cheese, and should still be quite liquid when it’s done cooking. It’ll thicken as it cools. Think ice cream or custard – it should coat the back of a spoon when it’s ready, but not be hard or difficult to stir.
- Stirring constantly is key to making lemon curd. As with most egg-yolk thickened recipes, it will curdle or scramble if not stirred over low heat.
- It is possible to make lemon curd without a stove top! Kelly has a great whole-egg microwave lemon curd recipe if you prefer a quicker method.
- While it can be processed and canned, we aren’t providing instructions for this as it requires a different set of steps.
Substitutions
- Use a good vegan butter for dairy-free lemon curd.
- Any kind of granulated sugar can be used, since it dissolves when cooking. Regular white or raw cane are ideal.
- If you want to use a liquid sweetener, try this honey lemon curd recipe.
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