A few months ago, a friend of mine made lemon curd.  I was curious, I’d never made lemon curd, and, I’d never given consideration to the thought that something with ‘curd’ in the title could be yummy.

However, I was curious and I know lemon meringue pie tastes yummy, so I thought I’d give it a shot.  I got the lemon curd recipe from my friend Frances, who’d, like I said, tried and tested the recipe before.

I bought lemons (in hindsight, I may have bought too many lemons!) and set about making lemon curd and subsequently, lemon meringue pie!

Recipe:

4 oz. (1/2 cup) unsalted butter
3/4 cup granulated sugar
1/2 cup fresh lemon juice
3 Tbs. lightly packed finely grated lemon zest
Pinch salt
6 large egg yolks

Melt the butter in a heavy medium saucepan over medium heat.

Remove the pan from the heat and whisk in the sugar, lemon juice, zest, and salt.

Whisk in the yolks until smooth.  Return the pan to medium-low heat and cook, whisking constantly, until the mixture thickens, 5 to 6 minutes.

To check if the curd is thick enough, dip a wooden spoon into it and draw a your finger across the the back of the spoon; your finger should leave a path. Don’t let the mixture boil. Immediately force the curd through a fine sieve into a bowl, using a rubber spatula. Let cool at room temperature, whisking occasionally. Refrigerate, covered, until ready to use.

To make my lemon meringue pie, I rolled out some store-bought pastry, pretty thin (it gives a good crispy base), lined a 9 inch flan dish and baked, at 400F for around 8-9 minutes until crispy.

Then, I tipped one pint of my homemade lemon curd on to the pie crust, and whipped up (in my Kitchen Aid mixer) some egg whites (4) with 6 Tbsps of sugar, to make a meringue topping.  Which I then layered on top of the lemon curd and put back in the oven for 6-8 minutes until the top browned.

I should have, and would have, taken a picture of an individual slice, but if I’d paused long enough to get my camera out of my bag, I’d have missed out on a piece of the pie!

However, it was delicious (going by the 6 empty plates and the empty flan dish!) and definitely something I’ll make again in the future!!