Kassie, of Taylor’s Treats, those wonderfully organic, homemade dog treats you’ll find each week at our farmers’ market, gave me a copy of February 2013’s Southern Living magazine. The issue focused on the Best Spring Recipes including, easy, delicious lemon desserts. Well, with a basket full of Myers lemons I’d just picked from my mother’s tree, the hardest decision to make was, “Which recipe should I try first?”

My teenage daughter and I decided to make the lemon curd first, since most of the other lemon recipes required this ingredient.

Here is our twist on the recipe that turned out to taste, oh, so good!

Ingredients:

Three large Myers lemons
1/2 Cup softened butter
2 Cups sugar
4 Eggs

Directions:
-Grate 2 Tablespoons lemon zest
-Juice lemons to make 1 cup (three lemons may be too many)
-Blend softened butter and sugar at medium speed until mixed well.
-Mix in the eggs, one at a time.
-Beat at low speed while gradually adding the lemon juice.
-Stir in zest. (Mixture will look curdled.)
-Pour mixture into a microwave safe bowl.

We have a 1200 watt microwave, and microwave times may vary, but the following steps worked perfectly for us:

-Microwave on high for five minutes, BUT once per minute, stir the curd. (We set our microwave to one minute intervals, five times, to make it easier.)
-Continue to microwave for two more minutes, stirring every 30 seconds. (The curd will thicken and mound slightly when stirred.)
-Cover immediately with plastic wrap and chill until firm, about four hours.

(Lemon curd will keep for up to two weeks in an airtight container.)

Look for our upcoming cooking attempts on recipes for Lemon Cheesecake and Lemon-Yogurt Crumb Cake, too.