Lemon curd from Barb's Tea Service "test kitchen": A perfect accompaniment to afternoon tea scones

Homemade lemon curd served with glazed vanilla bean scones

 

There are many things to love about scones, including what you put on them, be it cream, jam, or perhaps our very favorite, lemon curd. It's an afternoon tea staple and I always treat myself to a generous dollop (or two!) of this sweet and tasty preserve when served, yet I have never made my own - that is, until this weekend.  Long overdue, but the results, I will unhumbly say, were worth the wait.

Inspired by a find - and subsequent purchase - at Trader Joe's last week of the store's own brand of glazed vanilla scones (which are very good!), I reasoned if I wasn't making my own scones, I could certainly take some time to whip up an accompaniment to go with them.  

Freshly squeezed lemon juice, one of the 5 ingredients required

Realistically, when I'm thinking "some time" in the kitchen, I'm typically looking for something that doesn't take much time at all.   After a quick on-line browse of lemon curd recipes, I found one that I thought fit my requirements:  Perfect Lemon Curd from Allrecipes. It boasted: 10 minutes prep time, 6 minutes of cook time and only five ingredients. It also promised twelve servings - which, with three of us in current residence, that seemed adequate.

Cream the sugar and butter first

Add eggs, juice and zest

While most of the above is true, the directions can be a bit misleading. The recipe calls for all five ingredients (sugar, butter, eggs, lemon juice and lemon zest) to be combined together in a saucepan and whisked together over low to medium heat. Sounds simple enough, but I was glad I checked the comments section before I started as some folks complained of bits of cooked egg in their finished curd. A few veteran chefs chimed in with sage advice. In order to avoid the cooked egg mishap, combine the ingredients as you would when making a cake. Start by creaming the butter and sugar together, then add the eggs, one at a time, followed by the juice and zest.  Take that mixture to the saucepan and proceed with the whisk.

Place mixture in saucepan and whisk away

Whisk/reward, beautiful, glossy cured!

In addition, another slight discrepancy I found was that it did take a bit longer than six minutes to whisk away the mixture on the stovetop. However, patience is rewarded - the whisk/reward, as we say -  with a beautiful, glossy yellow pudding-like sauce, ready to be cooled down and make its way to your tea table.

Add plastic wrap to the surface to avoid a skin

Use clear glass to serve this pretty curd

Follow the recipe's tip to place plastic wrap on the surface of the curd when placing it in the refrigerator. This will eliminate any skin forming on the top. Also noted, the curd can be stored in the refrigerator for up to a week before serving. How nice to keep lemon curd on hand to serve up not only with scones, but layer it with, say, fresh fruit in a parfait glass, for something quick-and-easy, yet tasty and elegant, for drop-in guests.

Tiny glass bowls add a special touch for individual servings

For presentation, we used tiny glass bowls we found in the back of our china cabinet (to my husband, Chris, I say, "see, there is a use for these!"), for pretty individual servings. The curd is such a bright a festive color, we think clear glass serving ware is the best to show it off.

Ultimately, the success of a good recipe is in the flavor, and we certainly found Perfect Lemon Curd to be very tasty.  Sweet and tangy, with the emphasis on tangy, and perfect consistency. 

We'll be trying out more lemon curd recipes this summer at Barb's Tea Service Test Kitchen.  Stay tuned! In the meantime, today's afternoon tea treat brings to mind an old folk song (slightly revised):

𝅘𝅥𝅯 Lemon tree, very pretty, and the lemon flower is so sweet,

but the curd made from that tart fruit is delicious to eat. 𝅘𝅥𝅯