A Simple Ice Bath Is The Secret To Thickening Lemon Curd Faster

Every baker ought to know a perfect recipe for the sweet, tart, lemony custard that is lemon curd. It's a versatile pastry component that can be used for everything from lemon bars and tarts to simply spreading on toast or dolloping on ice cream. It requires only a few ingredients, but its simple, refreshing flavor is hard not to love. And lemon curd is easy enough to make; you basically just throw the ingredients into a sauce pan.

Once made, you have to let the curd cool completely before you go on to use it in any recipes. Cooling the curd allows it to set and thicken into the correct consistency. So what if you're on a time crunch and need to use that lemon curd ASAP to get dessert onto the table?

Leanne Tran, who leads a six-person, all-female pastry chef team at Le Crocodile and Bar Blondeau at the Wythe Hotel in NYC, told us her secret. "If you need to use it immediately, you can place the bowl of curd into a larger bowl or tray of water and ice," she says. Tran recommends using a rubber spatula to fold the mixture while it's over the ice bath — the butter and eggs will begin to set as the mixture cools. Or for a more hands-off method, Tran likes says, "Spread the curd into a shallow pan and place plastic wrap over the surface then place it in the refrigerator for an hour or two before using."

Making lemon curd is a matter of cooking butter, sugar, lemon juice, and eggs over medium-low heat until it's emulsified. The trickiest part about it is ensuring that your eggs don't begin to cook before they are properly emulsified into the other ingredients; otherwise, you'll end up with a lumpy, scrambled-egg-tasting lemon curd. Avoid this common homemade lemon curd mistake by creaming the butter and sugar together first before adding the eggs so that they incorporate more easily into an already smooth mixture.

Get creative for your lemon curd uses: You can use it to make classic lemon bars, fill cupcakes or donuts, mix into yogurt and granola, or in any other way that intrigues you! It's also a handy dessert component because it can be made up to a week in advance. For Tran's trick to cool the curd quickly in the fridge, plastic wrap is fine to seal it since it will only be in there for a short time. Make sure the plastic wrap is touching the top of the curd over the entire surface to prevent a skin from forming while it cools. But if you make it more than a few hours ahead of time, the best way to store lemon curd is in an airtight container (like a Hovico mason jar) in the fridge.