Eggnog Ice Cream

I was going to try to write this blog before Christmas, but as usual, things got busy and I ran out of time. So hopefully you can file this away for next year. Or you can still make it now. I think you can still eat holiday food, listen to Christmas music and watch Christmas movies up until New Years. I always hated how the holidays were over December 26, so I allow myself to let it linger. This season I had a craving for eggnog ice cream. We’ve had it before, purchased from Schwan’s I think. We don’t get Schwan’s anymore, so I set out to find it at the store. No such luck. I was disappointed at first, but then I thought, “Wait a minute, I have an ice cream maker, I’ll make it myself!” Famous last words….

Well, it was a challenge and I almost messed it up, but it actually turned out great. I found what looked to be an excellent recipe for Eggnog Ice Cream on Epicurious.com. It is more of a frozen custard than an ice cream. I’ve never made custard before, so that was the challenging part. I would discover later how important it is to not be distracted while cooking custard.

First, get your ingredients ready. Seven egg yolks is a lot, but I just saved the egg whites and had them scrambled for breakfast later that week. You’ll also need sugar, cream, rum (I used Captain Morgan Spiced Rum), vanilla and nutmeg.

Get your fine-mesh sieve ready. I set it up over the container that I was going to freeze the ice cream in. Just your standard Rubbermaid container.

Bring milk and salt to a boil in a saucepan.

Add 1/4 cup of the milk mixture to the egg yolks and sugar.

Then pour egg mixture into remaining milk while stirring constantly over low heat.

Now is the tricky part. Keep cooking and stirring until the custard reaches a temperature of 175°F.

So. What happens when the phone rings, a dog is scratching at your leg to go out, and the timer for the banana bread in the oven goes off, all when your custard is about to reach the optimal temperature? Ummmm…..scrambled eggs………

Luckily, I was able to salvage enough of the custard so it wasn’t a total waste. I learned a great lesson when making custard: Do Not Get Distracted! Once the temp hit 170°F, it started gaining heat really fast. It was over 180°F before I realized it!

So anyways, I strained all of the solids out and combined the liquid custard with the cream, nutmeg, vanilla and rum. Then off to the ice cream maker it went.

Several hours later I had my beloved eggnog ice cream! It was delicious. I liked it even more than just plain eggnog. I served it with Spiced Rum Sauce, the same one from my Gingerbread Pudding Cake blog.