Inspired by a very tasty lemon curd muffin I got in the Kinsealy garden centre last week, I decided to make lemon buns and curd to go on top of them.
For the buns I used the recipe for lemon drizzle cake and spooned it into 15 bun cases and baked for about 20 minutes until set.Happilly my net of lemons contained three, so after adding one the cake mix, I had two to make the curd. I had never made curd before, so I ended up scaling down Nigel Slater's recipe and reducing the sugar for extra wince-inducing tang.
- Juice and zest of two lemons
- 90g sugar (even with 100g it will still be tangy)
- 50g butter
- One egg and one egg yolk
Set up a pot of simmering water with a bowl set over it so the bottom doesnt touch the liquid. (Lacking a proper sized bowl, I drop a tall cookie cutter into my smallest pot and balance my pyrex jug on top). Put the juice, zest, sugar and butter in to melt while you separate and beat the eggs. When the butter is fully melted, add the eggs, and stir with a whisk.
Stir regularly and cook the mix for about ten mins (according to Nigel, I ended up going closer to fifteen) until the mixture starts to thicken (like custard) and "coats the back of a spoon". Then pour into a jar and leave to set, stirring occasionally.
Sadly mine was a little runnier than I'd have liked, but hopefully with enough time in the fridge, that won't matter too much. The plan is then to smush it on to the buns and delight my lab colleagues tomorrow.
