Apple and Lemon Curd

I have a commission to make the cakes for a friend's Open House weekend. This feels quite a responsibility and is taking some planning, but it's also fun as I've been given free rein to bake what I like. The only specific request I've had are for some of the apple rock cakes I made back in August. I haven't fully decided what I'm going to do yet, but with an ongoing apple glut, it seemed timely to prepare some apple and lemon curd to be used as filling or topping or both. The idea for this came when browsing through the excellent Preserves: River Cottage Handbook No 2 by Pam Corbin. I followed the spirit of Pam's recipe but not its exact method or quantities.

This is what I did:

• Peeled, cored and roughly chopped 5 windfall Cornish apples (variety unknown) to give just over 350g flesh.
• Simmered this in a pan with a splash of water until soft then blitzed to a smooth puree with an electric hand blender.
• Put this into a Pyrex bowl and placed over a pan of simmering water. Added 200g cardamom sugar and stirred until the sugar had dissolved.
• Grated in the zest from one organic lemon (reasons for using unwaxed lemons can be found here), then squeezed in the juice.
• Stirred in 80g unsalted butter until it had melted and all was smooth.
• Beat in 2 duck eggs (large hens eggs would have been fine) and whisked until all smooth.
• Gave an occasional whisk over the next 15 minutes until the mixture had thickened.
• Pressed through a sieve. This probably wasn't necessary as the mixture was perfectly smooth and creamy looking at this point, but I'm a bit particular when it comes to eggs and can't stand any "bits".
• Poured into 3 sterilised jars, covered with waxed discs then screwed on the lids.
• Left to cool and stored in the fridge.

This set really well and was buttery, smooth and soft. It was lemony for sure, but with noticeable fruity overtones - delicious. This was sweeter than either the lime & ginger curd or apricot curd I made earlier in the year even though I used less than half the amount of sugar stated in the recipe with 2/3 of the apple. It was also creamier and less sharp so will hopefully make a good stand alone filling for a cake.

Susan, whose blog title splendidly encapsulates the essence of her blog, A little bit of heaven on a plate, is running a home made and well preserved challenge. This is my entry.

Ruth from the The Pink Whisk has just started a monthly challenge and this one fits nicely into her October theme - Apples.