Eggnog (Cooked Recipe)

Sorry guys – I’m just not brave enough to try the raw recipe yet so it’s cooked eggnog today! Oh note – this isn’t kid friendly at all.

I discovered a base recipe for this from Joy of Cooking. I made some modifications to control alcohol and sugar content a bit. Although – there’s absolutely nothing healthy about eggnog, so perhaps my efforts were in vain!

Tools :

Several large bowls
1 whisk
1 saucepan
1 pitcher ( to hold your eggnog)
1 sieve
1 kitchen thermometer

Instructions :

Pour 1 cup of your milk and 1 cup of your cream into a bowl and put that bowl in the fridge
Separate 12 egg yolks and place them in a bowl.

I stored the egg whites when making this – only to find I had absolutely no reason to save them. If you want – you can always make meringues
Add your 1 1/4 cup sugar to the egg yolks
Add the nutmeg to the egg yolks
Add in 2 cups of milk and whisk until mixed
Add teaspoon of vanilla
Add in 2 cups of cream and whisk until mixed

Here’s the Tricky Part!

Put your egg yolk & milk/cream mix into your saucepan
Put the heat on to low. I cannot stress how important this is – you have to do this at low-heat and you have to stir constantly. If you don’t – you’ll end up with curdled eggnog.
Stir the eggnog with the whisk constantly until it gets nice and thick. I think it took me about 20 minutes… You don’t want it to boil, just keep whisking and heating it until it looks nice and thick. If you’re looking for an ideal temp – aim for 160 – 175 degrees F
As soon as you get there, remove it from the heat and add that first bowl of milk and cream ( 1 cup milk, 1 cup cream).
As soon as you get there, pour the mix through the sieve into your pitcher.
Put that pitcher in the fridge and cool it completely. I let mine cool for an hour. If you need to rush this process, I alternated it in and out of the freezer ( 10 min in the fridge, 10 min in the freezer, back and forth).
You don’t need to cover it when it’s in the fridge
After you cool it, stir in your 1/2 cup of bourbon.

Yep – that’s my Joy of Cooking in the background!
Cover it and let it sit in the fridge for at least 3 hours. If you can – you can let it sit overnight in the fridge.
You’re ready to go!