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River cottage Bramley apple lemon curd

Having experienced a very specific craving for lemon curd last week, I looked to twitter for some recipe inspiration. My fellow tweeters never fail to dig out some wonderful recipe variations that I simply can’t wait to try out. 

I was particularly keen to try this recipe as it comes from the much loved and much used River Cottage preserves handbook by Hugh Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall and Pam Corbin. I dedicated a sunny Wednesday afternoon to re-creating this version of lemon curd and can confirm this will certainly become a favourite among the bottle and jar team.

Image courtesy of River Cottage/Bloomsbury

Any variation of lemon curd is perfect on toast or muffins and works equally well as a cupcake topping or sponge filling topped with poppy seeds.

Ingredients: Makes 5 of our 228ml round jars.

·      450g Bramley apples, peeled, cored and chopped

·      Finely grated zest and juice of two unwaxed ­lemons (you need 100ml strained juice)

·      125g unsalted butter

·      450g granulated sugar

·      4–5 large eggs, well beaten (you need 200ml beaten egg)

Method:

Image courtesy of River Cottage/Bloomsbury

Put the chopped apples into a pan with 100ml water and the lemon zest.

Cook gently until soft and fluffy, then either beat to a puree with a wooden spoon or rub through a nylon sieve.

Put the butter, sugar, lemon juice and ­apple puree into a heatproof bowl over a pan of simmering water.

As soon as the butter has melted and the mixture is hot and glossy, pour in the eggs through a sieve, and whisk with a balloon whisk.

If the fruit puree is too hot when the beaten egg is added, the egg will “split”. Check the temperature with a sugar thermometer — it should be no higher than 55–60C when the egg is added.

If your curd does split, take the pan off the heat and whisk vigorously until smooth.

Stir the mixture over a gentle heat, ­scraping down the sides of the bowl every few minutes, until thick and creamy.

This will take 9–10 minutes; the temperature should reach 82–84C on a sugar thermometer. ­Immediately pour into jars and seal.

This will keep for up to four weeks (if it lasts that long). Once opened, keep in the fridge.

Happy preserving

Penny