Lemon Cheese....or Curd.

You may be in the habit of buying your Lemon cheese, or lemon curd as it is more commonly known, from the supermarket, but until you have tasted home-made, you won't realise exactly what you are missing! Shop bought curds tend to have extra ingredients added to help thicken or to preserve it and so prolong its shelf life, and mass producers will most likely use a chemically enhanced lemon flavouring that tricks the tastebuds into believing that you are actually tasting real lemon, however, make your own lemon curd from all fresh and natural ingredients and you will never tolerate a false abomination again!Home made curd is in a league of it's own when it comes to creaminess and capturing those real lemon flavours. With 4 simple ingredients and a lot of love going into the making, your curd may not last as long as shop bought, but believe me, once you've tasted it, it won't last long enough to go off!

you will need:

150 g unsalted butter at room temperature

340 g castor sugar

zest and juice of 3 lemons

4 egg yolks

2 whole eggs

sterilised glass jars / pots with suitable lids...this recipe will fill approx 2 standard jam pots

how to:

• sterilise your jars in the oven or dishwasher, they should only be warm though, not hot when you start to make the curd
• prepare a double boiler....if you have a proper double saucepan then great, if not, choose a deep bowl that will sit snugly over a saucepan, but remember we don't want the bottom of the bowl to touch the water in the saucepan so make sure the saucepan is deep too.
• scrub the skin of your lemons really well in warm water to which you can add a bit of clear vinegar if you have it! lemons tend to be coated in a wax and as we are going to zest them we don't want anything nasty in our curd!
• remove the zest from your clean lemons and put the zest into your bowl,
• halve and then squeeze the juice from the lemons, strain the juice to remove any pips, then add the juice to the bowl with the zest
• add the castor sugar and butter to the bowl
• boil a kettle and add the hot water to your saucepan, sit the bowl on top.......make sure the water is NOT touching the bottom of the bowl! this is very important, too much heat and you will end up with lemon flavoured scrambled eggs, and who would eat that?
• keeping the saucepan on  a medium heat so we have a gentle simmer in the water, stir the sugar, butter, lemon mixture until the sugar has dissolved and you can feel there are no granules left, the liquid should be really smooth...... if you dip your finger in the liquid it should feel quite hot by now
• whisk the 4 egg yolks with the 2 whole eggs really well...an electric hand blender is great for this as it really breaks down all the egg
• pass the egg through a fine sieve into a clean jug
• add the eggs to your buttery lemon liquid, whisk continually while adding the eggs
• carry on whisking for a few moments as the mixture gains heat again, as it gets warmer the eggs will begin to cook and thicken the mixture
• when you can feel the mixture begin to thicken, switch to a rubber spatula or wooden spoon and continue to stir until the mixture has thickened enough that when you pass the spoon through the mixture you will get a glimpse of the bottom of your bowl......this requires patience as the temptation is there to turn the heat up thinking it might cook quicker.....It may take 10-15 minutes so be patient.....a perfect curd should resemble a nice thick custard when it has been cooked enough
• transfer your curd into a clean jug then pour into your jars which should be only slightly warm
• put the lids on immediately, turn upside down for ten minutes then turn them upright again
• allow to cool fully at room temperature

Remember to label and date your jars when cool. Store in a cool place and refrigerate after opening. Your curd should keep at least a week in the fridge once opened, and for quite a few months in an unopened jar, which means it makes a great present!

Try your lemon cheese on a freshly baked scone, warm toast, French toast, a slice of teabread or any sort of bread really.....I do enjoy mine spread on toasted barmbrack as the fruit and spice goes really well with the tangy lemon.

Lemon curd is also great as a filling for Victoria or Madeira sponge cakes, as a suprise centre for cupcakes, or even in some sweet pastry tartlets....pour into pre-cooked tart cases as soon as it is cooked then allow it to set.
I love it as a filling for a pavlova or meringue nests.......fill a nest with lemon curd, top with cream and pile lots of fresh raspberries on top....yum...raspberries go so well with lemon, but don't bother trying strawberries with it....I did warn you!
You can make lemon syllabub....whip 1/2 pint of cream with a little icing sugar, whip 1 egg white until almost firm, fold 100 g of lemon curd into the cream then gently fold in the egg whites and spoon into glasses, chill for a couple of hours, decorate again with a few raspberries or try some candied / glace lemon peel, and serve.

You can make a host of other cheeses/ curds too.....try lime, passion fruit, different varieties of orange such as clementine or mandarin which surprisingly do have different flavours, or go for slightly weird and do blood orange or pink grapefruit.

If you had a go at this recipe I'd love to hear from you. You can also post your pictures to my social media,

Lesleyann x