Monday, January 24, 2011

By special request

So, I'm skipping the apologies this time.  We all know my current situation, and my lack of cooking at the moment due to it, and for those of you who don't know what's going on, consider yourself lucky that you're not tied up in it.  But my intentions for this post are not for rantings, it is because I promised a follower a recipe while Up North, and have yet to carry through.  She also called me out on it on her blog.

It was a lemon themed trip this year to Petoskey with Lemon-Poppeyseed "Pound-Cake" Muffins (which may be post worthy at a later date) & Lemon Curd.  This "someone" whom I promised the Lemon Curd recipe to just so happened to be gifted a spectacular little pan at Christmas time to make the most wonderful little puffy pancakes, Ebelskivers.  And I instantly thought "LEMON CURD FILLING!" when she had shown me her new acquisition.

So Lemon Curd it was.  It's a CINCH to make.  Seriously.  I came across my recipe at SmittenKitchen this summer while I had a craving to try my hand at some type of fancy bread.  (And I'm sad to say I don't have any pictures of how much of a success that was, but my friends will tell you that they thought I bought it.  It looked that "professional".)

But I'll give you a condensed version so you don't have to stare at the beautiful bread at the top of SmittenKitchen's blog and salivate all over your keyboards.  Moisture & computers equals not good.  I only have two pieces of advice when it comes to this recipe.  1-DEFINITELY keep whisking the mixture while its thickening.  If you don't, you'll get bits of scrambled eggs in your curd.  It's not a HUGE deal, because you can just siv them out with a fine strainer, but doing so also strains out the lemon zest, and you lose that added lemon oomph. 2-The ingredients are anything obscure, so buy enough lemons to make at LEAST a double batch.  It's that good.

Lemon Curd
Adapted from Gourmet
Makes a little shy of 1/2 cup

Ingredients
3 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
3/4 teaspoon fresh lemon zest, finely grated
3 tablespoons sugar
1 large egg
2 tablespoons unsalted butter, cut into small pieces

Whisk together juice, zest, sugar, and egg in a 1-quart heavy saucepan. Stir in butter and cook over moderately low heat, whisking frequently, until curd is thick enough to hold marks of whisk and first bubble appears on surface, about 4 to 5 minutes. Transfer lemon curd to a bowl and chill, its surface covered with plastic wrap, until cold, at least 1 hour.  Will keep in a sealed container in refrigerator for up to 2 weeks.