Lemon curd

I have to say that Lemon Curd is not one of my favourite things, however I know one or two people that love it. I also wanted to have some in the cupboard as one or two of the recipes I've been looking at call for it, so there was nothing else to do but make some. A fairly straight forward recipe the most time consuming part of it was grating the lemon peel, oh and stirring the curd for about 35 minutes!

6 lemons (grated rind and juice)

150g Butter

5 Eggs, beaten

400g Sugar

Put the lemon rind and juice in a small pan with the sugar, heat gently until the sugar has dissolved. Add the butter and stir until melted.

Transfer the mixture to a bowl placed over a pan of simmering water, sieve the eggs into the mixture and stir for about 25 to 40 minutes (until the mixture coats the back of the spoon)

Pour the curd into warm sterilized jars and seal. allow to cool and keep in the fridge.

New Tin

This may be a bit strange but after what seems like ages I have finally managed to get my hands on a proper bread tin. As you will see from the pictures below they are a little bit different than the 'loaf' tins that are readily available in most supermarket stores or even specialist cooking shops. I used my ordinary white loaf recipe baking the dough for 25 minutes at 200 degrees then raised the temperature to 230  degrees for another 10 minutes. The results was a loaf that is nice and brown on top and doesn't seem to have gone soft when it has cooled down.

Basic White Dough

600g white bread flour
350ml warm water
1tsp salt
1tsp dried yeast
1tbsp vegatable fat

I use a bread machine to knead the dough and give it it's first rise, I then shape it as required (bread tin, freeform, rolls etc.) by using the bread machine I know it's going to be properly kneaded.

 Still a bit pale but not too bad.