Paleo lime curd

'Is there a champagne reference?'

'Yep - will look forward to having a glass of bubbles with you over Easter to celebrate.' They all laughed. The joke? Well apparently 90% of mum's Birthday presents had some sort of reference to champagne. Her friends know her too well. Then it occurred to me that 90% of my presents were food related (unsurprisingly I know).

A basket of limes may seem like a strange present to some but to me it's a basket full of excitement. As soon as I saw it I knew I wanted to make lime curd to indulge in over easter. My go-to recipe is Celia's microwave lemon curd because it's super quick and you only need a heat-proof bowl and a microwave to make it.

As I was getting out the sugar I spotted the bag of coconut sugar I'd bought to experiment with and a little light bulb went off. I wondered how it would work with coconut sugar and coconut oil in place of the caster sugar and butter.

My only thought was to make it a bit healthier so I could eat as much as I want to without feeling guilty. Ok so you still can't eat too much of it but cutting out the refined sugar and butter also makes this into Paleo lime curd. I promise I'm not only posting Paleo recipes but I'm really enjoying the experimenting.

I made up the recipe using the same technique as regular curd but with my new ingredients and was rather pleased with myself when it thickened just as it should. The colour wasn't pretty I'll admit. Coconut sugar is brown so took away the zesty lime colour but I think it looks deceptively like caramel.

I threw a little bit in the freeze straight away to cool down so I could taste it and bottled the rest up.

Now I'm not going to say that this is a direct substitute for lime curd. It's not as sweet as the white sugar version and it does have a hint of a nutty flavour from the coconut but I thought it was delicious. There was just enough sweetness that you didn't scrunch your face up at the sourness of the lime but not too much to kill the lime flavour. I enjoyed it spread thickly on warm toast but it could be used to fill tart shells, spread on banana bread or layered between cake. It's also dairy-free so a great alternative for any allergy sufferers. Enjoy!

What about you? Do your presents have a theme?

Recipe