Laura Davis makes a delicious lime curd without corn starch. Just don’t tell her mother about it.

By Laura Davis

Fruit curds are versatile and a little goes a long way. This sweet and tangy indulgence is easy to make, but can also be a bit troublesome. Incorporating the eggs correctly, cooking at a medium heat and constant stirring leads to a smooth and creamy curd with very few egg bits or none at all. If you have ever rushed making a curd by heating it too quickly or slacked when you should have been stirring, then you may already know scrambled egg enhanced curd is not what you are looking for.

Lemon curd always makes me think of my mom. Mom loves lemon anything so lemon meringue pie showed up often when I was growing up. I do have her recipe and I know it is good but it uses cornstarch as a thickener along with egg yolks and water (that’s right water, I had to do a double take the first time she gave me this recipe). No disrespect mom but I wanted to keep my recipe simple and focused on two techniques: mixing the eggs and sugar with a whisk or mixer until well blended and the cooking method. There are many recipes for making fruit curds. Some use yolks only or other additional thickeners or less butter or the addition of salt or more sugar and on and on (and water?!). I am not saying anyone of these recipes is wrong or right because as long as they work – they’re right!

Oh and don’t be afraid of making a curd. Once you get the hang of it, it is a cinch. Sometimes a little practice is all you need.

You might be wondering why make lime curd? You can spread it on toast, use it as a filling for a tart topped with raspberries and fresh whipped cream, I really love it on vanilla ice cream with toasted coconut, as a filling for a cake but what actually I had in mind was as a spread for coconut bread that I made. I couldn’t help myself. Doesn’t that sound good?!

Here is a recipe for Lime Curd that I adapted from Joy of Cooking, 75th Anniversary Edition.