By Laura Mack
March 10, 2016
It may sound strange, but my low carb lemon curd has become an essential sweet/tart condiment that is nearly always in my fridge. It was also one of the first low carb adaptations I created from my recipe collection. As a former pastry chef, I’ve made so many versions of lemon curd over the years and I continue to tweak my recipe whenever inspiration strikes. For those of you who may be thinking, “What the heck is lemon curd?” you owe it to yourself to try this recipe. You will wonder where it has been all of your life. You’ll start to imagine ways you can incorporate it into all kinds of everyday foods, not to mention the fancier stuff when you may be trying to impress (just a little, admit it!).
Three of my favorites ways to use this low carb lemon curd are quick and easy:
Lemon Mousse
Fold into whipped heavy cream or coconut cream made with a little sweetener and vanilla (I often use one part lemon curd to one part cream, by weight.) Layer it with fresh strawberries for a parfait that’s so elegant for entertaining, your guests won’t even know they’re eating low carb. I love it when that happens!
Lemon-Berry Yogurt
Stir a spoonful into whole-milk plain yogurt, add a few berries (fresh or frozen), and sprinkle with toasted nuts or coconut. My favorite version includes frozen wild organic blueberries and almonds. The texture and temperature of the frozen blueberries, along with the crunchy almonds, are a wonderful juxtaposition against the silkiness of the yogurt and the creamy low carb lemon curd.
Straight-Up Dollop
Spoon it on any number of low carb treats such as cheesecake, scones, or ice cream. Perhaps that’s ‘gilding the lily’ but it sure works for me!
Bottom line, this creamy low carb lemon curd makes me happy. I usually store it a glass jar and whenever I open the fridge door and see that sunny yellow concoction, it makes me smile just looking at it. So, you can imagine the expression on my face when I actually eat it!
If you’ve never made a stove-top custard before, don’t be intimidated. I’ll walk you through it. You’ll be amazed at how quick and easy it is.
Creamy Low Carb Lemon Curd
Author: Laura Mack
Recipe type: Dessert
Prep time: 10 mins
Cook time: 10 mins
Total time: 20 mins
Serves: 16
Easy and essential sweet/tart condiment perfect with fresh berries, yogurt, and dolloped on low carb scones and cheesecake. Low carb, gluten-free.
Ingredients
Zest of 3 lemons
½ cup/4 oz fresh lemon juice (from 3-4 lemons)
⅓ cup/2.7 oz xylitol or equivalent sweetener
1 pinch fine sea salt
2 large eggs
2 large egg yolks
6 tablespoons/3 oz unsalted butter, cold, cut into ½" chunks
3 tablespoons/1.5 oz heavy cream
½ teaspoon vanilla extract
½ teaspoon liquid stevia, more or less to taste (optional)
Instructions
- Whisk eggs and yolk in a medium bowl. Set aside.
- Combine lemon juice, zest, xylitol, and salt in a small nonreactive saucepan over medium heat, stirring occasionally with a wooden spoon, until hot but not boiling.
- Whisking constantly, slowly pour the hot lemon mixture into eggs, then return mixture to the saucepan and cook over medium heat, stirring constantly with a wooden spoon, until mixture registers 170 degrees on instant-read thermometer and is thick enough to cling to the spoon, about 3 minutes.
- Immediately remove the pan from heat and stir in cold butter until incorporated. Stir in cream, vanilla, and stevia, then pour curd through a fine-mesh strainer into a small bowl. Cover the surface of curd directly with plastic wrap; refrigerate until needed or up to 10 days.
Notes
Nutritional info* per 2-tablespoon (1 oz) serving: 77 cal, 7 g total fat (88%), 0.8 g total carbs, 0 g fiber, 0.8 g net carbs, and 1 g protein. Please note that I do not count the sugar alcohols from xylitol in the total or net carbs.
*I use Living Cookbook 2015, along with package information and data from www.nutritiondata.self.com, to calculate the nutritional information for my recipes. Thus, I can make no guarantees as to the accuracy.
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