lemony crack

[ironymaiden]

i am addicted to Ellenos yogurt with lemon curd. while the flavor is quite tart, it actually has more sugar than their other fruit flavors. yogurt is great breakfast food for me, but the sugar isn't. (and a cup of Ellenos is expensive enough that it should be a sometimes food.)

after confirming that commercial lemon curd + Fage scratched the itch, i could move on to getting the sugar out of the lemon curd. it turns out that a)sugar is not the thickening agent in lemon curd b)lemon curd is remarkably easy.

low-sugar lemon curd
based on David Leibovitz's improved lemon curd.

Makes 1 very generous cup

1/2 cup lemon juice
2 Tablespoons + 2 teaspoons SugarLeaf (this is a sugar/stevia blend. sweetening equivalent to 1/2 cup sugar.)
2 large egg yolks
2 large eggs
pinch of salt
6 tablespoons unsalted butter, cubed

i used a double-boiler made from a saucepan + shallow metal mixing bowl.

1. half-fill saucepan with water. heat on low.


2. in the mixing bowl, whisk together the lemon juice, sugar, egg yolks, eggs, and salt.


3. add the butter cubes and set the bowl on the saucepan, whisking constantly until the butter is melted.


4. increase the heat to medium and cook, whisking constantly until the mixture thickens to the texture of hair conditioner.

i had to restrain myself from just eating it with a spoon. a test with yogurt nicely replicates the flavor and mouthfeel of the Ellenos lemon curd.

• for this test i used bottled juice. i have fresh juice in the freezer, i'll use it next time.


• i have plenty of SugarLeaf and i like it. i'll try a sugar-free version with erythritol eventually.


• the unused egg whites went in the freezer for later.


• the original recipe and several others called for straining the mixture when it's complete. i couldn't find anything to strain out, and i don't think i would do it for rogue pulp from squeezed juice.

Comments

[miss-swamp.livejournal.com]

This sounds delicious. I have started making my lemon curd in the microwave when a double boiler sounds like too much of a hassle. But it does lead to lumps sometimes.

[ironymaiden]

So is it one of those things where you heat 30 seconds, stir, heat, stir?

[dreamline.livejournal.com]

Yum! A few weeks ago I made a chocolate tart that was topped with an orange curd. The curd had no added sugar at all and was a pleasing contrast with the sweetness. But OMG the amount of butter :(. (recipe here: http://thepiebrary.com/2015/01/16/the-last-orange-tart/#more-386). It was pretty good but next time I will opt for different crust as the vanilla wafer crust was far too sweet.

I'll have to try this lemon curd. I'm a big fan of jazzing up my Fage yogurt (I like cardamom and a little touch honey).

We've been listening to "You Must Remember This" too. :)