I have no idea why my mother never made her own Lemon Curd, but she didn’t. I have a vague recollection of her being scared of cooking anything resembling an egg custard, so maybe that was it, although I don’t know why egg custards would scare her. Really they’re just like making cheese sauce or instant custard, and she made those all the time. The downside to her egg custard fear is that I inherited it. Similarly, I still can’t swim because my father never went near water.
Luckily for me, becoming obsessed with making the best ice cream on earth cured me of my egg custard fear in about 73 minutes; because you just cannot make the most fantastic ice cream ever if it doesn’t involve an egg custard. I just wish it hadn’t taken me as many years as it did to discover that egg custards are easy, beautiful, and making them is downright therapeutic – at least for me. I lost count of how many egg custards I had made by the time I was in my 4th month of ice cream production.
Egg custards taught me – once again – that the fear is always worse than the reality. Me and egg custards are best buds now. Egg custards are the best excuse I know to stand by the stove and do nothing except gaze lovingly into a saucepan and stir the contents. These days, when I need a break from doing, I make something that requires an egg custard; just so I can stand still for 12 minutes. Egg custards rock.
I learned very early on in life that lemon anything that came out of a packet, was not even in the same ballpark as that same anything made from scratch with real, live lemons. Lemons that used to grow on trees, and that you have to grate and squeeze to get the goodies out of them. If my memory serves me correctly I learned that the day my mother made my father a lemon cheesecake from scratch for his birthday one year. Prior to that she had only ever made cheesecake out of a packet. After that we never had packet cheesecake again. With most things the difference between homemade and packet is palpable; with lemon, the difference is nothing short of profound.
I love lemon anything. LOVE. I’ll be using this Lemon Curd as a base for many other recipes down the road, so if you like lemon stuff, I highly recommend that you get this recipe down pat. We’ll be using it a lot – and not just as a brilliant topping for Blueberry Cheesecake Scones (recipe up next!) – although it IS brilliant for that.
Love lemon? This Lemon Curd will make your taste buds sing.
Pucker up, Buttercup!
Lemon Curd
Author: Carrie Brown | Prep time: 5 mins | Cook time: 15 mins | Total time: 20 mins
What You Need
- 4 eggs
- 7 oz / 200g xylitol
- 1/3 cup / 3 fl oz. lemon juice (approx. 2 lemons)
- Zest of 1 lemon
- 4 oz / 110g coconut oil, melted
- 4 oz / 110g butter, melted
What You Do
- Whisk the eggs well with a fork and pour into a small pan.
- Add the xylitol, lemon juice, lemon zest, coconut oil, and butter.
- Whisk ingredients together well.
- Place on the stove over a medium heat and STIR CONSTANTLY as the mixture slowly thickens. It takes 12 – 15 minutes to thicken fully. Embrace it. Be patient.
- DO NOT ALLOW THE MIXTURE TO BOIL – it will curdle or you will get scrambled eggs.
- When the mixture is thick enough to coat the back of a spoon, quickly remove it from the heat and pour it through a fine mesh sieve into a clean glass lidded container (such as a Pyrex storage bowl). No, you cannot omit this step. It must be sieved!
- Stir the mixture in the sieve until you are left with only the zest pulp and a few strands of egg. You can use a second, clean spatula to scrape the underside of the sieve as you go.
- Once all the curd has been passed through the sieve, leave uncovered until completely cold, stirring every 10 minutes to prevent a skin from forming.
- When cold, put the lid on the container and place in the ‘fridge.
- Once chilled it will be thick and spreadable.
- Store in the ‘fridge.
Top Recipe Tips
- Check out the Ingredients Guide for information on ingredients.
- Where Are The Macros and Nutritional Info?
Helpful Cooking and Recipe Links
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- For lots more great recipes check out our scrumptious cookbooks!
Podcast Episodes
BrookeI love lemon things too! I can’t believe how simple this is, I will definitely be trying very soon. Thank you.
SigiI adore lemony things too, and this recipe looks great … but egg custards still frighten the frack out of me. (I speak from bitter experience. So many sad and bitter experiences.) :(
Lorna Broadoh my god…I’ve died and gone to heaven LEMON CURDDDDDDDDDD
carrieWho knew Lemon Curd would be such an instant hit??!!! Sigi – please try this recipe – just don’t stop stirring. Brooke and Lorna can let you know how easy it is!! :-D
daniellesuper excited to try! i am a lemon lover too! Thank you Carrie!
MatildaI have a friend who has a lemon tree, so I’ll be making this.
Sounds super easy to make.
I’m looking forward to it.
btw, I had to create a separate folder for all my sane/paleo recipes, so you could say I’m making a carrie cook book, cause 99% of the recipes in there are yours
carrieMatilda – I want a friend with a lemon tree!!!! LOVE, LOVE, LOVE your recipe binder :-D
SylviaCarrie, you ROCK!!! I’ve just made this recipe and OMG, it is FANTASTIC!!
I decided to try it with some Cottage Cheese which I creamed in a food processor until really smooth and then I mixed in a couple of tablespoons of the Lemon Curd. End result……YUMMMM!!! Thank you so much.
carrieHa ha, Sylvia! It is good isn’t it? I LOVE this stuff.
NMIf you custard does curdle or split because of accidental overheating, just pour it into a jug and churn mercilessly with a stick-blender. Add another yolk if necessary. Then return to gentle heat and resume, saved!
carrieThanks, Nick! It really is just a lot easier and less stressful to not overheat it in the first place, but it’s always good to know that all is not lost if it does go sideways.
ColleenSounds great Carrie, how long can it be stored?
carrieHi Colleen – I have had a glass container of this in the ‘fridge for 2 weeks and it is perfectly fine. The eggs are cooked, and xylitol inhibits bacterial growth. I would iamgine it will keep just fine for a month, although I have not had any last that long yet! Hope that helps!
danielleYummy lemon scrambled eggs! Lol! I’m the one in the group that over heated. I cook with gas and have never done this custard style before. My medium is way too hot! LOVE LOVE the recipe. Thank you again!!! Looking forward to making the lemon yogurt tomorrow!
AnnWow! I am typically a chocolate girl, but this recipe has won me over entirely! I am wondering how you had it in your fridge for 2 weeks because I want to eat half of it now… You’re idea of mixing it with the yogurt is awesome because it saves me from eating all of it at once :) Thank you!
carrieAnn – I had it for two weeks because I quadrupled the recipe ;-) This made me love lemon even more than I did!
JulieHow safe are eggs to eat this way? I’m pregnant so have to be careful to eat them fully cooked, but this looks awesome.
Thanks!
carrieJulie – the eggs are cooked – you’re good! Huge congrats on the wee one :-)
MandyHi, I haven just made this and all went well until the last1min and it split. As I was pouring it into the jar. However not all lost, I used a stick blender and whizzed ir through. Nice glossy thick curd. Yum, the yogurt is in the fridge waiting for it. Thank you for the recipe. Me
Ind regards mandy
EliaFirst – I was inspired to buy a kitchen scale because of this recipe. Second – this was great! It’s sweet, tangy, and creamy… All the things I like without all the death and chemicals. Thank you so much! Third – I’m thinking of playing around with this recipe some more to make other types of custard. Do you have suggestions for making this a chocolate custard?
SandyCan you freeze this?
ShawnaSo….I cheated a bit. For some reason, I remembered hearing about blender hollandaise years ago and thought it was worth a shot on this recipe. My blender would be comparable to a Vitamix, so I was careful of speed. I whirled everything but the oil for 20-30 sec @ 40% power, then drizzled in the oil at the same speed. Set up perfectly and no straining required! Solves the overheating issue as long as you are careful. I address the chance that the eggs are not cooked by lacto-fermenting overnight with whey from yogurt.
Thanks for the recipe, it tastes amazing. So glad I found this site to enjoy SANE eating, even to indulge while staying SANE! ;-)
Lemon Sauce » Carrie Brown | Life in the SANE lane[…] can whip this luscious Lemon Sauce up in a New York minute – as long as you have some SANE Lemon Curd stashed in your ‘fridge. It’s worth keeping some of that lemon curd goodness on hand […]
Lemon Mascarpone Tarts » Carrie Brown | Life in the SANE lane[…] going on, I couldn’t think of anything better to fill it with than some fantastically lemony SANE Lemon Curd. As a pretty piped topping I was going to go with simple whipped cream, but I determined that I […]
ClaireOh my god, this stuff is dangerous, it should carry a health warning. I’ve had to put it away quickly to stop me from eating the whole lot – on it’s own. I’m making the mascarpone tarts with this tomorrow, bet they’re going to be amazing too!! You have one very happy reader/podcast listener here :-)
carrieHurrah, Claire! Enjoy those tarts!
KathyLove this recipes. When I made it the first time, I purchased a large bag of lemons at Costco. I squeezed the all and zested half of them and put them in ice cube trays and frozen it. I already had a mess going so why not finish what I started. What I love most is batch number two took no time at all. All those cubes with zest in them are now just waiting for me. Thanks again Carrie for yummy recipes!
DingTry boiling in a double boiler or a basin over boiling water to stop curdling.
Lemon Yogurt Supreme » Carrie Brown | Life in the SANE Lane[…] thrilled to release the second supreme yogurt: Lemon. Because I do love lemon. Plus I made this SANE Lemon Curd, and almost immediately my brain exploded with a million uses for it. This is one of them. I […]
Tonnia WilliamsI just made this curd following your recipe in eat Smarter! Holidays. It is awesome. That being said though, I know you stated in your Q & A section why you don’t add the nutritional values to your recipes due to time versus more recipes but diabetics have to count their carbs. My daughter has type 1 diabetes and has to count every carb that passes her lips in order to calculate how many units of insulin she needs to take. I would love to give her your recipe books but as a busy college student she does not have time to enter recipes into a program to figure carb counts. She is working hard just to eat keto as well improve her cooking skills. I am just sending this as a “wish list” for future recipes since I love so many of your recipes with my reasoning behind my request.
KellyTonnia, I went to sparkpeople.com and added the recipe to their recipe database. When you do that you get the breakdown on nutritional information.
Hope that helps.
KellyLoved the lemon curd and lemon supreme yogurt recipes! I wanted to make it again this weekend for my work week but was unable to get any organic lemons this week. Here’s my question: Can I use this recipe and use oranges instead or is it strictly for lemons?
New Year’s Recipes – Keto With Kynda[…] topping is Carrie Brown’s Lemon Curd,which I absolutely love. And then I cooked a few frozen blueberries down until soft and thickened […]
Joyce HanoverPerfect! Now to tackle swimming Carrie ?
Lisa TaylorI want to make this but my question is xylitol the only sweetener you can use or can it be substituted with something else ??
Matia BrysonInteresting that you chose xylitol for this recipe. Have you found that erythritol or stevia loses its sweetness when either combined or heated with lemon? I seem to be having that issue with every lemon recipe I try.