Hi, all! Happy Christmas season! If you’re anything like me, December (and even a little of late November) brings tons of holiday parties, and tons of reasons to bake treats! I recently ran across a recipe for lemon thumbprint cookies, which interested me. I already have a recipe for my Aunt Sadie’s Raspberry Thumbprint cookies and I love lemon flavor, so I figured I had to try it- and luckily I had a Christmas party last night that I happened to need a baked good for! Unfortunately (or perhaps fortunately), my grocery store only sells huge jars of lemon curd, and I only needed a little bit. I say perhaps fortunately because that prompted me to make my own curd! It’s a super easy recipe, and if you have a few lemons at home, then you probably have all the ingredients you’ll need to make it. Here’s the recipe:

Ingredients:

• 3/4 cup fresh squeezed lemon juice
• 1 tbsp lemon zest
• 3/4 cup granulated sugar
• 3 eggs
• 1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, cubed

Put all the ingredients into a 2-qt saucepan over medium-low heat.

Let the mixture cook together, stirring frequently, until the ingredients are fully combined and the mixture is just starting to bubble. Turn the heat off and let the curd sit in the saucepan, stirring occasionally, until slightly cooled. It will continue to thicken to a jam consistency as it cools.

And that’s it! You can use this as a jam on fresh bread or scones, a light topping for a cheesecake or ice cream, or use it as the jelly in my Aunt’s thumbprint cookies as I’ve shown below. This recipe makes approximately 1 1/2 cups of curd.

Happy baking!