Store-bought lemon curd doesn’t even deserve to share the same name as homemade. This from-scratch lemon curd is deliciously tangy, creamy, and sweet. You only need 5 ingredients and it comes together on the stove in 10 minutes! Lemon curd is perfect for scones, crepes, angel food cake, quick breads, pound cake, and so much more.
Let’s talk lemon.
- Are lemon bars your main squeeze?
- Is lemon blueberry cake your favorite dessert?
- Are you head-over-heels for lemon meringue pie?
If your answer is YES to all of the above, you’re going to flip for this creamy, dense, intensely flavorful spread. Homemade lemon curd is 1 million times tastier than store-bought, which is filled with ingredients we can’t pronounce and has likely been sitting on the shelf for too long. Spread the blissful homemade version on scones, biscuits, homemade English muffins, and so much more. This is the recipe you never realized you needed!
What Is Lemon Curd?
Lemon curd is a very rich dessert topping or spread. It’s buttery and sweet with intense tart lemon flavor—like a creamy lemon version of jam. Lemon curd is made from simple ingredients and comes together quickly on the stove. Lemon lovers, this is your jam.
Get it? Get it? 🙂
How to Make Lemon Curd
Here’s how we make DIY lemon curd. The full recipe and instructions are below.
You need 5 ingredients for lemon curd recipe: egg yolks, fresh lemons, sugar, salt, and butter. Each ingredient serves a critical purpose for thickening and flavoring. The egg yolks thicken the curd, just as they do in creme brûlée, pastry cream, pumpkin pies in a jar, or butterscotch pudding. Use real lemons; you need both the zest and juice. The sugar supplies sweetness and structure, while the salt balances out the flavor. Add the butter after the curd finishes on the stove. Butter makes it super creamy.
Make lemon curd on the stove. Make sure you are constantly whisking as the mixture thickens—we’re talking about 10 minutes of whisking. The good news? That’s the only step in this recipe: whisking!
Use a Double Boiler
I strongly recommend cooking the lemon curd in a double boiler because mixing these ingredients over direct heat quickly leads to burning. Don’t fret! If you don’t have a double boiler, craft a makeshift double boiler by placing a heatproof glass bowl on top of a larger pot. (You can see my DIY double boiler in my brownie baked Alaska post!) Make sure the bottom of the top pot or bowl does not touch the simmering water. It’s worth repeating: lemon curd should never be cooked on direct heat.
Why Does My Lemon Curd Taste Metallic?
Lemon curd may have a metallic aftertaste if you cook it in a metal double boiler. It’s a result of the eggs and lemon reacting with the pan, but is easily avoidable! Use a non-metal double boiler (this one has a porcelain insert) or the glass bowl option I mention above (but make sure it’s heatproof glass, like Pyrex). While you’re at it, use a silicone whisk too!
FAQ: Can I Make This With Other Citrus Fruits?
Absolutely! You can use this same recipe for lemon curd and swap the lemons for limes, grapefruits, or oranges. You can even use pineapple juice, just like we do for the layers of pineapple curd filling in this pineapple coconut cake or a make a cranberry version like we do in this cranberry curd tart.
Uses for Lemon Curd
There are so many ways to enjoy lemon curd. Here are a few suggestions:
- Enjoy on scones, muffins, buttermilk waffles, whole wheat blueberry pancakes, or a Dutch baby pancake
- Use as a filling for crepes, lemon cupcakes, or lemon coconut cake
- Use as a topping for pound cake or pavlova (uses the egg whites!)
- Fill French macarons, choux pastry, or eclairs
- Layer on strawberry shortcake
- Make a lemon berry trifle
- Spread on English muffins, homemade biscuits, toast, croissants
- Mix it with whipped frosting for the fluffiest filling in a citrus cake
- Top your classic cheesecake, lemon cheesecake, or easy cheesecake pie
- Stir in yogurt, cottage cheese, or spoon on ice cream
- Try it on gingerbread waffles (seriously, try this!)
- Use as a filling to add extra flavor to lemon blueberry cupcakes
- Fill your lemon thumbprint cookies
- Fill your favorite cupcake recipe (see my How to Fill Cupcakes post for details on how and for flavor pairing inspiration!)
Lemon Curd
- Prep Time: 5 minutes
- Cook Time: 10 minutes
- Total Time: 1 hour, 15 minutes (includes cooling)
- Yield: 1 – 1.5 cups
- Category: Dessert
- Method: Baking
- Cuisine: American
Description
You only need 5 simple ingredients for homemade lemon curd—and the recipe comes together on the stove in 10 minutes! If you know how to whisk, you can make this delicious spread.
Ingredients
- 4 large egg yolks (for thicker lemon curd, see Note on eggs)
- 2/3 cup (134g) granulated sugar
- 1 Tablespoon lemon zest (about 1 lemon)
- 1/3 cup (80ml) fresh lemon juice (about 2–3 lemons)
- 1/8 teaspoon salt
- 6 Tablespoons (85g) unsalted butter, softened to room temperature and cut into 6 pieces
Instructions
- Fill the bottom pot of your double boiler with 1–2 inches of water. (Or use the DIY double boiler method listed in the notes.) Place on high heat. Once the water begins to boil, reduce to low heat to keep the water at a simmer.
- Place egg yolks, granulated sugar, lemon zest, lemon juice, and salt into the top pot of your double boiler. Using a silicone whisk, whisk until completely blended, then continue to whisk as the curd cooks. Constant whisking prevents the egg yolks from curdling. Whisk and cook until the mixture becomes thick, resembling the texture of hollandaise sauce, about 10 minutes. If you’d like to be precise and use a candy or instant-read thermometer, the temperature will rise to about 170°F (77°C). If curd isn’t thickening, turn up the heat and constantly whisk.
- Remove pan from heat. Whisk the sliced butter into the curd. The butter will melt from the heat of the curd as you whisk. Pour curd into a jar or bowl and place a piece of plastic wrap directly on top so it is touching the top of the curd. (This prevents a skin from forming on top.) The curd will continue to thicken as it cools. Once cool, the plastic wrap can be removed.
- Refrigerate the curd for up to about 10 days.
Notes
- Freezing Instructions: For longer storage, you can freeze the curd up to 3–6 months. Thaw in the refrigerator overnight before enjoying.
- Special Tools (affiliate links): Egg Separator | Citrus Juicer | Citrus Zester | Non-Metal Double Boiler | Silicone Whisk
- Thicker Lemon Curd: For thicker lemon curd, replace 2 of the egg yolks with 1 whole egg. This means you will use 2 egg yolks plus 1 whole egg. Keep the rest of the recipe and instructions the same.
- Lemon Juice: Do not use bottled lemon juice. Use fresh-squeezed lemon juice.
- Butter: You can use salted butter instead of unsalted butter. Simply omit 1/8 teaspoon salt in the recipe.
- No Double Boiler? No Problem! If you do not own a double boiler, you can simply place a small heatproof glass bowl over a saucepan of simmering water—you will cook the curd in the top pot/bowl.
- No Straining: I don’t strain the lemon curd. The zest is very tiny and has been cooked, so you can hardly detect its texture. It’s really just there for flavor. However, feel free to run the finished lemon curd through a fine mesh sieve if you want to take the extra step.
Reader Comments and Reviews
Hi Sally! I tried this for the first time tonight. Cooked it for 14 minutes and it wasn’t really thickening. Was worried about over cooking it so I took it off the heat, whisked in the butter and cooled as directed. I’m hoping to put this between layers of a 6 inch lemon cake. If my curd is too thin and liquidy is there a way to thicken it after it’s already been cooked and cooled?
Thank you!
And thank you for getting me into lemon!! I NEVER thought that would happen lol
Excellent recipe! I’ve made it a few times and it always turns out delicious. I think I’m going to try it with lime or orange juice next.
Got impatient with the double boiling, was taking forever to heat up enough to set. I cooked it on low direct heat very carefully and it set in no time and turned out fine.
An amazing recipe Sally!! I added about 3/4 tsp on top of shortbread cookies to make a ‘egg’-like situation for Easter. I used the Notes tip and substituted two of the yolks with one whole egg to make it thicker and it was perfect! The family loved it too. Thank you so much, will definitely be using the same recipe for a cake soon.
Too sweet for me personally! I’ll be using it on top of a pavlova, so needed to make sure it’s niiice and zingy. Started by making a double batch with 8 egg yolks and the 1 1/3 c sugar and the 2/3 c juice, ended up adding a good 3/4 more cups of lemon juice, 2 more yolks, and one whole egg! User error though with how long it took to thicken. I didn’t have it on a high enough heat, and my bowl was too big for the pot I had it on, so it took about 25 minutes of whisking to thicken.
Very easy to follow, with great little tips. I did want mine quite thick and missed the tip at the bottom.. However, it was plenty thick enough for what i needed. So super happy. Using this to go between layers of a lemon wedding cake.
I substituted Nellie &Joe’s Famous Key West Lime Juice for lemon. Served with Biscoff cookies. Lovely presentation and a taste hit! Wonderful recipe. Very easy to follow. And it performed as easy as it read.
It is perfect . My first time making lemon curd and it will not be my last. My next curd will be key lime. Easy to follow recipe. Thanks . It’s going on your angel food cake recipe.
This curd is so beautiful. I made a batch to accompany a simple lemon cake that I baked today for my mother’s birthday. Its a perfect mixture of tart, sweet and creamy. I replaced two yolks with a full egg to make it thicker. I was terrified the entire time that I’ll cook my eggs scrambled but it worked wonderfully – and it was my first time making anything like this!
is there a different way to make a DIY double boiler if you don’t have a glass heatproof bowl? I seem to only have plastic (melmime-sp?) or ceramic bowls.
Hi Meredith! Unfortunately, these are the only methods we trust enough to recommend. Other readers have reported success very carefully cooking the mixture in a pot, but you run the risk of cooking the eggs too quickly – let us know if you give it a try!
How would I use this in your lemon bar recipe? Excited to try it for spring.
Hi Suzie! The curd is too thin to use in our lemon bar recipe. Best to follow the recipe there!
This is my second time making it and it turned out well both times! Easy great recipe! Highly recommend!
I loved this recipe! No fuss and delicious results. I substituted lemon juice for a mixture of 70% lime juice and 30% passion fruit pulp. Sensational!
Oh that sounds amazing! Going to write that down to try. Thanks for sharing!
I LOVE this recipe – but I love it so much I use it quickly! Does this recipe lend itself to being doubled well?
Hi Liz, you can make double batches of this lemon curd without any changes.
Does this recipe yield enough to fill a 3-layer cake (keeping in mind I will use frosting as well to fill b/c the curd won’t stay in place)?
Hi Erin, this recipe yields about 1-1.5 cups of curd, which should be plenty to use between layers of your cake. Enjoy!
Heya!
This recipe looks great. But I have some friends who avoid butter, but love tropical flavors. What would happen if I replaced butter with coconut milk? Or would there be some other way to incorporate coconut milk and tone down the tang just a tad, to make for something little subtler?
Hi there! Coconut milk would thin out the curd too much. Some recipes use coconut oil instead of butter, but we haven’t tried it ourselves. Let us know if you give anything a try!
I used this for a cake filling and it was way too sweet. I will use half the sugar next time and make the thicker version.
I just tried your recipe. It’s so easy and tastes so delicious thank you ❤️
Love this recipe, the curd tastes great! I find that mine doesn’t turn out as translucent as the photos, it is more pale yellow and opaque. Any fix for this?
Thank you for this recipe, Sally. I’ve been making it for years and giving away jars of it to my friends!
Hi Sally! I was wondering if Lemon Curd could be frozen? Have you ever tried? Thanks!
Hi Laura, absolutely! See recipe notes for details.
The butter just clumped up after it chilled. Very grainy. Butter should be creamed into the sugar and cooked with yolks for a smooth consistency.
I used this lemon curd recipe in my pastry tarts. One tart leaked but I didn’t seal the end well enough. The curd did change how well my pastry dough cooked in the center but, there was not a single complaint from the family.
I have made this before and even though it took longer to thicken it is delicious and worth the time! My question is, do you have a link of recipes to make with the four leftover egg whites? I thought there used to be one but I can’t find it; don’t want to waste them, thank you!!
Here’s all our recipes that use egg whites!
Great recipe! I’ve made this many times. Especially excellent when making a 4 egg pavlova!
Wow, this was delicious! What a balanced taste! I used this in macarons, but we also had it on ice cream. Thank you, Sally!
Tastes amazing! Thank you very much for the recipe 🙂
Hi
Can I pair this with your lemon cake with lemon cream cheese frosting? Wondering if lemon curd can be put between the layers along with the cream cheese frosting
Definitely! You can reference this lemon coconut cake to see how we layered in lemon curd there.
Hi Sally! This is Raine! I don’t know if you remember me but I commented on your buttercream frosting last summer!
Anyway, I am back to tell you that this is the best lemon curd recipe ever! It is perfectly balanced and my family and I love it so much!
Also, I have my own youtube channel! It is called Raine’s Real bites! Check it out if you can and please subscribe! It would make me so happy!
Here is the link:
Thank you,
Raine 😀
When I poured the curd into a jar to cool it seems to have split, with a liquid layer of what I believe to be butter fat at the top. Is this salvageable? If not, how can this be prevented next time?
Hi Lilly, After you pour your curd into a jar or bowl, be sure to place a piece of plastic wrap directly on top so it is touching the top of the curd. This prevents a skin from forming on top and you can remove it once it’s completely cool.