Christmas Egg Nog

I've always known that egg nog was made with eggs (duh!), but what I never really realized is that it's made with raw eggs.  It kind of grossed me out at first and there were also thoughts of Salmonella.  Luckily, our food hero and know-it-all Alton Brown has a solution for the fear of the disease-filled egg.  He actually states that the chance of getting salmonella from a contaminated egg is about 2 in a million.  And for that to happen, a lot of eggs must be consumed, the eggs must be older than a week, and have been sitting out at room temperature for at least a few hours.  If it still worries you to use raw eggs, you can always get them pasteurized and you'll be completely salmonella free.  

This year was the first time that I've ever made or had homemade egg nog, and oh my goodness it is so much better than the store-bought variety.  It's so delicious  and creamy.  

Christmas Egg Nog

from Alton Brown

4 egg yolks

1/3 cup sugar, + 1 Tbsp

1 pint whole milk

1 cup heavy cream

3 ounces bourbon

1 tsp nutmeg

4 egg whites

Beat the egg yolks until they lighten in color.  Gradually add in the 1/3 cup sugar while mixing until completely dissolved.  Add in the milk, bourbon, cream and nutmeg.  Stir to combine.

Beat the egg whites in a different bowl until soft peaks form.  Gradually add the 1 Tbsp sugar while mixing, and continue to mix until stiff peaks form.

Whisk the egg whites into the yolk/milk mixture.  Chill and serve.  

Alton also makes a cooked version, for those who are raw egg timid: HERE

Pumpkin Spice Muffins with Cream Cheese Filling and Pumpkin Spice Latte Syrup

These. muffins. are. amazing.  Pumpkin spice muffins with cream cheese filling is a fairly common fall dessert, but I had never made nor ever tried one myself.  A friend shared a basic pumpkin muffin recipe with me, and the muffins alone would be delightful.  But because I can't just make a recipe for what it is (I may need to work on that), I had to add a few things.  I filled them with a sweet cream cheese center, and also added a streusel topping.  I took them to church on Sunday and they hardly lasted 10 minutes.  They're perfectly spiced, extremely moist, mildly crunchy on top, with a delicious surprise in the middle.

I also did a remake of my pumpkin spice latte.  The first time I made it, the recipe was for just one drink, and it worked better for that cup of coffee to be hot.  Well this time, I just made pumpkin spice syrup to make the drink with, that way I could always have it on hand, to easily add to an iced or hot coffee drink, and it would make a lot more than just one cup.  I also think it tastes a little better than my original recipe.

Pumpkin Spice Muffins

adapted from my friend Jim's recipe

for the muffins:

4 eggs

2 cups sugar (original recipe is 3 cups, but since I added the filling, I took it down some)

1 cup oil

2/3 cup water

2 cups pumpkin puree

3 1/2 cups flour

2 tsp baking soda

1 tsp salt

1 tsp cinnamon

1 tsp nutmeg

1 tsp cloves

1 tbsp + 1 tsp pumpkin pie spice

for the filling:

1 pkg cream cheese (8 oz)

1 cup powdered sugar

for the streusel topping:
1/2 cup brown sugar
5 tbsp flour
1 1/2 tsp cinnamon
4 tbsp cold butter, cut into small pieces


for filling:  Mix together the cream cheese and powdered sugar.  Transfer the mixture to a piece of plastic wrap, and shape into a log.  Smooth the plastic wrap around the log tightly, and then wrap again with a piece of aluminum foil.  Freeze for about 2 hours or so, until it's slightly firm.

for muffins:  Preheat oven to 350.  Whish together flour, cinnamon, nutmeg, cloves, pumpkin pie spice, salt, and baking soda.  In another bowl, mix eggs, sugar, pumpkin and oil.  Mix until blended smooth.  Gradually add in dry ingredients, and mix until incorporated.

for the topping:  combine brown sugar, flour and cinnamon.  Add in the butter pieces and cut them in with a pastry blender or  2 forks until it is course and crumbly.  Chill it in the fridge until ready to use.

to assemble muffins:  line muffin pan with paper liners.  Fill each liner with 1-2 tbsp of batter.  Slice the log of cream cheese into 24 equal pieces.  Place a slice of the log onto each muffin batter.  Divide the remaining batter among the muffin cups, placing on top of the cream cheese, being sure to cover it completely.  Sprinkle some of the topping over each muffin.
Bake for 20-25 minutes.

Pumpkin Spice Syrup
from Food+Words

3/4 cup sugar
3/4 cup water
3 whole cinnamon sticks
1/2 tsp cinnamon 
7 whole cloves
7 whole allspice
1/2 tsp nutmeg
1/2 tsp ginger
2 tbsp pumpkin
1 tsp vanilla


combine all ingredients in a saucepan over medium heat.  allow mixture to come to a boil, while stirring occasionally.  Simmer on low for 10 minutes, while stirring occasionally.   Remove from heat and allow to cool completely to room temperature.  When syrup is cooled, pour through a mesh sieve.  Store in the fridge, up to 2 months.

Raspberry Lemonade

Raspberry Lemonade.  Totally my favorite kind of lemonade.  Not the cheap-o minute maid stuff called "pink lemonade", but the actual, freshly squeezed, made with real fruit raspberry lemonade.  I get really excited when I see that certain restaurants sell it.  I have not found the same case to be true of grocery stores though, except for maybe SimplyLemonade's version of pink lemonade.  That stuff is pretty good.  It's just missing the little pieces of lemon pulp and raspberry seeds that didn't get caught by the sieve.

I decided to give a homemade version of this a try, since it didn't seem like it would be very difficult.  It was not.  It was actually very fun and very delicious.  I like my lemonade pretty tart, so I used a few more lemons than average.  

You need to make this.  Drink it on a bright sunny day while working on your garden.  That's what I did and it was delightful.  

Raspberry Lemonade

10 whole lemons (depending on how tart you like your lemonade, I think I used about 12)

2 pints of fresh raspberries

1 1/2 cup sugar (more or less to taste)

6 cups water

Slice all the lemons in half.  Put the lemon halves and raspberries in a very large pot or bowl (Pot with a flat bottom works best).  Mash down the lemon halves and raspberries with a large spoon or spatula, extracting as much juices from the fruits as you can.  This takes some work, but it's fun and totally worth it!  Do it for about 10 minutes or so, until the fruit looks like it cannot take anymore.  Stir in the water.  Pour through a sieve into a large bowl/pitcher.  Give the fruit a few last good pounds and pushes to get out some more juice.  Discard (or eat what you can) the solids.  Add the sugar to taste and serve over ice!  

Pumpking Spice Latte and Cinnamon Swirl Bread

Everyone in my house decided to take a nap today.

I don't like to take naps.  So what do I do while all my housemates are fast asleep?  I make bread.  Not just any old loaf of bread, I made cinnamon bread.  And man oh man.  This. Bread. Is. Amazing.  Do those periods in there emphasize the importance of this tasty bread enough?  Probably not.  You need to make this bread ASAP.  It's just that good.  I just made it last night and the whole loaf is almost gone.  Oops!  

It always amazes me how a little packet of yeast and some flour can turn into a pretty loaf like that.  It does take quite a lot of massaging, coaxing, and rest though.  Anyhow, I am always impressed.

After mixing it all up, kneading the thing and letting it rise, I rolled it out, slathered it in butter, and sprinkled it with cinnamon and sugar.

Then rolled it up into a cute little log of sugary goodness.

and let it rise some more.

It's ready to bake!

It's done!  The aroma that fills the house while this is baking is utterly delightful.  It smells like you have a dozen cinnamon flavored candles lit throughout.  So yummy.  I have low expectations for myself when it comes to bread, because I have baked so very little of it, but the result of this bread completely blew those expectation out the window.

It started raining and got really cold while baking this bread.  This means to get your favorite hoodie, put on some Mumford and Sons, light some candles and grab your book.  This is what I did while waiting for the bread to rise, and it was awesome.  Do you know of Mumford and Sons?  Well you should.  They're amazing.  They're an English folk rock band.  They're awesome!  Their music gives you that nostalgic, I-feel-so-good-right-now-nothing-can-put-me-in-a-bad-mood kinda feeling.  

To go with this lovely bread, I made my own rendition of the popular "Pumpkin Spice Latte" from a certain well-known coffee corporation.  It's delicious.  I have not really mastered the art of making really good coffee at home, but this one, this one is good.  On to the recipes...the part you probably actually only care about!

Cinnamon Bread

From ThePioneerWoman

1 cup milk

6 Tbsp butter

2 1/2 tsp active dry yeast (one little package)

2 whole eggs

2/3 cup sugar, separated into 1/3s

3 1/2 cups flour

1 tsp salt

2 Tbsp cinnamon

egg and milk, mixed together for brushing

softened butter for smearing and greasing

melt butter and milk.  Heat until warm, but not too hot to touch.  No boiling. Sprinkle yeast over top and stir gently.  Let it sit for 10 mins.

Combine flour and salt.

Mix together sugar (1/3 cup) and eggs.  Pour in the butter/milk/yeast stuff and stir to combine.   Add half of the flour/salt mixture and beat on medium until well combined.  Add the other half of the flour mixture and combine.

Now knead the dough for about 10 mins (or, if you have a stand mixer with a dough hook attachment, just use that.  It's on my Christmas list!)  Dough should be sticky but not too sticky so that it cannot be kneaded.

Oil a metal bowl, put the dough in it, cover it with plastic wrap and find a nice warm spot for it to sit for a few hours (about 2 hrs).     

Roll the dough out into a long rectangle, but make sure that it is not wider than your loaf pan.  Smear with 2 Tbsp softened butter.  Mix together the remaining 1/3 cup sugar, and cinnamon.  sprinkle evenly over the bread.  Roll the bread up into a tight roll, starting with the short side of the rectangle, and roll towards you.  Pinch seam to seal.  

Grease loaf pan with softened butter.  Place dough roll, seam side down, into loaf pan.  Cover with plastic wrap and let rise for another 2 hours.  

Preheat oven to 350.  mix egg and milk together, and brush over risen dough loaf.  Bake for 40 mins with the oven rack in the middle/lower oven.  

and to fulfill the many requests...  (if you have "pumpkin pie spice", you can just use a few dashes of that.  I did not have any, so I improvised and used the normal spices that are found in it).

Pumpkin Spice Latte

1 cup milk

1 1/2 cups strong brewed coffee

1dashes cinnamon

1 dash nutmeg

1 dash ground cloves

1 dash ground ginger

1 tsp vanilla extract

1 tbsp sugar 

2 tbsp pumpkin puree

Brew double strength coffee.  Steam the milk, pumpkin and sugar (I put it in the microwave for about a minute, until its frothy).  Add spices the spices and vanilla to the milk, and whisk together until well combined.  Add coffee, and stir.  

It's delicious!  and not $4.00 for a little cup!