Eggnog Ice Cream Recipe

Is the annual return of eggnog to store shelves one of your favorite things about the holiday season? Or are you, instead, one of the many people who'd rather take a pass on this divisive holiday drink? If you don't really care for eggnog, there's a good chance this has to do with the texture, something that could best be described as "unctuous." If you gave up on working your way through the vocabulary word-a-day calendar you got as a gift last Christmas, Collins Dictionary explains that with regards to food, unctuous can mean something is creamy to the point of feeling oily or greasy. Even if you're not a fan of eggnog's slipperiness though, you may be pleasantly surprised by this decidedly non-slippery eggnog-flavored ice cream.

Recipe developer Susan Olayinka has created a simple no-churn ice cream that has all of the delicious eggnog flavor with none of its dubious texture. Even better, this dessert contains no eggs whatsoever. This means you can enjoy it free from the not-so-festive threat of food-borne illness.

To make this ice cream, you'll only need five ingredients. The main one is heavy or whipping cream. Instead of sugar, you'll be sweetening the ice cream with sweetened condensed milk, another element that helps to give it richness. Additional flavoring comes from nutmeg, cinnamon, and vanilla extract.

So does the lack of eggs in this ice cream make it taste, well, un-eggnog-like? Not at all, says Olayinka. As she explains, "the creaminess of the heavy cream comes in," compensating for the lack of egg.

The first step in making this ice cream involves whipping the cream. Olayinka says to add both of the spices and the vanilla extract to the heavy cream and then whip it using an electric mixer for about 4 minutes. At this point, the whipping cream should start to form soft peaks. Once the cream is whipped you can use a rubber spatula to fold in the condensed milk. Gently does it — that way you won't over-stir and deflate the whipped cream.

Scoop the ice cream mixture into a loaf pan. Olayinka is British, and the pan she uses measures 22 centimeters by 12 centimeters. If you're cooking in the U.S., a standard 9x5-inch loaf pan should work. Cover the pan with foil and stick it in the freezer to sit undisturbed for 12 hours. Even though this ice cream isn't churned nor even stirred, Olayinka assures us that "the texture is the same" as that of standard ice cream. She does advise though, that "you just have to let it thaw out slightly," before scooping.

You may prefer to eat this ice cream in a cone or a cup, but Olayinka says it makes a great à la mode scoop as well. "I'm not sure if you have mince pies in the USA," she says, but she feels that "this would go wonderfully with [those]! If not, any regular cake or crumble would do!"

While Olayinka herself hasn't attempted to make a booze-flavored version of this ice cream, it should be possible to do so by swapping out the vanilla extract for rum extract. You could also have your eggnog ice cream and drink it, too, by using it as the basis for a delicious eggnog shake. "If I were turning it into a milkshake, I would [use] three scoops of the ice cream and 1 cup of whole milk. Add some whipped cream on top, and some chocolate sauce, too," Olayinka says.