Eierlikör
I love eggnog.
Growing up in Calgary, my next door neighbour Jane threw big Christmas parties and made her own eggnog from scratch.
When I was in my early twenties, she gave me her recipe.
Me and my punch bowl of nog, circa 2008.
Perhaps she had noticed me in previous years, hovering around the punch bowl, drinking my weight in nog, and becoming increasingly merry.
It turns out that Jane’s secret ingredient was crème de menthe (seriously the greatest addition to nog ever—add a shot to your next glass, you won’t be sorry) and an entire block of vanilla ice cream.
When moved to Switzerland a decade ago I was glad to have her recipe (there’s no nog here) and I’ve made my own version of it (less ice cream, more crème de menthe) over the years.
‘Tis the season, Marge. (Want to make your very own Simpsons GIFs? There’s Frinkiac for that.)
It’s not really a punch bowl kind of year, so I decided I would make a nog-adjacent, custardy drink where the booze was already included in the bottle—Eierlikör.
This creamy drink is popular in the German speaking world and can be whipped up, bottled and kept in the fridge for a couple of weeks. It’s excellent in coffee, over ice cream or Christmas pudding, or just on its own.
And it isn’t always a Christmassy drink—my mother-in-law remembers drinking cold Eierkirsch (the specifically Swiss version with kirsch as the boozy part) it in the hot summer when her farm family did the Heuen, harvesting the hay for the winter.
4 egg yolks
80 g condensed milk
150 ml milk
1 tbsp vanilla paste (or the seeds of one vanilla pod)
150-200 ml booze (rum, kirsch)
Whisk together the yolks, condensed milk, milk and vanilla in a large bowl.
Place the bowl over a pot of simmering water on medium low heat (the bottom of the bowl should not touch the water), and cook, whisking, until it has thickened and is hot to the touch. This should be a temperature of 70 C (160 F). Be patient, depending on the heat this can take a while (just don’t let it get too hot or the eggs will scramble).
Whisk in the booze.
Funnel it into a bottle and store in the fridge.
In Switzerland, sweetened condensed milk is sold in convenient tubes. (The terms condensed milk and sweetened condensed milk are used interchangeably, and both refer to milk with water removed and sugar added—not to be confused with evaporated milk which has no added sugar.)
The kind of alcohol is up to you—you can use rum, kirsch, or even vodka.
The amount of alcohol is also up to you. 200 ml makes a strong Eieirlikör, or take it down to 150 ml for a less boozy drink. The best way to do this is to add the booze in stages, while having a little nip to test it out.
Now a noggy cake?
Tannenzapfen Torte
