Creamy, sweet lemon curd is the perfect partner to a freshly baked almond scone for a light breakfast or an afternoon nosh. See lemon curd and scone recipes below.

Any excuse to make lemon curd is a good excuse. I’ve been playing around with a lemon lava cake recipe and decided the ingredient it needed is lemon curd. With the lava cake in mind, I whipped up four cups of this zesty conserve, which happened to be more than my recipe required. What to do? Enjoy the tangy, sweet, creamy curd with a freshly baked batch of almond scones.

I’ve made many iterations of scones in my kitchen, but lemon curd seemed to fit with savory almond flavor as opposed to blends of fruits or other sweet ingredients.

The curd is a cinch to make. The Meyer lemons that grow in our backyard in Sacramento would have been the choice ingredient, but even without our favorite Meyers on hand in our Arctic kitchen, we can make a darn good curd with Nellie & Joe’s brand lemon juice and Penzeys dried lemon peel. The small scones, too, are a snap to make. The time it took from gathering pantry ingredients to pulling freshly baked scones from the oven was only about half an hour – about as long as it takes to have a first cup of Joe and get fully awake on a leisurely weekend or holiday morning.

Pantry Lemon Curd

Ingredients

• 1 1/2 tbsp Penzeys dried lemon peel
• 1 1/2 cups granulated sugar
• 5 eggs
• 1/2 cup lemon juice
• pinch salt
• 1/4 lb unsalted butter, room temperature

Directions

1. In a medium bowl, mix together lemon peel and sugar.
2. Whisk eggs into sugar mixture, one at a time.
3. Whisk in lemon juice and salt.
4. Pour mixture into a medium pot. Add butter in pieces.
5. Cook over low heat until thickened, about 10 minutes.
6. Remove from heat and let cool before serving with fresh-baked almond scones hot from the oven.
7. Store any leftovers in a covered container in the refrigerator.

Snack-Sized Almond Scones

Ingredients

• 2 cups all-purpose flour
• 2 tsp baking powder
• 1/2 tsp baking soda
• healthy pinch salt
• 1/3 cup granulated sugar
• 2 tbsp frozen butter
• 1/3 cup whole milk
• 1/3 cup buttermilk
• 1 egg
• 1 tsp almond extract
• 1/2 cup sliced almonds

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper.
2. In a medium mixing bowl, mix flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, and sugar.
3. Using a cheese grater, grate butter into flour mixture. Stir until butter is well dispersed in flour.
4. In a second bowl, whisk together whole milk, buttermilk, egg, and extract.
5. Pour wet ingredients into dry. Stir together.
6. Stir in almonds. Dough will be sticky.
7. Coat your hands with flour and divide dough into thirds.
8. Flatten each third into a disc about 1-inch tall. Place 3 discs apart on parchment-covered baking sheet. Cut each disc into fourths, but do not separate. This will allow the scones to be broken easily when they are finished baking.
9. Bake for about 15 minutes. Scones will be very lightly browned when done.
10. Serve with hot tea and homemade lemon curd.