Our annual caroling party last night was a tad smaller than expected, so I am now faced with about a quart of leftover homemade eggnog. It’s mighty tasty, but it doesn’t keep terribly well. What can I do with it? It does make a fabulously decadent coffee creamer, but it’s a little early in the day for all that booze, and we don’t drink that much coffee, anyway.
If anyone has a recipe for eggnog ice cream that would work with leftover eggnog, I’d especially love that because we could be saved from consuming all of it ourselves before it goes bad (there are only 2 of us and that’s a LOT of cholesterol).
Eggnog is good to use in various baked things. Google recipes for eggnog pancakes, eggnog chocolate chip cookies, and eggnog cakes.
If you’re afraid of making tons of baked goods and not being able to eat them or give them away before they go bad–if you make eggnog cookies or cakes, add a little extra spice to the batter (well, that’s my preference, anyway) and then cover them entirely with chocolate. Then they become eggnog cake bonbon things, which last a little longer.
I just realized my last post might have been a little unclear (that’s what happens when I try to multitask. I should learn that I can really only do one thing at a time. Anyway…)
So, to make chocolate-covered baked yummy things that involve eggnog:
Add a little extra spice to the batter.
Bake as directed.
Cool baked things. You want them to be at room temperature when you cover them with chocolate.
Get a bunch of high-quality chocolate chips, some powdered chocolate, and a couple of non-stick baking pans. Coat the bottom of the baking pan with the powdered chocolate. (You don’t need a ton of the powdered chocolate.)
Melt chocolate in the microwave or in a double boiler until smooth, but still looking shiny. The chocolate shouldn’t be very hot, and make sure you don’t get any water or other liquids in it.
Dip bits of cake, or cookies, or what-have-you, in the chocolate, covering them completely.
Put the freshly chocolate-covered treats in the baking pan. Add some more powdered chocolate on the top and sides. (There are two ways to make sure that the chocolate turns into a hard coating–temper it, or make sure you only melt it a little, and then use unmelted chocolate as seed crystals for the cacao butter in the molten chocolate coating. Since chocolate is kind of finicky, and I don’t have a candy thermometer, I usually just melt the chocolate a little and use powdered or crushed chocolate to make sure the crystallization turns out right. If you can temper chocolate, more power to you!)
Warm it over low heat with constant stirring, and sprinkle in some nutmeg. It should thicken and turn into luscious custard (you might need to add a little tapioca or corn starch). Alternatively, stir in some vanilla and take it off the heat just as it starts to thicken and you have a lovely custard sauce for mince tarts, spice cake, Christmas pudding, whatever.
Do you have an ice cream maker? If it’s anything like my homemade eggnog, there’s plenty of fat and flavor in there to just toss it in the ice cream maker and walk away.
I do, though the cylinder isn’t chilled right now (I should just throw it out on the deck). I was just afraid that with so much booze, it wouldn’t freeze properly. Should I not worry, then? There was about 3 cups assorted booze (bourbon, rum, brandy) to 5 cups heavy cream, 3 cups milk, and a dozen eggs.
AH, that’s a very good point! I keep my booze separate so people can spike or skip as they wish. Yes, that’s probably too much alcohol. You can either add more cream/milk to dilute or you can try using gelatin as a stabilizer. Or both.
Well, eggnog custards are now chilling. I just added a bit of nutmeg and some vanilla extract. The texture looks like it’s going to be a bit grainy, but we shall see, I guess.
That’s what I came in to say.
Using eggnog makes French toast quite tasty!
Burns and Allen Show:
Gracie to neighbor: I hear you are going to Paris?
Neighbor: Yes, for two weeks.
Gracie: Could you buy me a toaster while you are there? George just loves French toast.
WE make eggnog french toast, pancakes or waffles, drink it copiously, and once made icecream but it hadn’t been mixed with booze. Never thought of custard, if we ever have any left I may try that.
And we sweeten with splenda, and don’t add booze, that is left up to the drinker
I might have to get some eggnog just so I can make some eggnog french toast! That sounds amazing. This could be the start of a new Christmas morning tradition.
If you like bread pudding, that’s a good use for leftover eggnog. I don’t have a favorite recipe specifically for eggnog, but I do like this recipe that makes a really rich, custardy bread pudding: Warm Cherry Bread Pudding. I think that would work well with a rich eggnog.
Yeah, Martha Stewart - she doesn’t mess around with the booze. It’s closest to this one, except I actually reduced the booze or we wouldn’t have made it out of the living room to go caroling.
