Last week life (ie. my work collegue) gave me lemons. I immediately knew that they were destined for lemon curd that would be piled high with meringue for a Mother’s Day Lemon Meringue Pie. It wouldn’t just be any ordinary pie though, oh no, this would be a testament to the fact that most anything can have a healthier twist. It was going to be glorious.
That plan hit a road block, or two.
Road block one: the pie crust recipe I planned to use (this one) used almond meal/flour. After my baking bonanza the previous weekend that result in delicious savoury muffins and banana walnut loaf, my almond meal stores were depleted. And for whatever reason when I went in search for it, my usual haunts either didn’t have it, or it was appallingly expensive. So instead I decided to use quinoa flour.
I should point out that this baked up a treat. It was crumbly and fragrant and altogether lovely. However, it was not a sweet pie crust. Pop a quiche in that sucker and it would have been a dream, but the sweet and tangy filling I had in mind just wasn’t going to work.
Road block two: sugar, though generally thought of as evil, not only provides sweetness to your meringue but also structure (as my father tells me). A half-half ratio of coconut sugar and stevia, although providing gorgeous colour and a deep caramel flavour, does not provide such structure. As a result my Italian meringue was weepy and without structural integrity.
Through all of this however, the lemon curd was a triumph. It was tangy and just sweet enough to not make your face screw up too much- it should probably be noted here that I love a super tangy lemon curd.
Ingredients at the ready. There actually isn’t very much to this recipe at all. And as soon as I am flush with freshly picked lemons again you can bet I’ll whip up another batch exclusively for toast.
Sweetener. Eggs. Zest. Whisk. Whisk. Whisk.
Add butter (or coconut oil or ghee).
And your lemon juice.
From here it goes onto the heat and you whisk away. A note, make sure you’re getting all the way to the corners of your pot, when my curd went into a bowl there were some semi-scrambled egg bits around the edges.
Anywho… once your butter has melted and the whole mixture has thickened pour it through a sieve (if you’re opposed to lemon zest in your teeth and generally getting in the way of the beautiful smoothness) in a bowl. Leave it to firm up a little more in the fridge and try not to eat it with a spoon. It’ll be hard, but just try.
Zesty Lemon Curd (I doubled the original recipe, I’m a lemon curd glutton, what can I say)
Ingredients
6 eggs
1 cup lemon juice
2 tbsp lemon zest (about 2 lemons)
170g butter, cubed
1/2 cup rice malt syrup
Method
1. Add your eggs, rice malt syrup and lemon zest in a small to medium saucepan. Whisk away until combined and a bit paler (mine didn’t really lighten much so don’t stress too much)
2. Add you butter, then you lemon juice
3. Time to heat it up, put you pot over medium heat. Stir/whisk constantly. Your butter will melt and then everything should start to thicken up. It will be a bit like custard, and coat the back of a spoon (I wish I could tell you how long this took however I totally zoned out and was kind of in a lemon curd haze, it was quite relaxing actually)
4. Sieve your curd, if you’re opposed to zesty bits, into a bowl. Let it cool before refrigerating
5. Eat with a spoon directly from the bowl. Or on toast. Or in a pie. Or, as we did, in a deconstructed pie of sorts layered with biscotti, raspberries, meringue, and cream
Erin Maynie Everyday 