Apricot Lemon Curd

I wonder if anyone noticed my absence from the blog, probably not, but in case you were wondering what happend, I'm still live and kicking as you can see on my Instagram profile as well, and the quantity of food I cook, the cakes and breads I bake is probably bigger than ever. But time I dedicate to the blog has vanished.
I can't concentrate long enough to sit and write a blog post, for one, and my photographs are suffering due to the lack of camera, I hate the photos I take with my phone, because they look great only on my phone, when I look at them on my computer they look dead, lifeless.
So to solve both problems, I had to dig into archive and find something made last year, with nice photos I could actually publish on the blog, and a simple enough recipe to share so I didn't have to spend long hours writing and editing. I'll admit, I was often tempted to stop writing in three languages, but couldn't decide which two to discard :-)
Anyway, a few days ago I made something I love so much. A classical lemon curd but enriched with apricots now in season, that I made last year for the first time and went back to in my thoughts very often waiting for the apricots to be in season again. There are some lovely things you can do with it, and I have a particular idea in my head that I may try to realize tomorrow. If it's successful you'll sure be able to see it on my Instagram profile, so stay tuned.
I first saw the idea on Saltando in padella blog and I got really curious to try it out, but decided to follow my tried Lemon curd recipe adding in part apricots to it.
This year, I also changed the method of cooking the apricots, and I'm totally happy about it. So from this moment on, the recipe is my keeper, hope it can become yours, too, or at least inspire you furtherly.

Apricot Lemon Curd

about 150 g ripe apricots
1/2 TBspoon sugar
10 g butter

1 organic lemon (zest and juice)
150 g sugar
55 g butter
2 eggs

Wash carefully and dry the apricots. Cut them in half and remove the stones.
Cut the apricots into not too small pieces and mix with 10 g of butter and 1/2 TBspoon sugar in a saucepan. Cover the saucepan tightly with aluminium foil or in alternative place a piece of baking paper under the lid, so that the apricots cook in the steam. If your apricots are ripe it will take about 10 minutes on low heat. Do not uncover while they are cooking.
Let the apricots cool down, then pass them through a mash sieve or pureè using a stick blender if you don't want to separate the skins.
Place the apricot pureè, sugar, butter, the juice and the zest of a lemon, and whole eggs into a heat resistant bowl.
Bring some water to a boil in a saucepan/small pot just slightly bigger then your bowl and place the bowl over it.
Whisk everything well and cook for about 20-25 minutes until thickened, stirring the curd continuously.
Once it's cooked pour it into sterilized jars (I needed two 150 ml jars) through a mash sieve in order to remove the lemon zests.
Close the jars, and once they have cooled to room temperature store them in the fridge for up to 2 or 3 weeks.

Curd di albicocche e limone

circa 150 g di albicocche mature
1/2 cucchiaio di zucchero
10 g di burro

1 limone non trattato (scorza e succo)
150 g di zucchero
55 g di burro
2 uova

1.
Lavate bene e asciugate le albicocche. Eliminate il nocciolo e tagliatele a pezzi. Sistematele in un pentolino, con 1/2 cucchiaio di zucchero e 10 g di burro. Coprite il pentolino con l'alluminio oppure mettete un pezzo di carta da forno per far sì che il coperchio aderisca bene e le albicocche si cuociono senza far uscire il vapore. Devono ammorbidirsi, quindi dipenderà dalla consistenza e grado di maturità della frutta, circa 10 minuti o poco più. Frullate le albicocche oppure passatele attraverso un collino.
2.
Sistemate in una ciotola resistente al calore (tipo pyrex) la purea di albicocche, le uova intere, la parte gialla della scorza più succo del limone, lo zucchero e il burro. Mettete la ciotola sopra un pentolino leggermente più grande con l'acqua in ebollizione e cuocete la crema  mescolandola in continuazione per circa 20 minuti o finché non si sarà addensata abbastanza da velare il dorso del cucchiaio.
3.
Versate la crema attraverso un colino (per eliminare le scorze di limone) nei vasetti sterilizzati (due vasetti da 150 ml).
Chiudeteli, e lasciate raffreddare a temperatura ambiente.
Si conserva in frigo per 2-3 settimane.
Il curd è ottimo spalmato sul pane o sui scones (le focaccine inglesi), come ripieno per le crostate o altri dolci e tanto altro.

Curd od marelica i limuna

oko 150 g zrelih marelica
10 g maslaca
1/2 žlice šećera

1 neprskani limun (sok i korica)
150 g šećera
55 g maslaca
2 jaja

1.
Marelice dobro operite i prepolovite, izvadite koštice.
Stavite ih u manju posudu za kuhanje zajedno s 10 g maslaca i 1/2 žlice šećera. Čvrsto zatvorite posudu komadom aluminijske folije ili stavite komad papira za pečenje ispod poklopca, tako da je posuda čvrsto zatvorena i marelice se kuhaju u pari unutar posude.
Ako su marelice zrele, trebat će vam oko 10 minuta. Za to vrijeme ne otvarajte posudu.
Smiksajte kuhane marelice u pire štapnim mikserom (ako nemate štapni mikser propasirajte ih kroz gusto cjedilo).
2.
Pomiješajte pire od marelica, sok i koricu limuna (koricu skinite oštrim nožem ali samo žuti dio), šećer, maslac narezan na listiće i cijela jaja u posudi otpornoj na toplinu (može biti metalna ili vatrostalna posuda). Smjestite posudu iznad malo veće posude s ključalom vodom i kuhajte kremu na pari, oko 20-25 minuta, neprestano miješajući, dok se ne zgusne toliko da ostaje deblji trag na poleđini žlice.
3.
Procijedite kremu kroz gusto cjedilo da odstranite korice limuna.
Sipajte toplu kremu u čiste, tople i sterilizirane staklenke.
Kad se krema ohladi, dobro zatvorite staklenke i čuvajte u hladnjaku 2-3 tjedna (zbog jaja nije preporučljivo čuvati je duže od toga).
Posluživanje:
Curd možete mazati na kruh umjesto pekmeza, ili kao fil za torte, krostate i sl.
Iako je najveći izazov ne pojesti ga žlicom ravno iz staklenke.