Lemon curd – gifts from the kitchen

From the kitchen with love

It’s December 7th! As soon as St. Nicholas’ Day is over there is an itching in my fingers. I feel like I want to prepare all kind of delicacies for my family and friends – just doing some magic in my kitchen. Gifts from the kitchen have become somewhat of a family tradition over the past years. Honestly, I think it’s great to receive something delicious and tasty – something for your soul. In Germany we have a saying: Love goes through the stomach (literally translated)… i. e. : “The way to a man’s heart is through his stomach”.

 

Scones with lemon curd

Today’s sunshine in Munich is batteling with the bright yellow of my lemon curd! The vitalizing smell of lemons is filling the air in our living room / kitchen. Not only does it smell good, makes you feel good, but also the ethereous oil of a lemon has an disinfectant effect – hence it scares away some of these cumbersome viruses which seem to be omnipresent for this time of year!

Scones and lemon curd are meant to be together – classical partners. As a gift you could pack all the dry ingredients into a nice jar. The remaining ingredients plus the recipe itself just need to be listed on a nice selfmade tag. Stamp it, paint it, print it…, whatever – let your fantasy flow and just create something beautiful with love.

 

Scones with lemon curd

• 350 g spelt-flour (type 630)
• 70 g sugar
• 2 1/2 tsp baking powder
• 1 pinch of salt
• 90 g ice cold non salted butter
• 160 ml heavy whipping cream
• 1 egg

Preheat the oven to190°C. Mix the dry ingredients adding the butter (cut into small pieces) until the dough is chunky / crumbly.

Mash up the cream and the egg. Add to the dough and just briefly stir everything together (don’t make it an even dough).

Dump the dough on a working surface (spread some flour first). Shape a circle of roughly 20 cm in diameter (approx. 2 cm in thickness) and either cut out circles or divide it in 8 slices as if you were cutting a cake (actually you can use any shape you want…).

Bake on a baking tray (+ parchment paper) for 18 minutes at 190°C until the scones gained some colour. Let them cool and enjoy with fresh homemade lemon curd!

This is the basic recipe. You can create all kinds of varyations and add raisins and or chopped nuts, (blue)berries or choclate chips…

 

Lemon curd

• 4 large lemons
• 500 g sugar
• 120 g butter
• 6 eggs

Squeeze the juice from the lemons, melt the butter and mix it with the sugar.

Mix the eggs in a bowl over a bain-marie with a (electrical) whisk. CAREFUL: the bowl mustn’t touch the water in this case, so that the egg doesn’t solidify. Add the butter-sugar-lemonjuice-mix slowly and continue to whisk over the bain-marie for another 10-15 minutes until it turns into a velvety mass.

Add the warm lemon curd in well sterilized jars and seal it with a lid. Let it cool down and store it in the fridge. It’ll be good for 1-2 weeks.

Put some paper label or tag on it, add a bow and give it as a gift to someone with a heartwarming smile on your face. Enjoy the joy you are spreading!