Boozy Eggnog Ice Cream

Happy New Year! I started off mine by ripping off the name of this recipe from ice cream goddess, Jeni Britton Bauer of Jeni's Splendid Ice Creams. I recently sent some of Jeni's ice cream to my sister and picked this flavor as one of the seasonal options. But since my sister lives about 1,300 miles away, I couldn't actually taste it. And listening to her sample it over the phone wasn't all that satisfying (at least not for me, I'm sure it was very gratifying for her). So after fantasizing about it for two days, it became clear to me that I had to haul out the old ice cream maker and fire it up. That was one of the last (and best) decisions I made in 2011.

BOOZY EGGNOG ICE CREAM

Makes about 1 1/2 quarts

1 cup whole milk

1/4 teaspoon salt

7 large egg yolks

3/4 cup sugar

2 cups chilled heavy cream

3 tablespoons dark rum or bourbon

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1/4 teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg, plus more for garnish

1.       Bring milk and salt to a boil in a 2- to 3-quart heavy saucepan over moderate heat. Remove from heat.

2.       Whisk together yolks and sugar in a bowl, then gradually add 1/4 cup hot milk, whisking. Add yolk mixture to milk remaining in pan in a slow stream, whisking, and cook over low heat, stirring constantly with a wooden spoon, until mixture is slightly thickened, coats back of spoon, and registers 175° F. on thermometer, 3 to 5 minutes. Immediately pour through a fine-mesh sieve set into a clean bowl and stir in cream, rum, vanilla, cinnamon and nutmeg.

3.       Chill custard, covered, until cold, at least 2 hours.

4.       Freeze in ice cream maker, then transfer to an airtight container and put in freezer to harden for at least 2 hours. Soften slightly in refrigerator before serving, about 20 minutes. Custard can be chilled up to 1 day. Ice cream can be made 1 week ahead.

barely adapted from Gourmet, December 2005

egg yolks

egg yolks and sugar, with some hot milk tempered in

yolks, sugar and milk in the pot

straining

strained

putting the cream in ice cream

putting the booze in boozy (or perhaps the nog in eggnog?)

I used dark rum.

adding homemade vanilla (full of luscious vanilla beans)

grating nutmeg (looks like saw dust)

cinnamon and nutmeg added

eggnog custard

custard in ice cream machine, ready to start churning
(It looks much lighter at the crack of dawn.)

boozy eggnog ice cream

Because of the booze, it gets all melty a little
faster than other ice creams (I love that).

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