Recipe Easy Lemon Curd

You’re just 4 ingredients and 10 minutes away from luscious homemade lemon curd. This creamy, sweet and tangy lemon spread is so much better than shop-bought and is perfect for topping everything from scones to pancakes.

This post may contain affiliate links for products we love. For affiliate links and as an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases at no extra cost to you. You can read our disclosure policy here!

Creamy, buttery, sweet, spreadable lemon – that’s the best way to describe this homemade lemon curd. This is a simple recipe you can have ready in minutes too.

How To Make Lemon Curd (5 Ingredients)

Imagine things like lemon slice or lemon meringue pie or lemon curd mousse and, if they get your mouth watering, then you need to make this curd immediately.

Lemon curd is a spread made from lemons, butter, sugar and eggs that originated in England. With an intense lemon flavour and it’s spreadable form, it’s used for topping toast and pancakes and also as fillings for pies, tarts and cakes.

While researching and testing for this recipe, I came across comments like – My curd is too runny. My curd is not thickening. Why is my curd grainy? So, Idecided to make a little troubleshooting guide.

The Perfect Homemade Lemon Curd Recipe

You may have added too much liquid, although if you stick to the ratios in this recipe, that won’t be a problem. In that case, it may be that you have not cooked the curd quite long enough. The fix? You can actually put it back on the stove and cook it a little longer until it coats the back of a spoon and you can draw a line through it that doesn’t run.

Remembering that curd is not meant to be thick like a set custard, it may be that it wasn’t cooked long enough (see above). If you still want it thicker, try adding in another egg yolk (making sure to cook it through as per the instructions).

In my research, I felt sorry for the cooks who were saying my curd turned grainy after refrigeration and, despite them knowing it was not due to the eggs scrambling, the only responses they were getting were “sounds like your eggs scrambled”.

A Simple Lemon Curd Recipe

My answer to this? Not necessarily true. You will know if your eggs have scrambled. You can see it in the warm curd as you pour it into your jars and they don’t scramble by themselves in the fridge overnight.

The sciency reason: It’s likely the graininess is caused by the breakdown of the emulsification – ie: the fats (in this case butter) and liquids (lemon juice here) not emulsifying properly or that emulsification breaking. This can be caused by not whisking and agitating the mixture enough or by overheating or a combo of both. In any case, I tested this out and it can be fixed. Yay!

Add one egg yolk and 1 tablespoon of the juice (in this recipe, lemon juice) to a saucepan and whisk them together fully. Turn the heat on the lowest possible setting. Add one tablespoon of your cold curd back to the pan. Whisk it in well. Continue to do this until all the curd is added back. Now heat it to 75C / 170F on a thermometer or to the point that the hot curd will coat the back of the spoon again. Pour it back into your jars and refrigerate again.

Easy Lemon Curd Filling

With a bold lemon flavor in a spreadable consistency, homemade lemon curd is a magical ingredient you can use in any number of recipes or as a topping for so many treats.

This easy lemon curd will keep in the refrigerator for up to 3 weeks unopened, if stored in a sterilised jar. I love using these small weck jars. Once opened use it up within 7-10 days.

Lemon curd can be frozen for up to 3 months. Freeze it in ice cube trays, then transfer to an airtight container once solid. This means you can defrost just as much as you need.

How To Make Easy Lemon Curd Recipe

Hungry for more? Subscribe to the newsletter for free recipes straight to your inbox. Also, follow along on Facebook, Pinterest and Instagram.

You're just 4 ingredients and 10 minutes away from this creamy, sweet and tangy homemade lemon curd. So much better than shop-bought, even quicker and perfect for topping everything from scones to pancakes.

Have you tried this recipe? Don’t forget to leave a rating and comment below and let me know how it was! I love hearing from you. Nutrition information is approximate and derived from an online calculator. The brands you use may cause variations.

Homemade Lemon Curd — Let's Dish Recipes

This post may contain affiliate links that earn me a small commission for my referral, at no extra cost to you. Thank you for supporting Sugar Salt Magic.Store-bought lemon curd doesn’t even deserve to share the same name as homemade. This from-scratch lemon curd is deliciously tangy, creamy, and sweet. You only need 5 ingredients and it comes together on the stove in 10 minutes! Lemon curd is perfect for scones, crepes, angel food cake, quick breads, pound cake, and so much more.

If your answer is YES to all of the above, you’re going to flip for this creamy, dense, intensely flavorful spread. Homemade lemon curd is 1 million times tastier than store-bought, which is filled with ingredients we can’t pronounce and has likely been sitting on the shelf for too long. Spread the blissful homemade version on scones, biscuits, homemade English muffins, and so much more. This is the recipe you never realized you needed!

Lemon curd is a very rich dessert topping or spread. It’s buttery and sweet with intense tart lemon flavor—like a creamy lemon version of jam. Lemon curd is made from simple ingredients and comes together quickly on the stove. Lemon lovers, this is your jam.

J Dub's Homemade Lemon Curd

You need 5 ingredients for lemon curd recipe: egg yolks, fresh lemons, sugar, salt, and butter. Each ingredient serves a critical purpose for thickening and flavoring. The egg yolks thicken the curd, just as they do in creme brûlée or butterscotch pudding. Use real lemons; you need both the zest and juice. The sugar supplies sweetness and structure, while the salt balances out the flavor. Add the butter after the curd finishes on the stove. Butter makes it supercreamy.

Make lemon curd on the stove. Make sure you are constantly whisking as the mixture thickens—we’re talking about 10 minutes of whisking. The good news? That’s the only step in this recipe: whisking!

I strongly recommend cooking the lemon curd in a double boiler because mixing these ingredients over direct heat quickly leads to burning. Don’t fret! If you don’t have a double boiler, craft a makeshift double boiler by placing a heatproof glass bowl on top of a larger pot. (You can see my DIY double boiler in my brownie baked Alaska post!) Make sure the bottom of the top pot or bowl does not touch the simmering water. It’s worth repeating: lemon curd should never be cooked on direct heat.

How To Make Lemon Curd

Lemon curd may have a metallic aftertaste if you cook it in a metal double boiler. It’s a result of the eggs and lemon reacting with the pan, but is easily avoidable! Use a non-metal double boiler (this one has a porcelain insert) or the glass bowl option I mention above (but make sure it’s heatproof glass, like Pyrex). While you’re at it, use a silicone whisk too!

You only need 5 simple ingredients for homemade lemon curd—and the recipe comes together on the stove in 10 minutes! If you know how to whisk, you can make this delicious spread.

Sally McKenney is a professional food photographer, cookbook author, and baker. Her kitchen-tested recipes and thorough step-by-step tutorials give readers the knowledge and confidence to bake from scratch. Sally has been featured onMy easy Lemon Curd recipe is the perfect easy curd! Just a few ingredients and you can make it from scratch. It tastes so much better than from the store.

Easy Vegan Lemon Curd • It Doesn't Taste Like Chicken

I am in love with lemon curd and lemon all the things! I’ve been making this homemade curd for years and decided I finally needed to share it with you.

If you’ve never made homemade lemon curd, you should. It’s so much tastier than the kind from the jar. Plus, store-bought is sometimes hard to find and it’s expensive.

Lemon Curd is a simple recipe made with just a few ingredients and it goes great on toast, in fillings for desserts, or on a spoon. You can use this curd to make things like lemon tarts or fillings for lemon cupcakes or lemon pastry.

Delicious Lemon Curd Recipe

Most recipes for lemon curd that you see will call for just egg yolks. I hate using yolks and not whites because I always forget to use the whites for something. They end up going to waste which kills me because eggs aren’t cheap. So I developed a lemon curd recipe with whole eggs to eliminate waste.

It’s like making a custard, but instead you’re making curd. I like to think of this as a cross between jam and lemon custard. It’s got a consistency that’s between the two and a flavor that’s unparalleled.

Whisk:

The Best Homemade Lemon Curd