Slightly sweet, rich in flavor, and deeply nourishing for body and soul, eggnog is a wonderful winter drink and often seen at holiday parties.
Homemade eggnog can be made either room temperature (which will consist of a raw egg) or warmed, which is my favorite and a great substitution for a frothy latte.
Since we’re talking about raw eggs here, I must say – please know your source when consuming them! Conventional eggs often times harbor more bacteria and should be cooked. Eggs from your own backyard or a farmer you know should be fine to consume raw, in fact, I use raw egg yolks many times a week and don’t think twice about it.
*I must also add a disclaimer to please drink responsibly! This drink tastes fabulous and may go down a bit too quickly for some. We’re all about moderation here, mmmkay? Though if you choose to drink it warm, the alcohol content may be reduced.
Eggnog
Ingredients
- 2 egg yolks
- 2 egg whites beaten to soft peak
- 4 Tbsp maple syrup honey, or whole cane sugar
- 4 Tbsp dark rum optional
- 2 Tbsp vanilla
- 2 cups whole milk
- juice of 1 orange
- 1 cup cream whipped
Instructions
- Mix egg yolks and 1/2 off the sugar in a saucepan (no heat) until combined.
- Slowly warm over LOW HEAT until slightly thickened, whisk in rum and vanilla. (personally I love a coffee liquor more than rum, but I don't think that's technically a true eggnog anymore...) If you decide to forego the liquor, simply add more orange juice instead and use an extra teaspoon or two of vanilla.
- Slowly whisk in milk and orange juice.
- Before the mixture gets too warm (around 80 degrees or so) you’ll need to temper in the egg white. What this means is that you take a spoon full of warm milk mixture and whisk into the egg whites before pouring the egg whites into the pan. This ensures that the eggs don’t ‘cook’ the moment they touch the warm milk. Chunky eggs in a drink are no good. Believe me – I’ve had it happen.{{shudder}} Once the egg white has been mixed with a spoonful of milk mixture, pour it into the pan while stirring constantly.
- Once the egg is fully incorporated, gently fold in the whipped cream.
- Heat to the temperature you desire, though keeping it under 110-120 will have the best texture.
- This drink can be made ahead of time and kept warm in a crockpot on low (if your slow cooker has a warm setting!) or placed in the refrigerator for a few hours until needed. Leftovers can be kept in the fridge (the heated version may keep longer than the unheated version) and you can even use it to make your french toast with it the next morning!
Notes
Variations:
Stir in ground nutmeg or cinnamon into the milk mixture.
This post is linked to the final stop in our Whole Foods for the Holidays Real Food Progressive Dinner! Please stop by Michele’s blog, Frugal Granola, as she shares her own recipe for a Festive Russian Tea (that sounds fabulous) and you’ll also get to check out MANY other drink recipes that others have linked up!
*For more amazing drink recipes, follow our whole foods board on Pinterest!
Donielle Baker
Poached Pear with Pomegranate Glaze
Thanks so much! I have small children and am not up for raw eggs, so I was afraid we were out of luck on eggnog! Thanks so much for this recipe, we are looking forward to making it!
Thanks so much for the recipe! With our chickens producing way more eggs than we can eat, I have been thinking about egg nog! I made one once with Frangelico instead of rum, and it was incredible!
@Jenn AKA The Leftover Queen, *resists the urge to zip over to Jenn’s to borrow a cup of sucanat and several dozen eggs…* :>) Sorry, our chickens have gone the way of Donielle’s and we aren’t getting many eggs – even the family from which we buy raw milk has had to resort to buying eggs for the winter already!
Anyway, my in-laws are gone for a few days, so any eggs that we do get will find their way to our house and into this recipe! Except… crap, I turned all the cream into butter this afternoon. Well, hopefully we’ll get milk on Wednesday and I’ll give it a run then. :>) I’ll also be linking to this recipe in one of my weekly roundups sooner or later.
I’m going to try and figger a way to add ripe bananas to this. We’ve got 2 sitting here needing to be eaten b4 2mrw. AND i used to make banana-nog back wen I was preggo with numero uno…who’s probably ur age, Donielle LOL.
I shall try n member 2 let u know how it went!
So, my husband LOVES eggnog… but can’t find it here in the country where we’re living. I’m going to attempt this Christmas eve… still need to find the cream(??)… but we’ll give it a try! I’ve never really liked eggnog but I’ll make it and try it again… it’ll be worth it if it turns out – just to make my hubby happy and have it feel like “home” for him!! 🙂