Kris & Caroline: Merry Christmas and happy holidays to everyone from Ambersandwich! Christmas is a great time to get together with friends and family and drink a good beer (or two, or three, or….). We hope you all had a wonderful holiday!
Caroline: Tis the Season!! Kris and I made homemade eggnog a few days before Christmas. I guess the idea of a milky egg drink with alcohol in it would sound unappealing to some, but for me it’s DELICIOUS and it wouldn’t be Christmas without it! As you can imagine, we found a way to incorporate beer into our recipe!
This recipe makes about 2 X 650 ml bottles (this may vary depending on how much yours reduces and thickens). We used sterilized passata jars. They make great Christmas presents (or keep them all for yourself!)
We used Brewdog Rip Tide stout in our recipe along with a healthy serving of Elijah Craig Bourbon.
Kris: The Brew Dog Riptide is an 8% Imperial Stout. It has rich chocolate and coffee flavours. It also has subtle bitterness and is well balanced with the higher alcohol. It’s a great addition to our egg nog recipe.
Ingredients
8 egg yolks
1 cup sugar
2 cups milk
5 whole cloves
2 cinnamon sticks
4-5 slices of ginger
1/2 cups cream
1 tsp grated nutmeg
2 tsp vanilla extract
120 ml of bourbon (and/or rum or brandy)
200 ml Brewdog Rip Tide
Method
Beat egg yolks until they become lighter in color, slowly adding the sugar as you beat.
In a pan combine the cream, milk, beer, cloves, cinnamon and slowly heat on medium until the mixture is steamy hot, but not boiling.
Gradually add half of the milk mixture into the eggs/sugar, whisking constantly as you add. Then, pour it all back into the saucepan with the rest of the warm milk mixture.
Cook on low/medium heat, stirring constantly until the mixture begins to thicken, and coats the back of a wooden spoon.(Approx. 10-15 minutes)
You want the consistency of a thin anglaise and remember that it will thicken even more as it cools.
(as you stir MAKE SURE the mixture doesn’t boil and cook the eggs or curdle the milk!)
*If the eggs start to cook or milk splits DON’T PANIC. Remove from heat immediately and pour through a fine strainer, this will remove the lumps and the nog should be fine*
Remove from heat. Strain the mixture through a mesh strainer to remove the cloves, ginger etc. Let cool.
Mix in vanilla, nutmeg, and bourbon. Chill and DRINK!
HAPPY HOLIDAYS!!!
Kris : The dark, strong Belgian style beers were a great match for a classic Christmas Pudding. Fresh raspberries worked well with the Mikkeller Red/White Ale and the Sierra Nevada Celebration Ale.
Caroline: Christmas lunch in Australia is still such a surreal thing for me! It’s so crazy that it is warm outside and we’re eating salad and seafood. I quickly got into the swing of things however, and enjoyed some beers in a hammock and fresh raspberries and pavlova! At least we had these winter beers and pudding to make it feel a bit like the winter Christmas I’m used to. My favorite was the St. Bernadus Belgian Abbey Ale. It was smooth and spicy and tasted like Christmas to me. Hints of nutmeg and brown sugar, a perfect match for Christmas pudding. MERRY CHRISTMAS (belated)