A delicious alternative to lemon curd - for toast, scones, tarts, berries, meringues or whatever you fancy. This recipe is based on one by Marguerite Patten. It uses more sugar than more ‘modern’ recipes, but this means it should last several months as opposed to several weeks. I don’t enjoy agonising over whether to eat something possibly past its safety limit, so prefer to use the extra sugar. And it tastes great. 
Both crust and curd are harder than you might think. The tart shell must be perfectly even and crisp; the curd must have a perfect balance of sweet and sour, and be luxuriously rich and smooth. And then there is the challenge of slowly baking the assembled tart such that the curd sets up beautifully and does not curdle, blister or crack. 
In San Francisco I used Meyer lemons - a particularly sweet and fragrant variety - but now back in London they are nowhere to be found. I recently dug out my notes (including tips I gleaned from two fantastic pastry chefs, Jennifer Altman and Jim Dodge) to make lemon tarts for one of my Secret Kitchen dinners. I served it with poached forced Yorkshire rhubarb flavoured with a little orange zest, and thick double cream. 
