Lemon Curd: A Simple Recipe for You and Your Family

In which I take aim at becoming Good Housekeeping™ Magazine for the current generation.

One of life’s tasty pleasures is yogurt layered with lemon curd. It’s every bit as simple as it sounds: Two dollops of curd, two dollops of yogurt.

The quiet elegance of lemon curd and yogurt.

While you can find pretty decent curds in stores—I’d recommend Stonewall—nothing beats the homemade variety. It takes about fifteen minutes to whip up, and it’s fresher and zestier than its store-bought counterpart.

The Recipe, Courtesy of Cook’s Illustrated

• ½ cup lemon juice (3 lemons)

• ¾ cup sugar

• Pinch of salt

• 2 large eggs + 3 large yolks

• 4 tbsp unsalted butter, cut into ½-inch pieces

1. In a medium saucepan, heat lemon juice, sugar, and salt over medium-high until the mixture is hot but not boiling.

2. Whisk eggs and yolks together, then slowly drizzle the lemon mixture while whisking.

3. Return mixture to pan over medium-low and constantly stir until mixture reaches 170 degrees. Right about 5 minutes.

4. Remove from heat, and stir in butter until it is all melted.

5. Strain through a fine-mesh strainer into a bowl.

6. Press plastic wrap onto the surface of the mixture. Refrigerate until it’s firm—about 1 ½ hour.

I usually go with sugar-free vanilla yogurt for the curd. The combination is just a little bit too sweet with the standard type.