Wednesday Recipe - Egg Nog

After a couple week hiatus, Recipe Wednesday is back! Or is it Wednesday Recipe? I forget now. Still need a catchier name! I wanted a holiday themed recipe and so here is a recipe for eggnog. It's adapted from Dana Carpender's 500 Low Carb Recipes and it's cooked, for those of you who don't want to eat raw eggs. Since it's from a low carb cookbook, it is sugar free, but definitely not low calorie!

Egg Nog (Low Carb)

2 cups half-and-half
1 cup heavy cream
1/4 cup Splenda
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/4 teaspoon salt
6 eggs
1 cup water
nutmeg, to taste

1. In a medium saucepan (double boiler if you have one), heat the half-and-half and heavy cream until very warm, but not boiling.

2. Whisk in the Splenda, vanilla, salt and eggs. The recipe didn't call for tempering the eggs, so I just drizzled them in slowly while whisking. Turn the heat down to low. Now you just have to stand there and stir the mixture until it is thick enough to coat a metal spoon with a thin film. It could take anywhere from 5 to 20 minutes. I dunked the spoon in right at the beginning so I would have a reference point, and then tested it again every 5 minutes. It seemed to me like it coated the spoon from the beginning, but I dutifully stood there until minute 18 when it magically got thicker! I just let it continue cooking all the way to 20 minutes.

3. From here, I poured the mixture through a screen strainer because as I was stirring, I noticed a few chunky bits. Sure enough, there was a custardy bit on the bottom of the pan. I poured it through the strainer into a pitcher and added the 1 cup water. Let it chill for several hours, overnight is best.

4. When chilled, add nutmeg to taste. Don't be shy with the nutmeg. Start with 1 teaspoon, mix it in, and taste it. Add more if needed. It should be quite spicy. I also added a tablespoon or so more Splenda because it wasn't quite sweet enough.

This doesn't taste EXACTLY like the stuff you buy at the grocery store, but it is very tasty in it's own right and has the nice thick texture of eggnog. Feel free to spike this too if you like your eggnog with a little spirit! :)

This will make about 6 cups. I don't have the nutritional info, but do you really want to know? ;)

Happy Holidays Everyone!!