Lucious Lemon Curd

Last week when it was my birthday, my lovely friend Lesley called to see me and to invite us to tea this Sunday. When we have our get togethers we always give each other something we have made or grown in the garden, it doesn't have to be a huge gift, it might only be a pepper or a few scones or a jar of pickles. So, winding the clock back a few weeks we were talking about food and she happened to say have you made any Lemon Curd lately. When I thought about it its been ages since I made some, so today being a cold wet miserable day I set too and made these two jars. One for us and one to take on Sunday.

I only make this Lemon Curd in small amounts because its a fresh curd and only keeps a couple of weeks at the most in the fridge. To be honest its worth the faff because the taste is just divine. I used to make it for the WI competitions and the last time I got top marks 19.5 out of 20 :)
To make 2 small jars you need
3 Lemons juice and finely grated zest
4 well beaten fresh eggs
150gm Caster Sugar
100gm Unsalted Butter

In one bowl beat the eggs and put the rest of the ingredients into a large pyrex bowl, pour the eggs ontop of the lemon mix and whisk together. You will need a pan of gently simmering water, place the bowl on top of the pan making sure the bottom of the bowl is NOT in contact with the water (it needs very gentle cooking) Using your whisk keep stirring the mixture, it will look like its curddled at first but don't panic once everything has dissolved it will all come together. Keep stirring until it gets thick, for this amount it takes about 10 minutes so be patient.

Once its thickened it looks a bit like gloopy custard, remove from the heat and spoon into clean warm jars and I pop a wax jam pot disc on the top. Leave until cool, you will find the curd shrinks back a bit as its cooling. When cold pop on the lid and keep in the fridge.

Its delicious on cakes, scones, thined down for a sauce on a steamed pudding or Ice-cream. But tonight we will be having some on homemade crusty bread.

My lovely DH had put the breadmaker on timer last night and the smell of this loaf greeted me as I opened the kitchen door this morning. It will probably be crustless at both ends by teatime :)