Can You Freeze Lemon Curd?

4 minutes

Tangy, sour, citrusy and delicious atop a range of desserts, lemon curd is a hugely versatile condiment. But what do you do if you’ve knocked up a little too much or bought a few too many jars? Can you freeze lemon curd or not?

How To Freeze Lemon Curd

Once you have made your lemon curd you have already done the hard work. The rest is easy so let’s take a look at how you freeze lemon curd.

1. Make and Cool: Once you have made, strained and allowed your lemon curd to cool completely then you are ready to freeze it.
2. Label a Container: Find a suitable freezer-safe container and add a label so you know the contents and the date you froze the curd.
3. Transfer Curd: Transfer the cooled lemon curd to the airtight container and seal.
4. Freeze: Pop it into the freezer and allow it to freeze.

How to Freeze Lemon Curd in Cubes

The process of freezing in smaller portions is much the same as it is to freeze it whole and works well if you only need a small portion of lemon curd at a time. This works well if you just want to mix a little bit into icing for cakes, for example:

1. Cool: As before, make your lemon curd and then allow it to cool completely before moving onto the freezing steps.
2. Portion into Ice Cubes: Grab an ice cube tray and add the lemon curd to the ice cube slots of the tray.
3. Seal and Freeze Initially: Wrap the tray in cling film then place it in the freezer and give it several hours to freeze solid.
4. Pop Cubes Out: Once the cubes have frozen, pop the cubes out of the tray and into a freezer bag.
5. Freeze: Finally, place the bag back into the freezer to store for the longer term.

3 Tips for Freezing Lemon Curd

Now you know how to freeze it, we’ve got our 3 top tips which we strongly recommend following when freezing lemon curd to have the best results:

Cover in Cling Film
When the curd is cooling you can add a layer of cling film to the top to avoid a skin layer from forming and this will help you to retain the smooth structure of the curd.

Allow Room for Expansion
Make sure you leave half an inch of space at the top as the curd will expand as it freezes.

Try Different Curds
Don’t limit yourself to lemon. Why not try making a batch of passion fruit, lime, blackberry or pineapple curds?

How Long Can You Freeze Lemon Curd?

You can keep your lemon curd frozen and handy in the freezer for up to a year. Perfect to have as on hand to add to a meal or dessert whenever you need a pop of extra flavour.

How Do You Defrost Lemon Curd?

Defrosting lemon curd is an easy process. Just remove your portion from the freezer into a bowl in the fridge and allow it to defrost for several hours or overnight.

We would strongly advise against trying to speed up the thawing process as there is a risk that the curd will split and go quite grainy.

Can You Refreeze Lemon Curd?

Although it will be safe, in most cases, to refreeze lemon curd it’s not something we would recommend. Every time you freeze something, you create tiny crystals. This can cause the texture to change over time.

The more you freeze your lemon curd, the more likely it is that you’ll ruin the texture. That’s why freezing in ice cubes as above is great if you know you’ll only need a little often as you can avoid defrosting too much lemon curd unnecessarily.

Does Lemon Curd Freeze Well?

This is one of those food items that freeze fairly well. You might find there is a slight difference in texture with the different ingredients separating out a little but a quick whisk or blend should fix this and you shouldn’t even notice the difference!

Related FAQs

If you’ve still got questions about freezing lemon curd or curd in general, then these may help: