Eggless Nog
A vegan-friendly, allergy-friendly alternative to cooked eggnog.
Servings: 12
Calories: 140kcal
Equipment
- 1 Bottle (at least 750ml)
Ingredients
- 2 cup Non-dairy milk (neutral flavor preferred)
- 1 cup Country Crock Plant Cream
- pinch Salt (table salt)
- ½ tsp Nutmeg (ground)
- 150 g Sugar (plain white, fine ground)
- 1 tbsp Corn starch
- ¼ cup JUST Egg
- 150 ml Aquafaba (liquid from one 15oz can of low-sodium garbanzo beans)
- ¼-½ tsp Vanilla extract (to taste)
Instructions
- Prepare aquafaba (unless you already have some sitting around) by slightly opening a can of garbanzo beans and pouring the liquid into some other container, preferably through a strainer.(You can save the beans in a zipper bag in the fridge for some other use. Hummus, salad, chili…)
- Add non-dairy milk (2 cups), plant cream (1 cup), and a pinch of salt to a saucepan (at least 1.5 Qt). Also add the nutmeg (½ tsp) either here or in the “egg” bowl (see next step), as long as it goes somewhere.
- Add sugar (150g) and corn starch (1 Tbsp) to a mixing bowl, or the bowl of a stand mixer (at least 1.5 Qt). Whisk briefly to combine, just to keep the corn starch from clumping when the liquid gets added later.
- Begin heating the “milk” mixture in the saucepan on medium-high. (On my stove, it’s a 7 on a scale of 1-9 plus “LO” & “HI”.) Stir frequently to make sure it does not overcook and start sticking to the bottom of the pan. DO NOT BOIL!
- While the “milk” mixture is cooking, add aquafaba (150ml) and JUST Egg (¼ cup) to the mixing bowl. Whisk vigorously to combine and get rid of any clumps.(Don’t forget to keep an eye on the “milk” mixture, which should still be heating and being stirred occasionally.)
- Here’s the tricky part. Once the “milk” mixture is generating a decent amount of steam, remove from heat. Gradually pour or ladle it into the mixing bowl where the “egg” mixture is, while whisking the contents of the bowl vigorously. The objective is to gradually introduce the warm milk to the “egg” mixture without accidentally “cooking” it, which would result in a curdled, lumpy texture. (Remember, JUST Egg behaves almost identically to scrambled eggs, by design.) By introducing the hot milk gradually and keeping everything moving so no part of it gets hit with all the heat at once, you prevent that from happening. (You may also occasionally need to stir the “milk” mixture again to make sure that doesn’t overcook either, since the saucepan will still be hot.)
- Once all that’s done, put the saucepan back on the heat (same heat level as before) and pour the whole tempered mixture from the mixing bowl into the saucepan.
- Whisk and/or stir as continuously as you can until the mixture reaches a heat of roughly 160° F, or until it is steaming and/or foaming significantly. (If you choose to whisk it, that alone will probably generate plenty of foam, so a thermometer is the best way to be sure.) I recommend a combination of whisking and using a spoon or spatula to dig down and scrape the “corners” of the saucepan to make sure no mixture is sitting down there, overcooking.
- Remove from heat. Add vanilla extract and stir to combine.
- Taste a small spoonful of the mixture. It should taste pretty good right away, although the texture and flavors will fully develop after chilling. If it seems under-flavored, add another pinch of salt. (Sometimes I find that it doesn’t taste sweet enough at first, but adding salt actually enhances the sweetness. And the vanilla obviously does as well.)
- Allow the mixture to cool, either in the pan or in another container that you know is able to withstand the heat. You will still want to stir it occasionally to make absolutely sure it doesn’t start “cooking” itself again.
- Once the mixture is sufficiently cool to the point that you know you won’t have to stir it anymore, pour it into a bottle.
- Refrigerate and enjoy!
Notes
Some notes on the ingredients:
- Non-Dairy milk -
Try to pick the most neutral flavor you can. Almond milk works great. Oat milk should work well too, though I haven’t tried that as much. It does not have to be “extra creamy” or anything like that – in fact I’ve used ones that are far thinner than I’d like and it still turned out great – but you can certainly go for the extra if you want! - Country Crock Plant Cream -
Until another brand copies them, I’m afraid there’s no substitute for this ingredient. Hopefully you can find it; it’s still pretty new. - JUST Egg -
This could be another hard ingredient to find, unfortunately, but it’s pretty essential. Also, I sometimes go a little over ¼ cup, but ½ is probably too much. - Aquafaba -
The liquid from one 15oz can of garbanzo beans (AKA chickpeas). Make sure the beans are “low sodium” if possible; if you can’t find that, be very careful about the salt in the rest of the recipe. - Vanilla extract -
I personally love vanilla, so I don’t even mind going past ½ tsp here, but do it to taste. This is in the very last step, so you can adjust it as needed. I do think some vanilla is needed here to really make it all come together.
- I usually whisk by hand because it's kinda fun, but a stand mixer is definitely not a bad idea. (It would've made it easier to get pictures too!)
- You'll probably want to bottle this. A 750ml swing-top bottle is a nice option. You'll also need a funnel, of course. Also, don't be too proud to strain the mixture one last time as you're pouring it in. Even in the best circumstances, you could end up with a few parts that got cooked too much. Straining it will give you the best chance at covering up any mistakes.