Lemon Curd
The best lemon curd recipe starts and ends with your blender, Vitamix, Thermomix, Nutribullet, or Ninja. It is literally a three-step method, blend, cook, strain. Oh yes, enjoy, that’s four!
There is no standing over a double boiler whisking in butter and hoping the curd won’t curdle. I dare to suggest this blender lemon curd recipe is almost foolproof.
Equipment
- Food processor or blender
- Medium stainless steel heavy bottom pot
- fine sieve
- 750ml sealed storage container
Ingredients
- 340 g lemon juice (approximately 7 medium lemons)
- Zest of all the lemons
- 220 g caster sugar
- 145 g unsalted butter
- 260 g egg yolks (approximately 7 large eggs)
- 3.5 g gold gelatine leaves (2 McKenzie’s platinum leaves)
Instructions
- Soak the gelatine in a bowl of cold water until soft, then squeeze out excess water and set aside.
- Zest lemons into the blender jug.
- Juice enough lemons for 340g of lemon juice and add to blender jug.
- Add the butter in cubes to the blender jug along with the sugar.
- Separate the eggs and add 260g of yolk to the blender jug (the whites are not used in this recipe).
- Blend the ingredients on high for about 1 minute.
- Pour the curd into the pan over a medium low heat, scrape out the blender jug into the pan.
- Stir constantly with a rubber spatula for approximately 10 minutes until the curd thickens and comes to the boil (slow plopping bubbles). If using a thermometer the temperature should be between 76°-82°C.
- Remove from the stove and add the softened gelatine, stir until the gelatine melts completely.
- Pass the curd through a fine sieve and store in a sealed container in the refrigerator until needed.
Just before you cook with abandon…
Eggs: Large eggs weigh about 52g each in the shell.
Kitchen scale: If you are going to bake, you need a kitchen scale. It’s really in the necessity column not the optional column. You don’t need to spend a fortune on them, decent ones can be bought for about $70. I find the expensive scales break down just as quickly as the cheaper versions. But I would recommend you go for a known brand from a reputable kitchen shop.
The curd set too firm: Once the curd is fully set in the refrigerator you may find it is to slightly too firm to add it as an element to your desserts. This is easily solved by gently whisking it with a balloon whisk or by using an immersion handheld blender. Make sure you do this gently and briefly so as not to break up the gelatine structure. If you beat it too vigorously the structure will break, and you will end up with a runny curd. Put the immersion blender on low and keep it submerged in the curd.
Thermomix method: While this is not a Thermomix recipe, I certainly admit I make all my sauces and curds where possible in my Thermomix. On a busy baking day, I can be rolling pastry while the Thermomix makes my curd filling. The preparation of the curd ingredients is the same, when blend the ingredients (except the gelatine) in the Thermomix for 5-7 seconds taking the speed from 2 to 7. Then insert the butterfly whisk cook on 80°C speed 3 for 10-15 minutes, checking it around the 10 minute mark. Then add the gelatine and strain as per the instructions in the recipe.