Lemon curd and some citrus love!

Citrus. Citrus. Citrus. My current favourite word, and one of my all time favourite flavors. Mouth puckeringly tangy, fresh lemons, oranges, sweet limes! Whenever I have a chocolate overdose, I find relief by indulging in some serious citrusyness. hence, you'll find many citrus based recipes here. 

I think some tangyness is in order in the middle of my sweetness overdose! Yes it has been all sweets all this week over here, with my sweet celebration mini event. Joining me in tempting you today is:

Vidhya of Vidhya's good eats with some gorgeous Red velvet bites topped with coconut, inspired by Lamingtons and Renita of On My Platter with a delicious Meringue Coffee Cake filled with Nutella- my other addiction! You can get even by tempting us back with your sweet dish posts from this week by leaving the link in my comments. 

I made a huge batch of Lemon Curd with a bunch of lemons I had initially bought to make lemon bars, but then decided to make this instead. 

Lemon curd is extremely versatile and you can use it in many ways. You can slather it on toast, muffins or scones and have yourself a Tea Party ( Do invite me! I love the tradition of tea parties don't you?), or make the popular lemon meringue pie, fill cookies or macarons, make tarts, fill phyllo pastry, and so much more! If you're wondering what I did with my batch after I had my share of eating so many spoonfuls that my mouth was tingling and I was fishy-faced, you'll see soon enough. All I'll say right now is that it was incredible :) Lemon curd has 3 basic ingredients: Lemons, sugar, butter. No there is no curd despite the name. 

Oh and there may be some who might want to reduce the butter. Well I did think that initially too, but then I read that butter is one of the main components, so I resisted my urge to reduce it. A friend even unearthed this study on Lemon Curd, for your nerdletting pleasure. Basically it states that butter accounts for the texture and smooth mouth-feel of Lemon curd. It also accounts for flavour and in extending the shelf life of Lemon curd. 

You can also make other fruit curds or butters, from oranges, passion fruit, mangoes, berries etc.

IF you try it with lesser amounts of butter, do let me know what happened.

Lemon Curd

Recipe source: Alton Brown from here

Ingredients:

• 5 egg yolks
• 1 cup Sugar ( I used a little less, but mine was quite tart so I think you should try it with the 1 cup itself, unless you don't like it sweet) 
• 4 lemons, zested and juiced
• 1 stick butter, cut into pats and chilled

Method:

• Add enough water to a medium saucepan to come about 1-inch up the side. 
• Bring to a simmer over medium-high heat. 
• Meanwhile, combine egg yolks and sugar in a medium size metal bowl and whisk until smooth, about 1 minute. (You don't want the eggs to become fluffy.When you whisk, hit the bottom of the bowl so you don't whisk too much air into the mix.)
• Measure citrus juice and if needed, add enough cold water to reach 1/3 cup.
•  Add juice and zest to egg mixture and whisk smooth. Once water reaches a simmer, reduce heat to low and place bowl on top of saucepan. (Bowl should be large enough to fit on top of saucepan without touching the water.) 
• Whisk until thickened, approximately 8 minutes, or until mixture is light yellow and coats the back of a spoon. (It took me about 15 minutes to thicken- but be careful as you do not want to cook your eggs to much and end with lemony sweet scrambled eggs-yuck!)
• Remove promptly from heat and stir in butter a piece at a time, allowing each addition to melt before adding the next. Remove to a clean container and cover by laying a layer of plastic wrap directly on the surface of the curd . Refrigerate for up to 2 weeks or freeze.

If you like the idea of this but don't like the sound of so many egg yolks, try my mom's fruit pudding which I made with mango juice here, but can also be made with any other fruit juice  like orange, berries, pineapple etc and  is thickened with cornstarch for a delicious dessert topping.