Ina Garten: Lemon Curd

What do you do with a pile of lemons you couldn't stop yourself from toting home from the store?  That's an excellent question.  If you also happen to have a pile of eggs from your sturdy backyard hens, you make lemon curd.  And this lemon curd is so good, I was eating it with a spoon.  You might want to be slightly less crude and put it in a tart shell, but to each their own.

Lemon Curd
From Ina Garten

3 lemons
1½ cups granulated sugar
½ cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, at room temperature
4 extra-large eggs
½ cup lemon juice (from 3 to 4 lemons)
⅛ teaspoon kosher salt

Using a carrot peeler, remove the zest of 3 lemons, being careful to avoid the white pith. Put the zest in a food processor fitted with the steel blade. Add the sugar and pulse until the zest is very finely minced into the sugar.

Cream the butter and beat in the sugar and lemon mixture. Add the eggs, 1 at a time, and then add the lemon juice and salt. Mix until combined.

Pour the mixture into a 2 quart saucepan and cook over low heat until thickened (about 10 minutes), stirring constantly. The lemon curd will thicken at about 170°F, or just below simmer. Remove from the heat and cool or refrigerate.

Makes 3 cups