This lime curd recipe is modeled after my best lemon curd recipe. Basically we’ve traded lime juice for the lemon, except we’ll need many more limes!
Lots of fresh lime juice: One thing that sets my curd recipes apart is the higher ratio of juice to sugar; I like a strong taste. If the fruit is tart and sour I want that flavor to come through and not be lost in the eggs and sugar. This lime curd uses freshly squeezed lime juice and quite a bit of it, it gives the curd a sharp, impossibly lime taste.
No leftover egg whites: Most curd recipes use egg yolks primarily as thickeners which contribute to the curd’s thick and silky texture. I’ve found I can use whole eggs and still get that silky custard-like texture.
Cold butter incorporation: For this recipe, as with my others, you’ll incorporate the butter at the end – after cooking the egg/juice/sugar portion of the recipe. The butter should be cold, straight from the fridge, and mixing it in is the very last step. The curd is hot enough to melt it and doing it this way ensures we have a shiny, very silky texture.
How to know when the curd is done cooking
If you’ve got a thermometer (candy, laser or instant read) you can use this to determine when the curd is done cooking. At around 170 F the curd will have thickened and you’ll want to immediately remove it from the heat.
Without a thermometer you’ll know the curd is done when it’s thickened all over (not just at the bottom – keep stirring to cook it evenly) and coats the back of a spoon. To test this, dip a wooden spoon or rubber spatula into the curd and look at the back of it, if it runs off immediately the curd isn’t done cooking. If it holds and ‘coats’ the spoon, it’s likely done.
Persian Limes vs Key Limes For Lime Curd
If you have access to key limes (I so rarely find them!) and wanted to use those instead you’ll need lots, lots more limes to make the curd as they are much smaller. The curd will be less tart, key limes are not as acidic, and deliver less punch but I think they could be quite lovely here (if you have the patience to juice and zest like 30 limes :p)
What can I do with homemade lime curd?
Make lime curd stuffed cookies (my current favorite!).
Spoon it over a pavlova or mini pavlovas.
Make lime meringue bars, a lime curd cheesecake, or a lime meringue pie.
Spread over toast.
In between cake layers (lime cake, vanilla cake would be great here).
Recipe for Homemade Lime Curd
Lime Curd
Silky smooth, sharp lime curd made with whole eggs for a brighter more vibrant taste.
Prep Time: 10 minutes mins
Cook Time: 10 minutes mins
Yields: 1 cups
5 from 13 votes
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Ingredients
- 100g ½ cup granulated sugar
- Zest of 4 persian limes
- 3 large eggs
- 120g or ½ cup freshly squeezed lime juice
- Pinch fine sea salt
- 57g or ¼ cup butter cold
Method
Slice the butter and place it into a bowl. Set a fine mesh sieve over it.
Place the sugar into a small pot. Zest the limes over the sugar then rub the sugar and zest between your fingers for a few minutes, until the juices are released and it’s the texture of wet sand.
Crack the eggs over the sugar and add the pinch of salt, whisk with a fork until well combined.
Pour the lime juice in then whisk and set over medium low heat.
Cook, whisking and stirring frequently, until the curd thickens and covers the back of a spoon.
Pour the curd through the sieve into the bowl of butter. Press the curd through and scrape the bottom to ensure you get all the curd you can.
Stir until the butter has melted and the curd is smooth.
Lime curd is yellow in color, if you’d like it to have a more green hue add a drop of green food coloring.
Store in the fridge in an airtight container. It’ll keep for 2 weeks.
Notes
Makes about 1 cup lime curd.
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13 comments
Rate + Review
What do you think of this recipe?
This is a great recipe. I stuffed up by only using 2 eggs (I must need new glasses) and it still worked! Thank you so much for the metric measures as well – it’s really helpful for those of us not in the US. Someone – definitely not me – may have licked the bowl clean. Since we have a current surfeit of limes, I will be making this one again. I might even use 3 eggs next time . . . !
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Loved this recipe, took me half an hour total to make. It tasted great, and was super easy. Definitely going to be my go to recipe.Reply
Hi,
Is it possible to thicken the curd with cornstarch? If so, how would you recommend going about it?
Thank you!
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Hi! You could add it with the rest of the ingredients before cooking (whisk it into the juice). Depending on how thick you want it you can do 1-2 teaspoons.
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This was the easiest lime curd recipe I’ve made. The proportion of the ingredients were so delicious , with slightly less sugar, a third whole egg, and more butter than other recipes. one step that shouldn’t be eliminated is to sieve the curd before adding it into the cut butter pieces. This will prevent any small pieces of egg white from getting into the finished curd. I will definitely make this recipe again, and will use it to make lemon curd too.Reply
Wow! this was the easiest lime curd recipe I’ve ever made. Using the entire egg, vs just the yolk, helped speed up the prep time. The one hint though, is definitely do not skip the sieve process because the curd may have some very small pieces of egg white. They will all be sieves out for a perfectly sweetened batch of lime curd.
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I love these curd variations! New trick I’ve found- since I don’t like to sieve out the zest, I sieve the scrambled eggs as I pour them into the pot. This catches most of those tough bits of egg white, and if you are very careful to stir constantly and not overcook, then there is no need to sieve the cooked curd again.Reply
oooh this is so smart! I started sieving eggs for my daughter’s breakfast (they don’t like the ‘icky white bits’) after I saw it on The Bear. Makes sense to do it here so you can keep the zest!
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Followed the recipe and it turned out so wonderful! Tomorrow I’ll make the pie! thanks so much for sharing this gem ????Reply
I’m not sure what I might have done wrong but my curd came out SO TART! I even added 1/2 cup more sugar and it’s still extremely tart.
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Hi! I think you might have had shaved off too much of the pith which is quite sour =( this can happen when you over zest one side or if the zester you’re using isn’t micro
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as I was making this I realized, you say to cook it but don’t give a temperature to set the stove at. This makes it very difficult to ensure a good outcome. I had to look at other recipes to see what they recommended.
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step 4 of the instructions says ‘set over medium low heat’. the next step just says ‘cook’, since you’ve already set the heat!
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