Eggnog is basically a sweetened, high-fat milk drink, flavoured with cinnamon, cloves, nutmeg, vanilla, and a bunch of rum.
If this seems vaguely familiar, swap out the rum for ginger, and you have the base flavours of pumpkin spice.
Mind. Blown.
If you’re especially hardcore, you can skip the tempering of the egg yolks and go with raw eggs, but we’re not complete savages.
Eggnog
Ingredients
- 2 cups whole milk
- 1 cup heavy cream ( 18-35% )
- 1/2 tsp cinnamon ( see below )
- 3 whole cloves ( or 1/8 tsp ground )
- 4 eggs separated ( whites are optional )
- 1/3 cup sugar
- 3 oz amber or spiced rum, or bourbon
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- 1/2 tsp freshly grated nutmeg ( 1 tsp if you skip the cinnamon, see below )
- 1 tbsp sugar ( optional )
Instructions
- In a medium saucepan on low heat, bring the milk, cream, cloves, and cinnamon, to barely boiling.
- In a heat-safe bowl, whisk the 4 egg yolks and 1/3 cup of sugar until light in colour and the sugar is fully incorporated.
- Slowly pour the hot milk into the egg yolk mixture, stirring constantly. (Hand mixer on low is fine for this).
- Pour the mixture into the saucepan. Raise the heat to medium-low, and stir constantly. Do not allow this mixture to boil - it should be around 160-170F. Cook for 3-5 minutes, or until thick.
- Pour through a strainer into your temperature-safe bowl. This will catch the cloves, and any egg that became solid during the tempering process.
- Stir in the alcohol, vanilla, and nutmeg.
- Refrigerate 8 hours (overnight) before serving.
- OPTIONAL
- Before serving, beat the egg whites to soft peaks. Slowly add the 1 tbsp of sugar and keep beating until stiff peaks form.
- Whisk the egg whites into the chilled mixture.
Notes
- This makes about 4 servings, and if you haven't made this before, you might want to go down to 2 oz of alcohol, and adjust prior to serving.
- If you want to serve this immediately, and you don't have any health concerns with eating raw egg, you can skip the entire tempering process with the following changes: Replace the whole cloves with a pinch of ground. The hand mixer stays on high the entire time, until you slowly add the liquid part to the whipped egg whites, which is done on low speed (instead of the traditional folding). You also don't need to worry about the stove, or straining the mixture since there's no chance of the eggs cooking. Otherwise, the steps are the same. Keep all the ingredients in the fridge when not in use, and keep the finished product chilled. Whisk it up just before serving.
- If you really love nutmeg, skip the cinnamon, and increase the nutmeg to 1 tsp, and feel free to put a dash on top of the cups before serving.
Eggnog Ice Cream (no egg)
Ingredients
- 2 cups heavy whipping cream
- 1/4 tsp salt
- 1/2 cup sugar
- 2 oz amber or spiced rum, or bourbon
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- 1/2 tsp cinnamon
- 1/4 tsp ground nutmeg
- 1/8 tsp ground cloves
Instructions
- In a chilled bowl, and with chilled beaters, whip the heavy whipping cream until soft peaks are barely forming.
- Add everything other than the booze, and whip to firmer than soft peaks.
- Fold in the booze (or use the mixer on low).
- Taste test at this point - you might want to add more spices if all you can taste is the booze.
- Freeze overnight (minimum 3 hours, depending on the size of your container, and the temperature of your freezer.
Notes
How do we get away with calling this eggnog ice cream when there aren't any eggs in it? Great question.
To properly incorporate eggs, this would be a French-style ice cream (made as a custard), and requires a lot of work, or an ice-cream maker. This is the significantly easier, and next best thing since the spices and booze will still come across with all those eggnog flavours.