This lemon filling does not help my lemon problem. What problem you ask? The problem where I cannot say no to anything with lemon in it. I made this originally to go in between layers of a cake. I discovered that I made way too much and needed to find other uses for it. Aside from eating it straight out of the container, (which is a preferred way to eat this lemon filling) it is perfect with a Pavlova, or a bowl of strawberries, or on a Strawberry Shortcake to fancy it up a bit. How good would this be on top of waffles or in a lemon meringue pie? Whatever you want to use this lemon filling for, you are going to be happy that you did.
*I doubled this recipe, it made way too much for what I was using it for. One batch should be plenty. It makes 2 cups of filling.*
1 1/2 cups sugar
6 Tablespoons cornstarch
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup freshly squeezed lemon juice
3 egg yolks, beaten
2 Tablespoons butter
1 Tablespoon lemon zest
Stir together the sugar, salt, and cornstarch in a saucepan. Add in the lemon juice.
Cook over medium low heat until smooth. Add the egg yolks and butter.
At this point, I thought that I did something wrong and that it would not come together. It will, have faith. Stir this constantly until it thickens and comes together.
Add 1 1/2 cups boiling water and continue to cook for 2 to 3 minutes more. The mixture will thicken.
See, it came together just fine.
I put mine through a strainer just to be sure there were no scrambled egg bits in it. Stir in the lemon zest.
This will keep in the fridge for about a week. Thank you Martha for the great recipe.

Lemon Filling
Ingredients
- 1 1/2 cups sugar
- 6 Tablespoons cornstarch
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
- 1/2 cup freshly squeezed lemon juice
- 3 egg yolks, beaten
- 2 Tablespoons butter
- 1 Tablespoon lemon zest
Instructions
- Stir together the sugar, salt, and cornstarch in a saucepan. Add in the lemon juice.
- Cook over medium low heat until smooth. Add the egg yolks and butter.
- At this point, I thought that I did something wrong and that it would not come together. It will, have faith. Stir this constantly until it thickens and comes together.
- Add 1 1/2 cups boiling water and continue to cook for 2 to 3 minutes more. The mixture will thicken.
- See, it came together just fine.
- I put mine through a strainer just to be sure there were no scrambled egg bits in it. Stir in the lemon zest.
June 29th, 2010 at 3:14 am
What a yummy-looking lemon curd!! You could also make a lemon ice cream out of this.
July 6th, 2010 at 12:03 am
I got the great idea after I finished the cake, I should have folded some of the filling into the whipped cream…
June 7th, 2012 at 8:47 pm
Hi, so this is so crazy, but I have been making your lemon filling for almost a year and LOVE it. Then I found this great recipe for mini pavlova….and wouldn’t you know!!! Its you!! LOL
Small world 🙂 Thanks for sharing them!!!!!
June 12th, 2012 at 3:53 pm
Small world!