The holidays are here and my family (and I) LOVE eggnog. However, dairy is something that none of us can have due to sensitivities. So this year, I decided to make an almond milk eggnog. You can make this with commercial eggnog, but I decided to make everything from scratch, just because it’s better to not have any additives. My favorite brand of almond milk is Califia, however, they don’t offer it in my town all the time so I made my almond milk from scratch (which is pretty simple to make).
So here is the recipe if you decide to make it from scratch:
Almond Milk:
2 cups almonds soaked in 4 cups water
Pure vanilla extract (with no gluten)
3 Tbsp. Raw dark organic agave syrup
Cheese cloth (or strainer)
Remember that when you soak the almonds, you can go on with your day. I left them soaking in the morning and ran tons of errands and then got home to make the almond milk.
Use a powerful blender and blend the almonds on high speed for a good 4 minutes. Add more water if necessary until desired consistency. We like our almond milk a bit thicker.
Once the almonds are completely blended, strain using a cheese cloth. If you’re using a strainer (like I did), you may want to strain it twice just to make sure that there are no tiny almond particles and just the liquid is left in the milk. Oh yeah, and the job is a bit messy!
Note: if you’re like me and don’t want to waste the almond “pulp” left, you can put it in a pyrex and bake at 250 degrees for about an hour and a half, until most of the liquid is absorbed. I use it for baking instead of flour and will post a recipe with that shortly.
Okay so let’s move on to the eggnog.
You will need:
4 egg yolks
2 1/2 cups almond milk
1/4 cup of raw dark, organic agave
1 tsp vanilla
1 1/2 tsp rum extract
1 tsp pure almond extract
1 tsp ground nutmeg
A pinch of allspice
A dash of ground cinnamon
Set the egg yolks in a separate bowl. In a small saucepan, at medium heat, combine the almond milk, vanilla, rum extract, almond extract, allspice and ground nutmeg. Heat until close to boiling and then reduce heat to low. Whisk the egg yolks and add 1/4 cup almond milk very slowly, continue to whisk until completely mixed. Add more of the almond milk slowly and continue to whisk until about 1 cup of the almond milk has been added to the egg yolks. Add the mixture with the egg yolks to the sauce pan, increase heat to medium and whisk for 4 to 5 minutes. I strained the egg yolk/almond milk mixture once again. And then added the agave syrup.. you can add more agave if you feel that it’s not sweet enough. We don’t consume much sugar so this was perfect for us.
So… I LOVE my Mason canning jars and this is what i used to store my eggnog. I got 2 large jars just because for us, well… we like our almond milk and eggnog a bit thick. However, you can add more water if you wish. Just so you know, almond milk prepared at home will last about 3 days. I won’t lie, it’s a bit involved but it TRULY doesn’t take me much time between soaking the almonds, blending and straining. Pretty easy. I’m sure you can use a similar approach for cashew nut milk too!