The farm CSA box arrived today, and amongst its bounty was a package of fresh farm eggs. I considered what I might do with really fresh eggs, and decided the best of all possible things I could do was: put booze in them. So I made eggnog.
To my shock, although I’ve written about eggnog before, I’ve never written one of my eggnog recipes down. So that, as bbum says, “Google can index my head,” here’s my eggnog recipe. It’s simple, easy, and delicious. It’s loosely based on Alton Brown’s recipe, but mine is better.
Ingredients:
– 4 egg yolks
– 1/4 cup sugar (plus a little extra, see instructions)
– nutmeg
– 1 cup whole milk
– 1 cup heavy cream
– Brandy to taste. You can substitute rum, or rye, or bourbon, but I prefer brandy. I use about 8 to 10 ounces; if I was using bourbon, I’d probably use less.
– 4 egg whites
Equipment:
– A kitchen stand mixer with the wire whisk attachment. There are people who will insist that eggnog can only be good if you get your hands dirty with a wire whisk and put your back into it. Those people can go jump in a lake.
– 2 mixing bowls.
In the stand mixer, whisk the yolks briskly until they start to turn pale. Slowly add the sugar. When the sugar is fully incorporated, steadily add the milk, cream, and liquor. Grate in fresh nutmeg, about 1/4 of a nutmeg. Remove the bowl from the mixer, wash your whisk, and put a clean bowl in its place (or wash the other one, but I’m lazy.) Whisk the egg whites to soft peaks, and add about a teaspoon or so of sugar. Continue whisking to stiff peaks. Whisk the whites into the liquid mixture, refrigerate, and serve.
Simplicity itself.
Peter,
I’m somewhat of a cooking neophyte (kind of like a pianist who learned by hearing rather than by studying theory) – my wife’d cringe to see the question – but why separate the yolks and whites? Is it because whites won’t whip up the same way with other ingredients present?
..alex.
Alex – The yolks and whites serve different purposes in the recipe. The yolks are there to emulsify the cream, and the whites are there to trap air, which makes the drink lighter when you fold them in. If you didn’t separate them, the yolks might still emulsify the cream, but you’d never get the air into the drink.
Brandy sounds like a great booze for nog. I suck down the Alton Brown recipe at Christmas and Ramadan but I might try this one. My favorite addition is muddled mint. Egg and mint/ bourbon and mint/ cream and mint — they just seem to all be made for each other.
also, if you don’t separate the eggs, the yolks DO NOT blend the booze into the milk AND the whites feel like snot in your mouth. This does make for a more Sylvester Stalone kind of egg nog, but not for a delicious kind of egg nog.
** all of the above CAN be achieved without separating the eggs with the help of an immersion blender and a fine strainer.
July ….96 degrees here in New York today. It’s not the time for eggnog. Sweet tea mint julep on the other hand…