Eggnog is something that has grown on me. It wasn't until one year, when one of my best friends' uncles made homemade eggnog from scratch, that I bothered to taste it. I hated eggnog, after trying a thick and gooey, non-alcoholic version of it when I was a kid.I tell you, I really hated it! It was cold and thick, yukky, and laden with gross spices. Old people are crazy, I used to think.
But my friends' uncles homemade recipe was exactly the opposite; a thinner consistency and not as spicy. Spiked with brandy, his uncles eggnog wasn't only good - it was downright delicious. After umpteen years of hating the taste of eggnog, I couldn't believe I was drinking it. Needless to say, eggnog has grown on me.
I'm weird. I wasn't a cheesecake fan right away, either. I grew up being such a chocolate snob, that it was years before I'd try any dessert that wasn't cocoa-based. Lord knows, I would never eat any kind of pie. Then finally, my affinity for different kinds of sweets grew a bit. I re-tasted cheesecake and quite naturally, I fell in love with chocolate cheesecake, first. Then, plain.
A little history of eggnog recipes: It has been said for years that eggnog was originally a 17th-century punch made in England. It's ingredients of eggs, milk and ale or wine was given a new twist when they added rum (grog) by American colonists.
Over time, the recipe was called egg grog. Today, people call it eggnog and there are many people that add brandy to it, instead of rum.
Cheesecake on the other hand, has been around much longer than eggnog. Small cheesecakes were served to athletes during the first Olympic games held in 776 B.C. on the Isle of Delos.
The author of Cheesecake Madness, John J. Sergreto, found that the basic recipe and ingredients for the first cheesecake were recorded in about 230 A.D., by Athenaeus, a Greek writer.
Take cheese and pound it till smooth and pasty; put cheese in a brazen sieve; add honey and spring wheat flour. Heat in one mass, cool, and serve.
A mid 16th century cookbook, A Proper newe Booke of Cokerye, written around 1545 - included some accounts of domestic life, cookery of a recipe for cheesecake, and feasts in Tudor days. Cheesecake were introduced to Great Britain and western Europe by the Roman conquering armies. By 1000 A.D., they were flourishing throughout northwestern Europe, Scandinavia, and England.
To make a tarte of Chese - Take harde Chese and cutte it in slyces, and pare it, than laye it in fayre water, or in swete mylke, the space of three houres, then take it up and breake it in a morter tyll it be small, than drawe it up thorowe a strainer with the yolkes of syxe egges, and season it wyth suger and swete butter, and so bake it.
I predict that food items will make it onto the top 10 holiday gifts list. People are cutting back - because of the recession, and food items like this holiday eggnog cheesecake, will be one of the top holiday gifts of 2009. Some food recipes will even be considered to be unusual holiday gifts.
If you've wondered how to make eggnog, bookmark this page. And don't forget to add this delicious recipe (for the holiday eggnog cheesecake recipe, see below) to your list of holiday recipes, too. Because this gourmet eggnog cheesecake recipe is the best eggnog cheesecake recipe around.
Think about this... Use this eggnog cheesecake recipe as the base for eggnog cheesecake ice cream. Make this, and everybody lookout! Talk about a big hit!
This is the eggnog cheesecake receipe of all holiday cheesecake recipes. Because even Martha Stewart cheesecake (and the Cheesecake Factory) won't have nuthin' on you and your delicious homemade eggnog cheesecake!
Need a recipe for eggnog?
For those of you who wish to make this entire recipe from scratch that have wondered - "How do you make eggnog?" or "What kind of liquor do you put in eggnog?", when you click on the eggnog link listed in the Holiday Eggnog Cheesecake recipe below, you'll find videos featuring alcoholic eggnog punch recipes - showing you a how to make homemade eggnog recipe (including another holiday eggnog drink, a non alcoholic eggnog recipe).
You can play around with the ingredients for Christmas eggnog and make your holiday eggnog with liquor in it (a spiked eggnog recipe rum or brandy-based, in case you were wondering what alcohol goes in eggnog), if you'd like. Because there are so many different variations of eggnog, there's no right or wrong when it comes to your ingredients for eggnog.
If your question is, "What alcohol do you mix with eggnog?" ... Have fun with it! Use an easy eggnog recipe (an uncooked recipe) or use a more difficult recipe (a cooked recipe). If you're comfortable to do so, play around with your recipe.
If you're one of the many Cater-Hater followers, you know me... So you know that I have a penchant for different types of trifle. Here's a bonus recipe for you: Eggnog tiramisu trifle.
For a mouth-watering eggnog cake recipe, make this delicious holiday eggnog cheesecake for the holidays - your guests will love it! And make truly decadent eggnog cheesecake with pecan rum sauce. It's known as one of the easy cheesecake recipes so it's a pretty simple cheesecake recipe to make. Here you go...
Holiday Eggnog Cheesecake
(Printable Recipe)
Serves 12
2 and 1/2 cups graham cracker crumbs
1 and 1/2 cups sugar
2/3 cup melted butter
4 large eggs
1/8 tsp. salt
1 and 1/2 tbsp. lemon juice
1 and 1/2 tsp. grated lemon rind
1 cup Alta Dena Holiday Eggnog (available at Whole Foods); substitute a similar product
1 and 1/2 pounds Knudson cottage cheese
4 tbsp. flour 1/4 cup chopped walnuts
1.) Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
2.) Combine graham cracker crumbs, 1/2 cup sugar and melted butter. Reserve 3/4 cup of mixture and press the remaining amount into a 9-inch springform pan.
3.) Beat eggs with the remaining sugar until light; add salt, lemon juice. rind eggnog, cottage cheese and flour. Beat thoroughly and strain through a sieve.
4.) Pour into graham cracker crust; sprinkle with remaining crumbs and nuts.
5.) Bake for about 1 hour (until center is firm), turn off heat, open oven door and let stand in oven until cool.
Unique holiday gifts like homemade cookies, pies, and cheesecake mean more to people than you might think they do. You never know who really is successful these days, and who's "faking it til they make it". Being wrong can translate to: "I'm not going to give homemade baked goods as Christmas gifts - most of the people that I know would want something better than that". El Wrongo Mundo! Just because you think something is what you think it is, doesn't make it so.
Cater-Hater Tip: Don't believe the hype! Unless your friends and family members are a part of the 1% of uber-wealthy society in this country, whether they care to admit it or not - it's likely that they're struggling financially (on one level or another) just like everyone else that makes up the rest of the 99% of America.
There was a businesswoman (self employed, who works with her husband in a business that interfaces with PR firms) who offered to help me with my business. Unfortunately, her offer ended up being idle words. The saddest part was, she didn't have the courage to tell me. When I finally asked her about being lead on, it was turned around on me by saying, "You aren't the only one that needs help". As if! I didn't speak about getting help, it was offered and not given.
Oh well. Such is life. You live and learn what people are about. Anyway, most of us believe that if we don't take the bull by the horns and "do it ourselves", it won't get done. Right?
Anyway, I get it now. I'm a giver and I can admit, I don't do business that way. So I didn't get it at first. Until... a reliable source told me, "Their "image of success" is just that, an image of success. They really couldn't help you."
No judgment, no worries. I'll have to remember to make an extra holiday eggnog cheesecake or two this year; to thank them for offering (to help me), anyway.
Remember to be giving. Put the love in your heart into baking a few extra holiday eggnog cheesecakes and give them away, too. Great as holiday gift ideas for women, men, and neighbors - make Holiday Eggnog Cheesecake a holiday staple in your personal holiday gift guide. Take them to work - give them as holiday gifts for coworkers.
Cheers and happy holidays to you and yours! Thanks for stopping by to read Cater-Hater.
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Holiday Hot Buttered Rum
Chocolate Soup
Holiday Clementine Trifle
Cheese, Cheesecake, Christmas, Cook, Cottage cheese, Eggnog, England, Home, Great Britain, Cooking, Baking and Confections, Colonial history of the United States, Beverages, Baking, Flour, Cheesecake Factory, Martha Stewart, Cake, Food: Technorati Tags
