no-strainer-necessary lemon curd

I haven't been cooking much blog-worthy food recently, mostly because I am obsessed with our new electric wok and stir-fry is the only thing I make for dinner anymore. But I had a whole bag of Meyer lemons and wanted to make something that would do them justice.

We already have a lemon curd recipe on FG, but I wanted one that wouldn't require me to wash my strainer. Yes, I am that lazy.

Also, I made this a one-pot experiment by doing the prep work in the pan in which I would eventually cook the curd. Worked fine, and now I have two lovely cheerful yellow jars cooling in the fridge.

Original recipe here.

1 stick (6 T) unsalted butter, softened at room temperature
1 cup sugar [I used less than this
2 large eggs
2 large egg yolks
2/3 cup fresh lemon juice
1 tsp. grated lemon zest

In a heavy-bottomed saucepan, beat the butter and sugar with an electric mixer, about 2 min.

Slowly add the eggs and yolks. Beat for 1 min.

Mix in the lemon juice. The mixture will look curdled, but it will smooth out as it cooks.

Put the pan on the stove and cook the mixture over low heat until it looks smooth. (The curdled appearance disappears as the butter in the mixture melts.) Increase the heat to medium and cook, stirring constantly, until the mixture thickens, about 15 min. It should leave a path on the back of a spoon and will read 170°F on a thermometer. [I did not use a thermometer and only cooked for about 10 minutes. It thickened up noticably.] Don't let the mixture boil.

Remove the curd from the heat; stir in the lemon zest. Transfer the curd to a bowl. Press plastic wrap on the surface of the lemon curd to keep a skin from forming and chill the curd in the refrigerator. The curd will thicken further as it cools. Covered tightly, it will keep in the refrigerator for a week and in the freezer for 2 months.