Lemon Curd - The Keto Way

This is a fantastic recipe to use when you have a whole bunch of lemons to use up. My mom's tree had a bountiful harvest and we needed to use up a whole grocery bag full of lemons.
For a special holiday gathering, we decided to adopt our regular award-winning lemon curd recipe to make it keto compatible and to go along as a topping for a keto cake.

Ingredients

3/4 cup fresh squeezed lemon juice 

1 tablespoon grated lemon zest 

3/4 cup monkfruit granulated sugar  

1/2 cup unsalted butter

3 eggs

Directions

Cube the butter into small pieces. In a 2 quart saucepan, combine lemon juice, lemon zest, sugar, eggs, and and the butter cubes one or two at a time while continually stirring. Cook over medium-low heat until the curd is thick enough to hold marks when you drag a spoon across the bottle of the pan and then the first bubble or two start showing up. This takes about 5 to 7 minutes. Do not overcook.

Strain through a strainer if you want to make sure you get out any bits of egg that may have coagulagted.

Cool and serve.

Put lemon curd on toast, cake, just about anything that needs a sweet pucker of lemon flavor.

Why I'd Make This Again

Once you get the process down, it really is quite easy. Plus it's amazing all the uses you can put this curd to once you see it sitting in your fridge, just begging to be part of your breakfast or dessert.

Pumpkin Spice Whipped Cream

With pumpkin pie spice being at the top of many people’s F.F.F. lists (Favorite Fall Flavors), why not put the flavor on top of your pumpkin pie?

This recipe adds an extra shot of pumpkin and spice flavor when eating pumpkin pie. It is also very good on top of pumpkin bread and pumpkin muffins.

Ingredients

1 Cup Heavy Whipping Cream

1 Tbsp granulated sugar (use more for a sweeter topping)

1 Tsp vanilla extract

1/4 Tsp pumpkin pie spice

1/4 Cup canned pumpkin

Directions

Whip together the cream, sugar, vanilla and pumpkin pie spice until stiff peaks stick to the whisk when you hold it up. Takes at least a good 5 minutes of solid whipping. Once done, gently fold in canned pumpkin to combine – streaks are ok.

If you want to make a spectacular visual, place this flavored whipped cream with some plain whipped cream together in a piping bag and put on the pie. Here’s what it looks like in a Ziplock bag. I cut the corner off and applying it over a piece of pumpkin pie.

Putting this in a pastry bag with decorating tip can make it look even nicer. If you really want to go all out, mixing the canned pumpkin with different amounts of whipped cream makes different shades of orange which makes for some fascinating artistic effects.

Variations

Do you have to hand whip? No, but I like to do it because it’s therapeutic and I can actually feel the consistency change.

We have a personal blender with a whipping blade that does a good job with this.

Some people have said they prefer not to have the specs of the spices in the white part of the whipped cream swirl. To change this, just mix the spice with the pumpkin first.

If you don’t want streaks, then start with half of the whipped cream and fold in the pumpkin. Then add the remaining whipped cream and fold again until streaks disappear.  This way, you don’t deflate your whipped cream.

Make again?

This is a definite make again. It really adds an accent to the pie.

Here’s a tip born of a bad experience – if you make your pie crust from scratch and you find pieces of it break off, just put the pieces back as best you can and cover with the swirled whipped cream. It covers up a lot of mistakes and makes it look great. Same is true if your pumpkin pie filling splits in the middle when it cooks. Cover it with some whipped cream.

When it comes to whipped cream, here are some words to live by:

Whipped Cream Covers Many Mistakes

It’s best to apply this whipped cream right before serving. Remember the pumpkin has a high water content with makes it heavy and is more likely to deflate the whipped cream some if it is left out too long.