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How To Make Lemon Curd

5 from 10 votes
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Do you know what I love about lemon curd? The butter. Oh sure, the lemon is mind-blowing too, but really, it’s the buttery mouth feel combined with the lemon flavour that gets me every…single..time. Today I’ll show you how to make lemon curd – and it’s so easy to make that you are going to make it all summer long and eat it on your summer berries! Slather it on lemon scones for the perfect treat!

Table of Contents
  1. Lemon Curd is Fast & Easy to Make!
  2. Is there a difference between lemon curd and lemon pie filling?
  3. How long can you keep fresh lemon curd in the fridge?
  4. Karlynn’s Cooking Tips for Making Lemon Curd
  5. Try These Other Lemon Recipes:
  6. PIN this recipe to your DESSERTS Board and Remember to FOLLOW ME ON PINTEREST!
  7. How To Make Amazing Lemon Curd Recipe
Lemon curd on top of raspberries and blackberries in a small Pyrex bowl, a slice of lemon and spoon with curd beside it

Lemon Curd is Fast & Easy to Make!

Lemon curd is thickened by cooking lemon juice, sugar and eggs together. Then you add in some butter. Let it melt. Then if you can stop eating it off the spoon, you cool it for a few hours to thicken it up. It’s a beautiful thing.It becomes a buttery, lemon bliss that you can put on scones, cake, in trifles or on toast. I could eat this by the spoonful, but I try to restrain myself and use on summer berries for one decadent treat. You can also use it in trifles or better yet, bake up some decadent scones and then slather this gorgeous lemon delight all over them. Oh, what a gorgeous treat this is for an afternoon tea!

Is there a difference between lemon curd and lemon pie filling?

Lemon curd is VERY intense, more intensely flavoured than lemon pie filling. If you made pie filling this powerfully flavoured, it wouldn’t taste that good. Lemon curd is meant to be eaten in small amounts and usually WITH something (berries, scones) that diffuse the taste. The amount used in a slice of pie would be too strong. Lemon curd does make a great cake filling however, it’s the perfect filling to slather between layers of cake.

Lemon curd on a glass container and on top of raspberries and blackberries in a small Pyrex bowl

How long can you keep fresh lemon curd in the fridge?

Lemon curd will keep in the fridge for 1-2 weeks – hahaha yah right. It’s gone within 3-4 days in this family!

Karlynn’s Cooking Tips for Making Lemon Curd

  • Have patience when thickening the lemon curd. It will eventually thicken, but sometimes it all depends on factors outside of your control. It usually takes a good 10 minutes for mine to thicken up.
  • Of course you will see in the recipe that I used salted butter in this and as usual I’m going to stress how a little bit of salt foils the sweet and turns this into an extraordinary lemon curd. You need that little zip of salt, trust me! So unless you are on a sodium reduced diet, please use the salted butter!
  • If you like some texture in your lemon curd, add in some lemon zest. Both ways are good, it always depends if I want to strain the curd or not when making it.  You can add in a TBSP of lemon zest if you want! You can see in my photo that I have the lemon zest in my batch this time around. I wanted it really lemony!
Close up of lemon curd in blue Pyrex bowl

Happy cooking everyone! This would also be fantastic on the June strawberries that are in season right now, it makes for the perfect treat this time of year! Lighter, lemony and fruity! IF you love lemon, try my lemon cream pie or my lemon meringue pie!

Try These Other Lemon Recipes:

  1. Glazed Lemon Meyer Scones
  2. Creamy Lemon Bars
  3. Lemon Poppyseed Loaf
  4. Lemon Better Than Sex Cake

Does anyone have strawberries yet? Everything here is so behind, I should totally have berries but all I have is some blooms right now. Anyone have better luck than me this year?

Hope you enjoy this! Love you more than lemons,

Karlynn

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How To Make Amazing Lemon Curd

Ah lemon curd, God’s gift to lemon lovers everywhere! Use it on toast, scones or cakes, no matter what, you need a jar of this in your fridge all the time!
5 from 10 votes
Prep Time
5 minutes
Cook Time
15 minutes
Total Time
20 minutes
Course
Dessert
Cuisine
American
Servings
20
Calories
120
Author
Karlynn Johnston

Ingredients
 

  • 1 cup lemon juice
  • 6 eggs
  • 1 1/2 cups sugar
  • 1/2 cup salted butter

Instructions
 

  • Beat the butter and sugar with an electric mixer for about two minutes, just like you do to make cookies.
  • Slowly add the eggs then beat for one more minutes. Stir in the lemon juice.The mixture will look curdled, but it will smooth out as it cooks.
  • Place the mixture in a medium sauce pan and cook over low heat until it’s smooth. Increase the heat to medium and cook, continuously stirring, until the mixture thickens. The mixture should stick to the spoon slightly.
  • If there are any lumps, strain through a sieve.
  • Cool in the refrigerator for a few hours, it will thicken up some more in the fridge. Keep in the fridge in a jar/jars.

Nutrition Information

Serving: 2cups, Calories: 120kcal, Carbohydrates: 15g, Protein: 1g, Fat: 5g, Saturated Fat: 3g, Cholesterol: 61mg, Sodium: 59mg, Potassium: 30mg, Sugar: 15g, Vitamin A: 215IU, Vitamin C: 4.7mg, Calcium: 9mg, Iron: 0.2mg

All calories and info are based on a third party calculator and are only an estimate. Actual nutritional info will vary with brands used, your measuring methods, portion sizes and more.

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Karlynn Johnston

I’m a busy mom of two, wife & cookbook author who loves creating fast, fresh meals for my little family on the Canadian prairies. Karlynn Facts: I'm allergic to broccoli. I've never met a cocktail that I didn't like. I would rather burn down my house than clean it. Most of all, I love helping YOU get dinner ready because there's nothing more important than connecting with our loved ones around the dinner table!

Learn more about me

Site Index Curd How-To Lemon Pudding

Reader Interactions

Comments & Recipe Tips Share a tip or comment!

  1. ST says

    Holy moly! The last time I made curd, I ended up with sweet lemon eggs. I even forgot to beat the eggs in and added lemon juice to the butter/sugar mixture. But somehow like magic, this just came together oh-so-perfectly!!!! My roommate and I could NOT stop eating it. Next up: perfecting scones!!!5 stars

    • Cat says

      Sounds delish… but you might want to change the nutrition fix. I doubt with one and a half cups of sugar that it’s 120 calories for 2 cups! But a girl can dream….

  2. Judy says

    Do you use fresh lemons or the Real Lemon in the bottle? If real lemons, how many would yield 1 cup of juice?

  3. Sue Stirling says

    Hi
    I live in Perth Western Australia and I have been using this lovely recipe for ages now
    People always ask for it!
    Thank you for sharing
    Sue5 stars

  4. Holly Nicole says

    Omg!!!! Love love love lemon curd! Anyway to make it Bariactric friendly?

  5. Holly Nicole says

    Omg!!!! Love love love lemon curd! Anyway to make it Bariactric friendly? \U0001f601\U0001f601\U0001f601\U0001f601

  6. Michelle Kent says

    I LOVE Lemon Curd LOVE and I do make it all the time haven’t recently must remedy that

  7. Cassandra Navratil says

    How long does this last in the fridge, Karlynn?

  8. Sandra Duke says

    I’ve never made it but plan on doing it today! I’ll let you know how I get on 🙂

  9. Kjesten Allardice says

    Yes I know how to make it but it’s far to dangerous.

  10. UpsideDownPear says

    I love lemon curd!  I’ve never tried to make it before, but I do prefer to make things from scratch when possible.  I will definitely have to give this a try!  Then I’ll have my own fresh supply whenever I want!!

  11. Candice Gamez says

    Replace lemon curd for the chocolate on your S’mores and you have the most delicious S’mores with graham crackers and gooey roasted marshmallows. 🙂

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