Lemon Curd in the Microwave

Making Lemon Curd in the Microwave is a quick way to make fruit curd. The traditional ingredients of lemons, sugar, eggs and butter cook for three minutes in this easy lemon recipe. Microwave lemon curd takes less than 10 minutes start to finish!

Lemon curd is a bright and fresh way to perk up many desserts. It would be delicious as a filling between layers of cake, equally good on some fresh scones, or pretty and delicate in a tart shell and topped with freshly whipped cream.

What is Lemon Curd?

Lemon curd is smooth and creamy fruit spread. Fruit curds often start with citrus juice and zest, are sweetened with sugar, and thickened with eggs and butter.

As you might guess, the stove top method takes a bit of time to cook. Let’s see how we can make a quick lemon curd.

Can you microwave lemon curd?

Yes, you can make this easy lemon curd in the microwave.

Often curds are made on the stovetop in a double boiler but this microwave recipe cuts the time in half. If this is your first time making curd in the microwave, you’ll be happily surprised to see how quickly it comes together. This fruit curd is one of my favorite easy recipes!

The possibilities are endless and this easy lemon curd recipe and it can be made in less than 10 minutes start to finish. The microwave does most all of the work in a short three minutes cooking time.

By the way, if you don’t have a microwave, you can make this meyer lemon curd recipe, grapefruit curd,  or this orange curd recipe on the stove top.

You’ll enjoy this collection of fruit curd recipes!

What ingredients are in microwave lemon curd?

• lemons: Organic lemons are best especially since you’ll use the zest (outer layer) of the lemons in this recipe. If you don’t have organic lemons take extra care to scrub the lemons before removing the zest.
• eggs: Some curd recipes use only the egg yolks but this recipe for microwave lemon curd uses whole eggs. No need to separate the egg yolks and the egg whites– it is a time saver for sure!
• butter: We’ll microwave the butter in the first step so it doesn’t matter if you start with cold butter or room temperature butter. I often use salted butter for this fruit curd recipe. If you use unsalted butter you may want to add a pinch of salt to your ingredients.
• sugar: granulated sugar works well in this curd. The sugar will dissolve as you heat the mixture in the microwave. You’ll notice the sound of your mixture changes as you stir it every thirty seconds. As the sugar dissolves the mixture becomes less gritty.

How do you make easy lemon curd in the microwave?

1. Zest and juice the lemons
2. Melt the butter in the microwave in a microwave-safe bowl.
3. Add the sugar, eggs, lemon juice and lemon zest.
4. Cook in the microwave, stirring every thirty seconds for a total of three minutes.

The key is to stir the mixture often. You’ll want to stir the curd every thirty seconds. Every microwave is different so if you find that your lemon curd is heating up too quickly (the eggs will look more like scrambled eggs), simply use 50% power on your microwave. You can strain out any cooked eggs from your lemon curd and the flavor isn’t affected at all. 

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Steps in more detail

Zesting and Juicing:

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Always zest your citrus BEFORE cutting and juicing. The lemons are firm when they are whole which makes it easier to grate the peel with a citrus tool or microplane.

My favorite citrus tool is this 3 in one citrus gadget. It lets you zest small or large pieces (bits or in strips) which comes in handy for many recipes.

Freshly squeezed lemon juice is a big part of this recipe. Don’t use bottled juice– the taste just can’t compare.

For large lemons I use this type of juicer and for smaller lemons I like this hand held squeezer.

Stages in the Microwave:

Every microwave cooks at a different rate at full power. These photos show my curd cooked after one minute, two minutes and three minutes.

You’ll see that the biggest change came between two and three minutes. I stirred every thirty seconds along the way so that it wasn’t overcooked. Cooking in 30 second or one-minute increments is key to ensuring that your curd isn’t overcooked.

When is the curd done?

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There are two ways to make sure your curd is done. It will continue to thicken as it cools so don’t worry that your curd is still somewhat liquid after three minutes cooking in the microwave.

First, use a cooking thermometer to make sure that the egg mixture has cooked to 160 F or greater. This is the safe temperature recommended by the USDA for food saftey.

Second, use a wooden spoon or a spatula and make sure that the lemon curd coats the back of a spoon. Run your finger through it and check that the curd stays in place and doesn’t drip back into the middle.

Strain the Curd

Once your curd is cooked, you may find it has small lumps in it. Most curds are strained through a sieve or strainer but I found that this step is particularly important when I learned how to make lemon curd in the microwave.

The microwave cooks the food somewhat unevenly, leaving some pieces of eggs cooked more than others. This doesn’t change the taste of your curd– you just need to strain those bits out.

Set a mason jar with a canning funnel on top with the sieve resting on top of the funnel. (See photo above for an example of this set up.) You could also use a fine mesh strainer directly into a bowl or other container and then pour the curd into clean jars.

Pour the lemon curd onto the sieve in small amounts at a time then use a spatula to help push the mixture through. You won’t lose much volume of the actual lemon curd, but you will get rid of the cooked egg or any other lumps.

The best part is that this microwave version is so much faster than the traditional method to make curd. You’ll have that tart lemon flavor of traditional curd in mere minutes!

Once you’ve mastered a lemon curd recipe, you’ll want to try lime curd too!

What recipes use lemon curd?

If you are wondering how to use lemon curd, look no farther than these lemon recipe ideas. Once you start baking with lemon curd you’ll come up with so many ways to use this citrus fruit butter spread!

• Lemon Curd in the Vitamix
• lemon curd poppy seed bread
• Lemon bundt with lemon curd filling
• Review this round up of recipes that use lemon curd— more than 40 ideas! Lemon desserts galore!

Here is the Google Web Story for this easy lemon curd recipe.

Tips for success

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This easy lemon curd recipe microwave was originally shared in January 2012; Updated February 2018 and February 2021.