Lemon Cream

The texture of this is just beautiful. It’s like butter, but not greasy. It’s light in color, and just a fabulous alternative to lemon curd (this has more butter than lemon curd, so it’s less like a pie filling and more like a cream texture—you could probably decrease the butter if you needed to). It is richer than lemon curd, but very tasty and we put it on top of the lemon cheesecake. I combined a couple of recipes and created this:

1/2-2/3 cup of sugar
zest of 3 lemons
2/3-scant 3/4 cup lemon juice 
3 whole large eggs
1 large egg yolk
pinch salt
1 cup butter

So, first you zest the lemons and mix them together with the sugar using your fingers. Then, you add the lemon juice and the eggs and whisk it. You set this mixture over a water bath of simmering water, and your stir is almost constantly so the sugar and eggs don’t screw up (I don’t remember the why, I just remember reading it). Anyway, it takes about 10 minutes, but eventually it gets to 180 degrees, and then you take it off the heat. You let it cool to 140 degrees, and then you strain it into a blender. You add the butter with the blender on low 1 Tbs. at a time and mix it for nearly 3 minutes. Then, you chill it.