The Traditional American Beverage of Christmas
I am truly enjoying my first Winter here in Sweden. I am finding the Swedish Christmas Decorations beautiful, enjoying the Christmas Markets, and the snow is beautiful (albeit slightly annoying when you slip around).
One of the things I began to miss as soon as the holiday decorations went up was egg nog. I quickly realized this was not a Swedish custom, nor had most Swedes heard of Egg Nog. They also did not sound interested when I tried explaining that its a sweet beverage made from egg yolks – but TRUST ME.
It is supposedly at some American stores but has quickly gone out of stock and I have been unable to procure some. I decided to try my hand at making egg nog. How hard could it be? Actually? Pretty simple.
Egg Nog
Ingredients
- 4 Cups Milk Save one cup for final step
- 5 Eggs Use 4 egg yolks and 1 whole egg.
- 3/4 Cup Sugar
- 1 Cup Heavy Cream
- 1 Nutmeg (Muskot in Swedish) for garnish I used a zester to grate on top of cups, but you can also use poweder
- 1/2 Tspn Vanilla
- 1 – 2 cups Ice
Instructions
- Take 4 eggs and separate the egg yolks from the whites. An idea is to save the whites later for little meringues
- Heat 3 cups of milk in a saucepan on low-to-medium heat just until it begins to steam. Dont let it scald, so stir frequently
- While you're waiting for milk to steam, put ice + a small amount of water in a large bowl. This will be used to cool down the egg nog once it has been cooked. You will place a smaller bowl on top of the ice water to give it an ice bath, but you dont want to get the water/ice into the mixture.
- In a small – medium bowl whisk together the sugar and the egg yolks and egg until yellow and creamy.
- Next step is to temper the eggs/milk so after the milk has steamed, take some of the hot milk and slowly pour into the yolk/sugar mix – whisking constantly. Do this until you've used about half of the warm milk, and then pour the entire mixture back into the saucepan
- Keep the mixture warm over medium/low heat for about 20 mins. You want to whisk constantly to avoid scalding the milk and scrambling the eggs.
- Once this has thickened slightly pour it into smaller bowl and place in bowl of ice. (note it doesnt really get as thick as traditional store-bought egg nog. These use xanthum gum as a thickener if you want to try it, but I have not)
- Let this rest for about 20 mins to cool and then place in fridge for about 2 hours
- Pour into small cups and grate fresh nutmeg on the top
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