With the gloom of winter behind us bright, soothing, refreshing desserts are always welcome. This past week my mother was down for a visit from Michigan, she wasn’t feeling well due to a cold and a case of pink eye so I wished to have a simple yet tasty treat for her to enjoy. The filling in these little tarts is lemon curd. If you have never made or used lemon curd before you are so missing out. It is perhaps the most versatile dessert ingredient there is. Anything from lemon pie to lemon bars, mini tarts to even parfaits. Course, if you are like me, you can also sit down and just eat it by the bowl full.
To make your own lemon curd you will need:
3/4 cup fresh lemon juice
1 tbsp grated lemon zest
3/4 cup sugar
3 eggs
1/2 cup unsalted butter
Using a saucepan, combine your lemon juice, zest, sugar, eggs and butter. Cook the curd over LOW heat, stirring frequently to keep from burning. You want this process to be SLOW to heating and thickening. It should take 10-15 minutes to thicken and may take upwards of 20 minutes. When the curd is thick enough to hold marks from the whisk, and bubbles that form on surface, it is ready to be removed from heat and let to cool and set for several minutes.
**If your eggs scramble, you are cooking at to high a heat and not whisking frequently enough.**
A Little Slice.... 