Because of the time of year, and the fact that I love egg nog, I figured I’d make some from scratch. I knew it wasn’t too difficult, and I now assume that my overconfidence was my weakness.
After looking around for a recipe, I settled on this Alton Brown recipe because, after watching his show, he tends to use old school tried-and-true recipes rather than some newfangled way of doing them. It’s classified as “easy” which means I should be able to handle it without difficulty.
Sometimes, I actually surprise myself.
I went to the supermarket and got some heavy cream and milk; the rest of the ingredients I already had on hand. I substituted Jack Daniel’s for the bourbon because I had it on hand, and I can’t tell the difference anyway. I got all the ingredients measured and lined up in cups, and set about mixing the egg whites. I used a hand mixer because I don’t have a stand mixer (Manhattan apartment…I’m lucky I have counter space). I mixed the whites until they got a bit whiter and were not yet developing peaks when you pulled the mixer out. I then added the sugar while mixing, then added the other ingredients, and set it aside while I started mixing the yolks.
The recipe said to mix them until they developed soft peaks, but no matter how long I mixed them, they never did. I checked the recipe to make sure I was doing it correctly.
I wasn’t!
The recipe clearly says to start mixing the yolks and add everything to that, then mix the whites for the final froth. I was doing the opposite. Duh.
After cleaning everything up, and running out to the store to get more cream, I started it over again…this time correctly.
About 15 minutes after I started (for the second time), it was done and seemed to come out quite well. I immediately drank a glass to see how it was, and it was delicious.
I put the other six-or-so glasses in a container in the fridge to chill. I’m sure I’ll enjoy them over the next few days.
