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You wont believe how easy and DELICIOUS homemade Eggnog is, and this recipe really is the best! Thick and creamy with the perfect mild flavor and hint of nutmeg. You'll never buy store-bought eggnog again!
Eggnog
I absolutely love eggnog! I have nothing against store-bought eggnog–we have it all the time in our fridge this time of year–but this homemade eggnog recipe is truly what dreams are made of! If you've ever thought you didn't like it, you just have to try it made from scratch.
Several years ago I sought out to make homemade eggnog. My first attempt was not a success and left my husband cringing. Let's just say that the completely “raw egg” method of making eggnog is just not for me.
I pressed forward, determined to succeed, and ended up loving this recipe from Cuisine at Home. I used ground nutmeg instead of fresh, because I always have ground on hand. I also ignored their ice-water bath suggestion and just refrigerated it instead.
The end result was liquid gold, and it's become our family's favorite eggnog recipe ever since! Seriously, this homemade recipe will “WOW” even the biggest eggnog snob! For a fun flavor twist, try my Pumpkin Spice Eggnog recipe!
This eggnog recipe is thick, sweet, creamy and smooth, with the perfect flavor. It doesn't contain alcohol (if you'd like to add some, read on for my suggestions), but we are non-alcohol drinkers at my house, and I wanted an eggnog recipe my kids can enjoy too.
How to make eggnog:
Start by whisking the egg yolk and sugar together in a small bowl. Then, in a saucepan over medium-high heat, combine cream, milk, salt, and nutmeg and stir the mixture until it just reaches a simmer. Next temper the eggs by adding small spoonfuls of the hot mixture to the egg mixture.
Stir each spoonful and once most of the hot mixture has been added, add the entire mixture back to the saucepan. Continue cooking and whisking for just another minute or two until it barely thickens. It will continue to thicken as it cools. Then remove it from the heat and add the vanilla. Refrigerate the eggnog mixture until chilled.
We like to serve it with a some whipped cream and an extra little dash of cinnamon and nutmeg on top.
What type of alcohol goes in eggnog?
If you would like to add alcohol to your eggnog, choose a drink with a high alcohol concentration to help counterbalance the sweetness of the eggnog. Common choices of alcohol to add to eggnog include brandy, rum, bourbon or whisky.
Don't miss my Eggnog French Toast!
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Homemade Eggnog
Ingredients
- 6 large egg yolks
- 1/2 cup granulated sugar
- 1 cup heavy whipping cream
- 2 cups milk
- 1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg
- pinch of salt
- 1/4 teaspoon vanilla extract
- ground cinnamon, , for topping
- alcohol, optional, see note
Instructions
- Whisk the egg yolks and sugar together in a medium bowl until light and creamy.
- In a saucepan over medium-high heat, combine the cream, milk, nutmeg and salt. Stir often until mixture reaches a bare simmer.
- Add a big spoonful of the hot milk to the egg mixture, whisking vigorously. Repeat, adding a big spoonful at a time, to temper the eggs.
- Once most of the hot milk has been added to the eggs, pour the mixture back into the saucepan on the stove.
- Whisk constantly for a minute or so, until the mixture is just slightly thickened (or until it reaches about 160 degrees F on a thermometer). It will thicken more as it cools.
- Remove from heat and stir in the vanilla, and alcohol*, if using.
- Pour the eggnog through a fine mesh strainer into a pitcher or other container and cover with plastic wrap.
- Refrigerate until chilled. It will thicken as it cools. If you want a thinner, completely smooth consistency, you can add the entire mixture to a blender with 1 or 2 tablespoons of milk and blend until smooth.
- Serve with a sprinkle of cinnamon or nutmeg, and fresh whipped cream, if desired.
- Store homemade eggnog in the fridge for up to one week.
Notes
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
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Have you tried this recipe?!
RATE and COMMENT below! I would love to hear your experience.
This is my second time making this and it is so good! I made homemade whip cream with it and it literally tastes like ice cream!!
Can I ask how you made whipped cream from
This? Wouldn’t the added milk and ingredients to the cream make the eggnog not able to whip up into a fluffy whip cream? Ty! 🙂 I’d love to learn
She made whipped cream to accompany the drink.
You add the whipped cream to top it off at the end when your put it in your glass.
If you’d like eggnog flavored whipped cream you can add eggnog syrup or extract instead of vanilla to your whipping cream
Ummm, it’s exactly the same recipe for an ice cream base that NYT Cooking uses. Unfrozen nutmeg ice cream.
That’s because the custard for homemade ice cream is the same as the custard for egg nog, pudding, custard pie.
I made this eggnog for Christmas Eve. It is out of this world delicious!
Oh. My. Word. So delicious and so easy! As others have said…I’ll never buy eggnog again! Thank you so much for sharing!
Oh wow!!!! This is awesome!!!! My husband loved it!!
I heard that you couldn’t make substitutions with this recipe so I did an experiment. I made this exactly as described and another with all the ingredients replaced with gin. Both are excellent. 5 stars.
Hi, I am intending to make this tomorrow, do you have ant suggestions for using all the egg whites? I would hate wasting them. Frankie
I would use them in an omlette or to make our Pavlova!
You can freeze the egg whites for a future use. Great in meringue, meringue cookies, macarons, angel food cakes, royal icing for cookies.
In the past, when I’ve had unused egg white from a recipe, I have used them to make angel food cake or meringues, but this year I have been using them for making marshmallows.
I mix with cheese and bacon or sausage and put in muffin tray to make egg bites.
I substituted the eggs for vodka and the milk for vodka. Oh and the whipped cream for vodka. The other stuff I deemed optional. Turned out great. Highly recommend.
What can I use if I don’t have nutmeg? Can I use cinnamon?
Yes you can use cinnamon!
Amazing Article!! This is really informative and knowledgeable for us, so thank you for sharing this information with us, it will really work. Love Your Blog.
I just made this, and it’s so lovely. Creamy, rich, not too sweet… we couldn’t wait, so we drank some warm! I am taking inspiration from another commente and making ice cream out of it next time. I also wanted to simmer the milk with a cinnamon stick (I was excited, and I forgot) and will do that in the future.
So incredibly delicious and takes just a couple of minutes. I like it warm, too!
I substituted the eggs for duck eggs and milk with geese fat and it came out terrible!! Please write in the recipe when reasonable substitutions cannot be made.
let me break this down for you.Duck eggs instead of chicken eggs? That’s actually fine. Duck eggs work in eggnog. That’s not your problem.GOOSE FAT instead of milk? Goose fat is a solid cooking fat for roasting potatoes. Milk is a liquid dairy product. They are not interchangeable. You essentially made hot melted goose fat with duck eggs. Of course it was terrible. If you fundamentally change the structure of a recipe by using completely different ingredients with entirely different properties, you’re not making eggnog. You’re conducting a failed science experiment. Make it again with actual dairy and report back.
In what world is goose fat a reasonable substitute for milk??
nina, girl. you’re getting roasted by thousands of people on reddit for this foolishness
Nina, you’ve got to respond to these comments. I’m begging you. I need closure. I have to understand what you were thinking with the original substitution. I need to know that you now understand how absolutely insane your review was. Please Nina, PLEASE.
This got screenshotted and posted on reddit and now you’re getting roasted by thousands of people lmaooooo
Also in what world would that possibly work?? That’s like substituting chocolate with taco mix becuase they’re both brown.
“Reasonable” doing a lot of work here.
I can’t believe people like you exist. You’re a stone cold dumb dumb.
Both common sense and google are free but THIS is what we chose?
This is my favorite thing on the internet today lol
The fact that you gave the recipe a 3 star because of ur inability to follow instructions is mind blowing.. Geese fat 😂 not even goat milk , almond milk… Something!!! Any God damn thing… 😂😂 I’m laughing but I’m upset
My husband and son are lactose intolerant, can I use Lactaid milk for this instead of regular milk?
Yes! Lactaid milk works perfectly in this recipe. It’s just regular milk with the lactose enzyme already added, so it’ll behave exactly the same way in the eggnog. Same with the heavy cream you can use lactose-free heavy cream too if needed. Everything else stays the same and they’ll still get that delicious homemade eggnog!
I can only drink milk from cows that produce A2 protein, so I rarely enjoy eggnog. Recently I’ve found a local source for A2 milk and so I’ve made your eggnog recipe twice now, it’s perfect! Because my milk has around 25% cream, I skip the heavy cream and substitute with an extra cup of whole raw milk!