I've mentioned this before, but wanted to document the process. Having recently made Swiss Buttercream icing with 10 egg whites, I had a LOT of frozen yolks ready to go.
To freeze them, I simply keep adding yolks to a container in the freezer, sprinkling each broken yolk with a bit of sugar to discourage frost issues. Whenever I decide to make curd, I'll pull the container out and leave it in the refrigerator for a day, but not always. Sometimes I've used them completely frozen.
Using Rose Levy Beranbaum's all yolk Lemon Curd recipe from Rose's Heavenly Cakes, I start by measuring the weight of my yolks. In this case, I had ~400 grams. I don't have to use all of the frozen yolks, but I decided to go ahead in this case.
Here is the recipe amounts and to the right are how I scaled up the ingredients:
I simply multiplied each of the ingredients by 4.
I start out with the yolks in the Vitamix container, then put it on a kitchen scale and measure 600 grams of sugar, then add the LEMON JUICE and ZEST. Skip the butter...for this method, it will get added at the end, unlike normal curd recipes.
For this recipe, I used 5 1/2 large-ish lemons (bagged organic lemons from Whole Foods...very fresh scented and juicy). Always remember to ZEST the lemons FIRST before cutting in half to juice (I have an el cheapo electric juicer that I keep just for this task. Well, that and margaritas).
Here are the ingredients in the Vitamix container:
Note how deeply orange the yolks were. These were from a farm called Happy Eggs (organic and free-range).
I have an old 5200 Vitamix model, which has an On/Off switch, a 10-speed dial and a HIGH switch. I turn it on, crank it up to 10 and HIGH. Then Iet it work. I have the lid on, but the center piece is removed so I can use my temperature probe while it's running. Steam will appear after the first 2 minutes, but you need it to reach HIGHER than 170 degrees. That is the lowest degree in which the eggs will set. I go to 185. In this instance, with these amounts and cold ingredients, it took 8 minutes to reach 185 degrees. By that time, the bottom of the container is very hot when I place my hand against it.
The next step is something I do different thanks to Traca posting the Lemon Cream recipe from Pierre Hermé.
You can see her recipe here:
recipeswap.org
or here if you don't want to be scared off, Dorie Greenspan also documented it:
The idea is you don't add butter until the lemon portion has cooled to 140 degrees or below. That way it will emulsify and not separate.
So I pour my hot egg/sugar/juice/zest mixture into a flat 2 quart storage container and put it in the refrigerator for 15 minutes. In that time, it will cool down sufficiently to add the butter. I pour it back into the Vitamix container, add 2 sticks of butter and blend, but only for a minute or less. At this point, I DON'T want the mixture to heat up again.
While the yolk mixture was cooling in the refrigerator, I boil canning jars and pull them out of the water only when the curd is ready to be distributed. In this scenario, it made 6.5 cups of lemon curd. I typically make a Lemon Tiramisu for Easter, so a lot will go into that dessert.
While I don't consider this "shelf stable" I've kept it in my refrigerator for months at a time no ill effects, other than a bit of water at the bottom of the curd.
Let me know if there is anything confusing about the steps.
To freeze them, I simply keep adding yolks to a container in the freezer, sprinkling each broken yolk with a bit of sugar to discourage frost issues. Whenever I decide to make curd, I'll pull the container out and leave it in the refrigerator for a day, but not always. Sometimes I've used them completely frozen.
Using Rose Levy Beranbaum's all yolk Lemon Curd recipe from Rose's Heavenly Cakes, I start by measuring the weight of my yolks. In this case, I had ~400 grams. I don't have to use all of the frozen yolks, but I decided to go ahead in this case.
Here is the recipe amounts and to the right are how I scaled up the ingredients:
I simply multiplied each of the ingredients by 4.
I start out with the yolks in the Vitamix container, then put it on a kitchen scale and measure 600 grams of sugar, then add the LEMON JUICE and ZEST. Skip the butter...for this method, it will get added at the end, unlike normal curd recipes.
For this recipe, I used 5 1/2 large-ish lemons (bagged organic lemons from Whole Foods...very fresh scented and juicy). Always remember to ZEST the lemons FIRST before cutting in half to juice (I have an el cheapo electric juicer that I keep just for this task. Well, that and margaritas).
Here are the ingredients in the Vitamix container:
Note how deeply orange the yolks were. These were from a farm called Happy Eggs (organic and free-range).
I have an old 5200 Vitamix model, which has an On/Off switch, a 10-speed dial and a HIGH switch. I turn it on, crank it up to 10 and HIGH. Then Iet it work. I have the lid on, but the center piece is removed so I can use my temperature probe while it's running. Steam will appear after the first 2 minutes, but you need it to reach HIGHER than 170 degrees. That is the lowest degree in which the eggs will set. I go to 185. In this instance, with these amounts and cold ingredients, it took 8 minutes to reach 185 degrees. By that time, the bottom of the container is very hot when I place my hand against it.
The next step is something I do different thanks to Traca posting the Lemon Cream recipe from Pierre Hermé.
You can see her recipe here:
ARGHHH!: DH invited 4 for dinner next Sunday and promised beef.
I'm out of town on Saturday and need to prep as much as possible on Friday. I'm also totally tapped out on ideas. I have a potato gratin recipe and I have a peach puree and peaches I froze during the summer. Thought I'd pair that with some of my blueberries and do something (?) with that...
recipeswap.org
or here if you don't want to be scared off, Dorie Greenspan also documented it:
The idea is you don't add butter until the lemon portion has cooled to 140 degrees or below. That way it will emulsify and not separate.
So I pour my hot egg/sugar/juice/zest mixture into a flat 2 quart storage container and put it in the refrigerator for 15 minutes. In that time, it will cool down sufficiently to add the butter. I pour it back into the Vitamix container, add 2 sticks of butter and blend, but only for a minute or less. At this point, I DON'T want the mixture to heat up again.
While the yolk mixture was cooling in the refrigerator, I boil canning jars and pull them out of the water only when the curd is ready to be distributed. In this scenario, it made 6.5 cups of lemon curd. I typically make a Lemon Tiramisu for Easter, so a lot will go into that dessert.
While I don't consider this "shelf stable" I've kept it in my refrigerator for months at a time no ill effects, other than a bit of water at the bottom of the curd.
Let me know if there is anything confusing about the steps.
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