Made a quickie lemon curd in the Vitamix:

M

marilynfl

Moderator
1 3/4 C sugar (350 grams, 12 oz)

Zest from 4 lemons

1/2 C lemon juice (from 4 large lemons)

2 whole eggs

2 egg yolks

4 to 8 TBL butter (I used 4, but the recipe calls for smileys/bigeyes.gif

Add juice, sugar and zest to Vitamix. Buzz on high for 1 minute. Add eggs/yolks and buzz for 4 minutes on high. I checked with an instant read thermometer and it was steaming and 178 degrees by that time.

Pour out into a shallow container to cool slightly. When temperature reads 140 or less, put BACK INTO the Vitamix and add the butter.

Pour out--it will be THIN. Don't panic...it will firm up in the refrigerator as it chills and the butter refirms.

(The ingredient list is from Ina Garten (she used 4 whole eggs), but she cooks it in a double boiler and adds the ingredients all at once. I like adding the butter at the end, ala Herme's lemon creme.

 
Mar, is there a reason you take it out/put it back in the VM?

I've always done it all in the VM, butter last, but with no cool down period. Does Herme's lemon creme require the cool down and does it make a difference?

 
Yes, you want the butter to emulsify rather than melt so it needs to be 140** or less.

You can just leave it in the blender, but then it takes over 30 minutes to cool down because the thin cannister compresses the mass. If you pour it into a shallow container, it cools down much quicker....meaning you can get to the eatin' part of the tart MUCH quicker.

By the way, NOTICE the amount of butter in Pierre's recipe. It's almost obscene.

I thought this concept was a fluke, but I've made curd both ways now and do notice a difference.

** This is the same concept when adding butter to melted chocolate. If the melted chocolate is too hot, the butter will melt into, but eventually separate and ooze out.

http://www.seriouseats.com/recipes/2008/04/lemon-lemon-lemon-cream-recipe.html

 
THANK YOU MARILYN! You just explained why my big batch of fudge . . .

of a couple of years ago would not hold the butter I was desperately trying to beat into it--the chocolate base was just too dang hot, and the butter was melting out! Thank you! I will try the recipe again this year and make sure to cool the chocolate sufficiently before whipping in the butter.

 
You can thank Traca and Pat in NoCA. I believe both of them mentioned this fact and I've

been applying it ever since.

 
By the way, this is VERY TART. The lemon juice is the typical amount, but I

zested all four lemons and that's a LOT of zest.

 
This is awesome! We have something similar. They donated 15,000 pounds of fruit to

food banks last year.

 
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