Recipe: River Cottage Bramley lemon curd

It's like eating apples and custard: softly sweet, tangy and quite delicious. Photograph: Getty

Put the chopped apples into a pan with 100ml water and the lemon zest.

Cook gently until soft and fluffy, then either beat to a puree with a wooden spoon or rub through a nylon sieve.

Put the butter, sugar, lemon juice and ­apple puree into a heatproof bowl over a pan of simmering water. Photograph: River Cottage/Bloomsbury

As soon as the butter has melted and the mixture is hot and glossy, pour in the eggs through a sieve, and whisk with a balloon whisk.

If the fruit puree is too hot when the beaten egg is added, the egg will “split”. Check the temperature with a sugar thermometer — it should be no higher than 55–60C when the egg is added.

If your curd does split, take the pan off the heat and whisk vigorously until smooth. Photograph: Guardian

Stir the mixture over a gentle heat, ­scraping down the sides of the bowl every few minutes, until thick and creamy.

This will take 9–10 minutes; the temperature should reach 82–84C on a sugar thermometer. ­Immediately pour into jars and seal.

Use within four weeks. Once opened, keep in the fridge. Photograph: River Cottage/Bloomsbury

Variations

To make gooseberry curd, replace the apples with gooseberries.

For a traditional, pure lemon curd, simply leave out the apples, ­increase the lemon juice to 200ml (4–5 lemons) and add the grated zest of 2–3 lemons Photograph: River Cottage/Bloomsbury