Mary Berry's 15-Minute Recipe Makes The Best Lemon Curd

Ex-Great British Bake-Off host Mary Berry doesn’t just do sweet treats ― we love her sausage casserole and “Mexican lasagne” recipes for our midweek meals.

With that said, there’s a reason one of her (many) cookbooks is called The Baking Bible. When I want to make dessert, I turn to the Cordon Bleu-trained chef first.

This weekend, I craved a lemon meringue pie. So, I thought I’d give her pared-down recipe a go (I’d tried more complex recipes recently, like a pomegranate curd, and had been left with a runny disaster).

People, the pie never got made. The curd was so good, I simply slathered it on slices of bread and ate spoonfuls from the jar ― I re-made double the recipe again to stay in stock for the rest of the month.

How does Mary Berry make her lemon curd?

Her instructions are simple: whisk one egg per whole lemon zest and juice to 75g caster sugar and 56g butter together. Twice this calculation makes roughly a jar.

Then, keep whisking the lot over a gentle heat for seven to 10 minutes. Mary warns: “Do not allow the mixture to boil or it may split.”

For that reason, I made my first batch in a heatproof bowl over a saucepan of boiling water (like the one you’d use for melting chocolate).

I recommend this if, like me, you’re using thin, cheap saucepans; if you have a heavy-bottomed saucepan and really good temperature control on your hob, though, a saucepan should be fine.

Once the mixture has thickened enough to coat the back of a wooden spoon, you’re ready to spoon the curd into a sterilised jar ― it should thicken in a couple of hours, and the curd will last for a month or so in the fridge.

I loved that Mary uses the full zest and curd of all lemons. It makes a brilliantly tangy curd, and also means your kitchen smells amazing for hours.

I also think it made the curd less creamy, which I personally prefer.