If you love eggnog, you’ll love this holiday-flavored dessert! Made with eggnog, tapioca, warm spices, and a hint of vanilla – whip up a batch for your next holiday gathering!

We love eggnog in our house. So we eagerly await its arrival in the grocery stores this time of year. You might even call me an “eggnog snob.” I don’t just purchase any brand of eggnog, but I scrutinize the ingredients very carefully. I want “real” eggnog without high fructose corn syrup, artificial thickeners, and flavors. Sometimes that means leaving the store without buying any because so many of them are just full of bad things. I know you can always make homemade eggnog, and it’s definitely something on my list to try, but I buy it for now. I have my favorite brands, but stores tend to change the brands they carry every year. But this year, when I saw eggnog in the dairy section AND the brand I like, I literally gave a little squeal and high-fived my 12-year-old! I have had this particular recipe rolling around in my head for a couple of months. So I was excited to finally be able to give it a try!

I had to go through several attempts to get this right. The biggest challenge being the thickness of the pudding. With my first attempt, the flavor was amazing, and I got rave reviews from my family, but it was way too thick…Eggnog has a lot of egg in it, so when you cook it, it thickens up…a lot. So I had to play around with the ratio of eggnog to milk. Too much milk and you dilute the eggnog flavor and end up with runny tapioca. Too much eggnog, and it’s too thick. My fourth attempt, I think, is the winner!

Tapioca:

There are several ways to buy tapioca – granules, small pearls, and large pearls. Granules are an instant, quick-cooking form of tapioca that will, basically, cook up quicker, but because they are granules, you will have less texture in your pudding. The next is small and large pearls, which the only difference being the size. They both require soaking ahead of time. I soak the small pearls for 2-3 hours, and the large pearls need to be soaked overnight. My favorite is the small pearl because you get such a nice texture without having to remember to soak them overnight. I usually cannot remember to start a dessert a day in advance, so I write my recipes using the small pearls, but you can use any tapioca types. You skip the soaking step for the granules altogether, and with the large pearls, you soak the pearls overnight.

 

For this Recipe:

• In a small bowl, soak 1 cup of small tapioca pearls in 2 ½ cups of milk. Stir, and place in the refrigerator for 3 hours. This is an important step, as it helps soften your tapioca and shortens the cooking time.
• After letting the tapioca soak, pour the tapioca and milk into a medium saucepan. Add to the tapioca mixture: 1 ½ cups eggnog, ¼ cup sugar, salt, cinnamon, and nutmeg. Heat on medium heat, stirring frequently to keep milk from scalding. Once the tapioca mixture has almost reached a boil (do not boil), turn down the heat slightly, just to maintain a low simmer. Simmer for 10 to 15 minutes, stirring constantly to keep the milk from scalding. The tapioca should thicken a lot during this step.
• Carefully taste-test the tapioca to be sure pearls are soft and no longer chewy. If you need to cook it longer, cook for an additional 5 minutes and check again, repeating until done. If your tapioca takes longer than 20 minutes, turn the heat up a little, and continue stirring.
• When the tapioca is done, remove it from heat. Stir in 1 teaspoon of vanilla, and let cool for 15 minutes.
• While the tapioca is cooling, beat egg whites with 1 tablespoon sugar until stiff peaks form. Fold into the tapioca. Cover and refrigerate until ready to serve.
• Serve warm or chilled for 4 hours in the refrigerator. To serve, divide tapioca into individual bowls, and top with whipped cream and a sprinkle of ground nutmeg.