Homemade Eggnog
My homemade eggnog recipe with fully cooked eggs! The perfect drink for Christmas Eve or Christmas morning. Very nice spiked with brandy, bourbon or rum, or just on its own. So good!
Ingredients
Homemade Eggnog made in the Adventure Kitchen
1 quart (4 cups) milk (preferably whole)
4 egg yolks
1/4 cup sugar
3/4 teaspoon ground mace, plus more to garnish
1 tablespoon vanilla extract
Instructions
1. In a medium saucepan, warm 2 cups of the milk with the cinnamon sticks over medium-high heat until steaming. Stir occasionally and keep the lid askew to prevent a skin from forming. Allow the cinnamon sticks to infuse and flavor the milk for about 15 minutes or longer, while you whisk the eggs in the next step.
2. In a medium bowl, blend the egg yolks and sugar together with an electric mixer. Continue to blend until they have turned light yellow, and have thickened enough to "form the ribbon," which means that when you scoop some up with a spoon and allow it to dribble back into the bowl, you will be able to see that the dribbled part remains briefly distinct from the rest. This is called "the ribbon" (see pics). (You can do this by hand with a whisk, but it's a lot of work. So if you have an electric hand mixer, use it.)
Egg yolks gradually go from bright orange to very pale yellow as you whisk them. When you are done, they will form the ribbon.
4. Tempering the eggs. Remove the milk from heat and position the milk and egg yolks next to each other, with a wire whisk at the ready. Begin to whisk the egg yolks with one hand, while you ladle the smallest possible stream of hot milk into them, quickly whisking the milk in as it dribbles in. Gradually add more ladle-fulls of hot milk to the eggs, whisking the whole time, until about half the hot milk has been added to the eggs and the bowl of egg yolks is quite warm to the touch. Now, gradually pour the egg mixture into the saucepan with the rest of the milk, whisking constantly as you do. Once all the egg mixture has been added to the saucepan, return the saucepan to the stove over medium heat.
5. Stir the final 2 cups of milk into the saucepan along with the mace. Cover partially, and stay close. Heat the eggnog, stirring occasionally, until it is piping hot (you will see steam), but do NOT allow it to simmer or boil! If you have a cooking thermometer, warm the eggnog to between 150 and 160 degrees.
6. When the eggnog is hot, remove from heat and stir in the vanilla. Cool gradually to room temperature, covered in the saucepan, stirring occasionally in the early stages to prevent a skin from forming. Pour the eggnog, along with the cinnamon sticks, into a pitcher or other container and chill it in the refrigerator. (Leaving the cinnamon sticks in the pitcher imparts maximum flavor.) Serve with an extra pinch of mace on top.
Notes:
Eggnog is one of the most delicious parts of Christmas! But traditional recipes use raw eggs, so I wanted to create an approach that would cook the eggs in the drink. (Because nothing ruins Christmas like salmonella!)
So, that’s what Step 4 is all about. My tempering method gradually brings the egg yolks up to temperature, blending them into the milk so they won’t curdle as they cook. Salmonella is killed at 150 degrees, so you can either use a food thermometer to confirm you’ve reached the right temperature, or just look for steam. At 150 degrees, you’ll see steam and you’ll need to blow on the drink before tasting it. Don’t let it boil, though, because the eggs will start to solidify at higher temps. (And also, don’t stress if things go south! You can always strain out any solid pieces before serving. As Julia Child might say, who’s going to know?)
I call for just the egg yolks in this recipe, not the whites. They don’t incorporate seamlessly into the liquid like the yolks do, which I’m sure is why most recipes call for whipping them separately and then stirring them in at the end. But in my experience, the net effect of that approach is to end up with flavorless foamy bits floating around an otherwise creamy and delicious drink. So I say go use those egg whites for something where they can be the star, like merengues or macarons or royal icing. Let’s let the eggnog be all about that yolky, creamy goodness.