I have sometimes found myself a couple of days before Christmas and I find myself without enough preserves for my hampers. This is a quick and easy alternative to spending hours making jam and you don’t need a special pan. Lemon curd is so quick and easy and at this time of year you often find lemons reduced 🍋🍋. It tastes so much better than bought lemon curd, and I have noticed that, where we live, discount stores have not been selling lemon curd for a couple of years.
This morning it took us less than half an hour to make 5 x 12oz jars. We used the BBC Good Food recipe and tripled it to make these.
Ingredients
6 lemons, zest and juice
300g sugar
150g butter
6 eggs
Method
- Put the lemon zest, juice, butter and sugar into a heatproof bowl over a pan of water that is simmering.
- The butter will melt and so stir occasionally.
- Add the eggs gradually, whisking over the heat.
- Keep whisking for about 10 minutes and it will begin to thicken.
- Pour the curd through a sieve to get rid of the zest.
- Pour into sterilised jars.
The recipe says that it keeps for 2 weeks in the fridge but we have kept it up to a month. Once opened it does not last long. Lemon curd is expensive in supermarkets and the taste of homemade is on a whole other level. People love to receive it from us. I don’t make it too early in the week before Christmas as it doesn’t have a long shelf life, but most people don’t have any trouble eating it quickly and it does freeze too.
This can be given as a gift on it’s own as people appreciate the care and effort that go into home made gifts. I first made home made gifts when I retired and my income greatly reduced, as I couldn’t afford to buy gifts. Now people look forward to them and expect them 😊. My first hamper is being given as a gift tomorrow. Is any body else giving hampers with home made gifts in, or giving home made gifts on their own? What kinds of things do you put in your hampers if you make them? I fancy trying to make some natural, frugal beauty products next year 😊
I would also be interested in making a beauty care hamper . . . A friend makes her own moisturiser but you need a good electric mixer as it takes about 15-20 to whisk to get the emulsification needed. I do make my own moisturising oil using almond oil, with a few drops of essential oil. (Rose or geranium both work) I’d be interested in making homemade shampoo. I thought I could add a hand sewn eye mask or hair band, plus a toilet bag.
That is a lovely idea to add the toilet bag mask or hair band. You could mask. Thane those quite frugally. Your moisturising oil sounds lovely. Yes those are definitely on my list for next year. Thanks for sharing your ideas.