How to Make Eggnog

Bold Bakers, the holidays are just around the corner so I wanted to pop up with a quick video of how you can make some delicious homemade eggnog. It is so much better than the store-bought stuff. It's delicious, it's easy to make, and your guests are going to love it. So here I have a nice big heavy bottom saucepan, and into this I'm going to add in some milk, full fat whole milk, and some heavy cream. And here's the secret of this recipe, nutmeg. It has a lovely warmed spice feeling, which is perfect on a cold winter's night. So we're going to turn on the heat there, on to medium, and let that slowly come to a simmer. So I will admit, coming from Ireland, I had not tasted eggnog before until recently, but it turns out it actually came from England over to the United States, which I thought was really funny because growing up in Ireland, we got a lot of TV shows, a lot of movies like Christmas Vacation where there's a classic scene where he's drinking eggnog, and I always wondered what is that? Is it hot? Is it cold? It just made no sense to me. Anyway, I love it now because it's a custard-based drink, it's served cold, you put a little bit of cinnamon on top and a bit of whipped cream, and it is the perfect thing to have around the holidays. So while our cream and our milk is heating up, let's do our eggs. So here I have some egg yolks, and into this we are going to add some granulated sugar. And all you want to do is just give those a whisk together. These are the usual suspects for a custard, but you often wouldn't have custard in a drink so it's unusual, but when you think about it, it's like, why wouldn't you drink custard? It's so yummy. And this is going to have cinnamon in it, it has spice in it, it has cream, I mean, that sounds great to me. We might put a little bit of rum in the end as well. Just give it a little whisk by hand just to emulsify the eggs with the sugar. I want to show you something. See the way that the milk has formed a skin? It's not boiling, we do not want milk to boil ever. So it's not boiling, it has formed a skin, it's bubbling kind of under the surface. This is how we know our milk is ready and our cream. So there we go. Now here's what we're going to do, we're going to temper the eggs. So follow me over here, splash of that hot liquid, not too much, we don't want to shock the eggs. Whisk straight away. This is called tempering. And all we're doing is making the eggs a similar temperature to the milk and the cream. If you're adding something cold into something hot, it would shock it. The eggs would cook and there's not much we can do after that. So there we go, our eggs have warmed up. Pour this mix back into the pot. Oh gosh, you can smell that nutmeg. Nutmeg is definitely a holiday spice, right? I think we can all agree on that. And a little bit goes a long way when it comes to nutmeg. And on medium heat, we're just going to cook this until it thickens. You want to stand here, don't leave it like any kind of a custard that you're making. You want to stir slowly and constantly so it doesn't overcook on the bottom of the pot. It sounds kind of funny but easy recipes like this one on BiggerBolderBaking.com are really popular close to Christmas time because they're easy to make, they're accessible, there are a few ingredients that you probably already have. So my eggnog, my rompope, my Mexican eggnog is so popular. We have hot chocolate, we have frozen hot chocolate, we have Mexican hot chocolate. You know, they're always a really fantastic way to get a lovely, comforting treat at the very kind of last minute. So it will take 4-5 minutes to get nice and thick just like this. So here's what I'm going to do now, we're going to turn off the heat, we're going to add in a little bit of vanilla extract for lovely flavor. We're going to add a smidge of salt because a custard needs salt. Just like that. And you know what, it's the holiday season, it's Friday afternoon, I've got nowhere else to go so let's Irish it up a little bit. Nice. The rum is optional, you do not have to add that in. What I like to do to make sure that it ends up being really smooth, I strain it after I make it. Just in case there might be any lumps of cooked egg. That's it, that's your eggnog ready to go. I'm going to let this cool down completely and you can make it in advance up to 2 days, just keep it in your fridge and then you have it ready for when guests come over. Once your eggnog has chilled, it is ready to serve. I like to go all out because you know it is the holidays and put a little bit of softly whipped cream on top and a little sprinkle of nutmeg for a little bit of extra spice and warmth. If you want to be really extra, serve your eggnog with some of my Danish Butter Cookies on the side. The rich, creamy, eggy custard and a little kick of that rum in there, I mean that just screams holiday season to me. Bold Bakers, happy holidays, go enjoy it with your friends and family and loved ones. I will see you back here again really soon. Take care.