Leftover November Whipping Cream Becomes December Eggnog

We always have some leftover heavy whipping cream after Thanksgiving. And what perfect timing, too. As Thanksgiving in the US is just before the beginning of December.

I'm fussy about consuming raw or undercooked eggs, so the eggnog I make is a cooked egg version, using a double-boiler on the stove.

The other day I made a quart and a half of eggnog, using the leftover whipping cream, milk, sugar, whole eggs, vanilla, and spices. The whipping cream itself is just cream, no carrageenan or tore stabilizers in the brand I bought. So my homemade eggnog was made without preservatives, stabilizers, gums, corn syrup, or additional colorings. Compare my homemade ingredient list to Kroger's eggnog ingredient list as printed on their label: pasteurized homogenized milk, cream, high fructose corn syrup, sugar, egg base (egg yolks, sugar, guar gum, carrageenan, salt, artificial flavor), spices, natural  and artificial flavor, annatto and turmeric extracts (for color).

I filled 3 pint containers with the finished eggnog. I offered one pint to my son and daughter-in-law, put one pint in the fridge, and froze the third pint. Both commercial and homemade eggnog freeze well. If it separates upon thawing, I simply run it through the blender (immersion or pitcher blender) and all is good.

My family's recipe for eggnog:

4 whole eggs, or the equivalent in egg beaters

1/2 cup plus 2 tablespoons of granulated sugar 

2 cups milk

2 cups whipping cream or half and half

1  1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract (or 3/4 teaspoon vanilla extract and 3/4 teaspoon rum extract)

1/4 to 1/2 teaspoon nutmeg (I like the full amount of nutmeg)

up to 1/4 teaspoon of cinnamon (I'm not a huge fan of cinnamon in my eggnog, but a small pinch does enhance the flavor, I use just under 1/8 teaspoon of cinnamon)

optional extras: 1 to 2 tablespoons canned pumpkin (to taste), and an extra pinch each of nutmeg, cinnamon, cloves and ginger for pumpkin eggnog

equipment:

medium mixing bowl or top of a 2-qt double boiler

2 quart saucepan or bottom of a double boiler

electric mixer or blender

candy or all-purpose cooking thermometer (very important)

spoon for stirring

rubber spatula

whisk

mesh strainer

large pitcher

Fill your saucepan or bottom of double boiler 2/3 full of water and set to a boil on stove.

Meanwhile, break eggs into mixing bowl or top of double boiler. Add sugar. With an electric mixer, beat well. Scrape sides of bowl and beat again. Mix in milk, scraping sides of bowl.

Place bowl or top of double boiler onto pan of water. If using a non-instant read thermometer, place it into the milk mixture and hang on the side of bowl. If using a digital instant read thermometer, just keep it handy. You will need to cook this mixture to 160 degrees F (71.11 C). This is important. According to foodsafety.gov this is the temperature needed to kill bacteria in egg dishes. I typically allow the mixture to cook to 165 degrees F, just to be on the safe side. USDA's recommended 160 degrees F is a minimum temperature for egg dishes.

Cook mixture, stirring occasionally and scraping sides down with rubber spatula until egg and milk mixture reaches 160 to 165 degrees F. Stir the liquid well then test the temperature in several places in your bowl/double boiler. The mixture will thinly coat the backside of your spoon.

When all is 160-165 degrees F (this should take about 20 - 30 minutes of occasional attention), remove from heat.

Whisk in cream or half and half. Add spices and extracts. Taste and adjust the sugar or spices, blending again until thoroughly combined.

If adding pumpkin/spices or alcohol, use a mixer to incorporate.

Set a mesh strainer over a large pitcher. Pour cooked mixture through the strainer.

Cover pitcher with plastic wrap and chill for 4 hours or overnight. Homemade eggnog thickens with chilling. 

The whole process goes very quickly with little hands-on work. I typically have other things I'm doing in the kitchen while I wait for the egg, sugar, and milk mixture to reach the right temperature. This time I was folding laundry while the mix heated. 

Food safety and homemade eggnog

• Homemade eggnog should be stored in the refrigerator at 40 degrees F or below up to 3 days for optimal food safety.
• Make smaller batches if you don't think you can consume an entire batch within 3 days. (I often make a half batch at a time. We drink small portions, about 3 to 4 ounces. It really doesn't take that long to make another batch when we run out.)
• Don't leave eggnog out of the refrigerator for more than 2 hours. If serving at a party, you can fill one large bowl with ice, then set a smaller punch bowl with the eggnog PLUS add an ice ring to the eggnog. Your ice ring can be made of milk and sugar flavored with a bit of nutmeg, if desired. Take the temp of the eggnog every half hour. It should remain at or below 40 degrees. If you don't think you can keep a punch bowl at 40 F for the duration of your event, it is much safer to have a couple of smaller pitchers of eggnog. Bring 1 pitcher out of the fridge at a time, making sure no pitcher remains unrefrigerated for more than 2 hours. 

Final notes

How thick and creamy your eggnog turns out will be determined by whether you use whipping cream or half and half, whole milk or 2 % milk, or adding additional eggs. If you're attempting to make a skim milk version of eggnog, you may want to add a thickener to the egg, sugar and milk. Beat in a bit of corn starch or arrowroot with the eggs and sugar. And, of course, eggnog can be made with soy milk, almond milk, rice milk, and alternative creamer for a non-dairy version. I do this for myself, making a 1/4 batch, since I'm lactose intolerant.

Leftover eggnog makes great holiday eggnog scones, pancakes, waffles, muffins, coffee and tea creamer, stovetop pudding and bread pudding.

Anyway, just a way to use leftover whipping cream before it sours.

Happy December, everyone!

Homemade Almond Paste for One-Third the Cost of Store-Bought

Every year, I bake a special bread for Christmas morning, using a recipe from the Scandinavian side of my family. I make this in advance and keep it in the freezer until Christmas Eve, then thaw in the fridge overnight. I'll be baking this Crêche Bread in the next few days. 

A key ingredient to this recipe is almond paste. If you've ever bought almond paste, you know this stuff is pricey for the tiny box it comes in. Walmart sells the Solo brand for $5.44 (8 ounce box).

I use the whole package for 1 loaf of bread. When I can save anywhere in this recipe, I do. Which brings me to this DIY recipe for almond paste that I found on King Arthur Baking Co website. 

I made a half batch of the recipe this morning, which yielded a little more than 6 ounces of almond paste and used ingredients I had in my kitchen already. The most expensive of these ingredients is the almond flour, which I buy in bulk from WinCo for around $6/lb. The bonus to making my own (beyond saving money) is my product did not contain any preservatives.

I followed the instructions on KA's site, using measuring cups/spoons instead of weights. I think this would be one recipe where weighing the first 2 ingredients would produce the quality of product that would approximate commercially-made almond paste more closely. But I don't have a kitchen scale, so I used my cups and spoons. However, I was able to fiddle with the end result by adding slightly more almond flour at the end, until it had both the taste and texture I was expecting.

Here's the full recipe:

Almond Paste

Yields about 1 1/2 cups (375 g or 13.23 ounces)

1 3/4 cups (168g) blanched almond flour (which is about .37 of a pound)

1 1/2 cups (170g) confectioners' sugar

1 large egg white

1/8 teaspoon table salt

1 to 1 1/2 teaspoons almond extract,  to taste

Using either a food processor or mixer and bowl, combine the almond flour and confectioners' sugar. Blend in the egg white, salt and extract, pulsing or mixing until you can see a ball forming. There will still be some bits of mixture in the bowl. Press these together with the ball that formed.

Double-wrap in plastic and store inside a plastic or glass container.

According the King Arthur's website, this will keep in the fridge for up to 1 month or in the freezer up to 3 months. I think this would actually keep in the freezer longer than 3 months, if wrapped well enough. But of course, YMMV.

I will add to this recipe, since Large egg whites are not uniformly the same in volume, you may need to add a bit more almond flour to end up with the stiffness usually found in commercial almond paste. In addition, you may find that you prefer a less-sweet almond paste, as I do. I ended up mixing in a little more almond flour to get a stiff paste that was not cloyingly sweet. The final result should be about as stiff as Play-Dough.

So, did I save money making my own almond paste? Here's the cost breakdown, based on the full recipe above:

Almond flour, about $2.22

Sugar, 37 cents

1 egg white, 7 cents

Extract and salt, 3 cents

Total for homemade 13.22 ounces (not quite double the Solo brand 8 ounce package), about $2.69. Solo's product costs $10.88 a pound, while the DIY version costs about $3.25 a pound.

The project took about 10 minutes start to finish including clean-up and was super simple. I'll be making my own almond paste from here on.

Maybe you're curious -- whats' the difference between almond paste, almond filling, and marzipan?

Marzipan is sweeter and often used as is, rolled out into a sheet to top a cake, or mixed with colorings to make shaped candies. Almond paste has a stronger almond flavor and is less sweet. Almond paste can be turned into something like marzipan by adding additional sugar and an egg white. Almond filling is a product that can be used as is to fill pastries, cakes, and tarts. It has added sugar, thickeners like cornstarch, and sometimes milk added to ground almonds. If you're buying almond paste for a recipe, make sure you have the right product. Almond filling cannot be used where a recipe calls for almond paste. 

What other recipes is almond paste used in?

Some years, I bake amaretti cookies. They call for almond paste, granulated sugar, and egg whites. Light and crunchy amaretti are a gluten-free Italian cookie. Other years, I've made almond macaroons, anther gluten-free cookie. Here's a recipe very much like my mother's.

While I haven't made this, a friend of mine has -- Dutch Banketstaaf, also called Banket. These are a filled pastry cut into cookies.

Frangipane or almond cream filling is a traditional French tart cream that can be made with almond paste, eggs, sugar, a thickener like cornstarch and sometimes a bit of rum or brandy. Once spread in the tart shell, it can be topped with thin-sliced pears for a Frangipane Pear Tart.

I grew up knowing almond paste as a Scandinavian ingredient. As it turns out, almond paste is used in many different cuisines. 

Have you ever used almond paste in a recipe?