Busy Little Elf (2) Lemon Curd

This little elf is another from Rick's Busy Elves Sheet 1 to be found at his Zibbet shop here. I thought this little fella went perfectly on the tag I had made for my homemade lemon curd. I printed the digi onto neenah and coloured him with promarkers in shades of lime green and citrus yellow. A bit of festive frantage round the edges. The adorable scorable tag cut with my cricut. The ribbon a great buy from Lidl's.

So, the recipe...

3 large juicy unwaxed lemons

4 large eggs plus 1 extra yolk

9ozs caster sugar in a bowl

5ozs unsalted butter, cut into small cubes in a bowl

 2 kilner jars 

some peace and quiet

Put a small, deep pan of water on to boil. It should be of a size that will comfortably support the bowl you are going to beat the curd in without its base touching the water. Try a few out before you go any further.

I always prepare all the ingredients in bowls before I start then I can take my time, this is not a quick throw together of ingredients but a beautifully scented time spent quietly musing whilst stirring.

Grate the fine yellow zest from the lemons into a bowl taking care not to remove the white pith with it. Now halve the lemons and squeeze them into the bowl with the zest.

Crack the eggs into a heatproof china or glass bowl then add the extra yolk. Avoid steel bowls...they get too hot. Add the sugar and whisk until the mixture thickens. Now mix in the lemon juice, zest and butter.
Place the bowl over the boiling water, turn the heat down to a fair simmer so that only a little steam pushes around the edge of the bowl, then start gently stirring. This is not something to be rushed. Take your time, daydream a bit, and make figure-of-eight stirring motions in the 'custard'. The point is not to try and rush things, when there is a much higher chance of disaster.
At first nothing much will happen, then the butter will melt, then, eventually, the curd will start to thicken. You want it to be heavy on the spoon, but it must still be able to drip off it. It is worth remembering that it will set more on cooling. Having said that, this is not a solid curd, but a voluptuous one. Once the curd starts to thicken, pour it into the clean warmed jars, cool slightly, then seal with a lid. Yummm!!!

I am trying something new this Christmas...there is a Creepmas bloghop listed on my sidebar (I'm The Nanny) so I will be posting something a bit creepy every other day in December.

I would like to enter this into these challenges
 http://ilovepromarkers.blogspot.co.uk/       Anything goes

http://4kraftygirlzchallenges.blogspot.co.uk/     Anything goes