L is for Easy Peasy Lemon Squeezy

 

If you've been following along with my A to Z Challenge, you may recall that I started the ball rolling by making an angel food cake from scratch. The upside of making one is it is completely delicious and has a better texture than one from a mix (in my opinion, anyway). The downside is that it takes a dozen egg whites to make the cake, effectively leaving you with a dozen egg YOLKS and nothing to do with them.

The thought of just throwing away the yolks made my tightwad husband crazy, so he decided to find a recipe using egg yolks, and it didn't take him long.

Husband: I found something for you to make with the egg yolks. Lemon curd!

Me: I don't like lemon.

Husband: But it uses egg yolks.

Me: I still don't like lemon. Besides, what do you use lemon curd for?

Husband: You can put it on scones.

Me: So I have to make scones TOO?

Husband: Ummmm.

Me:

During his lemon curd research, my husband read that you (meaning me) could save egg yolks by putting them in a container, pouring water over them, and covering them, and refrigerating for a couple of days. This prevents them from drying out. What he did not find in his research is that when you want to use the egg yolks, the water is nearly impossible to pour off without LOSING the egg yolks into the sink. If you make it past THIS step, then you (meaning me) will find that, while covered with water, the egg yolks are intact; remove the water and the little jerks forget they are individuals and become one giant mass of yolk. 

The recipe I used was by Alton Brown, and it called for 5 egg yolks. Since my egg yolks lost their individuality, I had to Google for an equivalent for measuring, which turned out to be one tablespoon equals one large egg yolk. Swell. Now YOU try to measure out one tablespoon of slippery, gooey, egg yolk from a cup with any accuracy at all. I'll save you the trouble. It can't be done. I decided half of what I had in the cup was going to be close enough to five egg yolks (in reality, I had a dozen yolks, but I wasn't going to let that discrepancy deter me). 

The assemblage of ingredients

To make the lemon curd, lemons were zested and then juiced. As I see it, the only way to zest and juice a lemon without getting it all over the kitchen is by doing it in a five gallon bucket. I opted not to go that route, which was probably a mistake:

Easy peasy lemon squeezy

The sugar and egg yolks are whisked together in a metal bowl, then the lemon juice and zest are added. The bowl of eggy, lemony gunk is then set on top of a saucepan that contains an inch of boiling water, and the mixture is whisked continuously for about 8 minutes or until the mixture is light in color and coats the back of a spoon. The bowl is removed from the heat and a stick of chilled butter cut into pats is added one piece at a time, with one piece melting completely before another piece is added. Pour the lemon curd into a clean container and cover by lightly pressing a piece of plastic wrap directly on the surface. It can be refrigerated for up to two weeks and can also be frozen.

Before cooking

After cooking

Now remember that I had A DOZEN egg yolks, so I did the whole thing a second time. 

My husband declared it FABULOUS. I tasted it. I guess it was all right, if you like lemon. It wasn't too awful lemony. It was smooth and creamy. And it was really pretty when poured in a glass jar. 

I still haven't made the scones. Maybe for "S"....