Orange Spiced Eggnog Recipe | A Cup of Christmas Cheer

Eggnog lovers, prepare to be wowed by this Orange Spiced Eggnog! Rum and Cointreau play very nicely with the eggy, creamy base. It’s like a boozy creamsicle!

Serve them alongside some walnut shortbread cookies or angel slices for a holiday treat for you or for Santa. And if you’re looking for a non-alcoholic yet festive Christmas beverage, try my chocolate orange drinking chocolate or my hot chocolate custard.

For ease of browsing, here are all of my beverage recipes. Now let’s get down to business with this orange spiced eggnog.

Nostalgic Holiday Foods

I have always been in love with holiday food.

As a kid, while I was always happy to be going to visit Ev and Ray in New Jersey for the holidays, I was maybe a bit more excited by the promise of Auntie Ev’s English trifle, which is still one of my favorite desserts to this day.

As we made the 3-doors-down walk to Queenie and Ivan’s house for the annual Christmas Eve party, our breath pluming in the cold December air, my mind was already racing ahead, up the stairs and around the corner to the dining room table to feast on poppy seed party ham biscuits, a port wine cheese ball, and cream cheese and red sauce.

A holiday staple in my childhood home from Thanksgiving through the New Year was eggnog.

Sweet, creamy, nutmeggy and comforting, I couldn’t get enough. When mom finally brought some home from her grocery shopping trips, we knew that the holiday season had officially begun.

Boozy Eggnog

Oddly enough, I was never really a fan of spiked eggnog. I guess I just loved it straight up so much that I thought boozing it up just cut into the creamy goodness. Bless my heart, I was a naive little thing.

Probably about ten or twelve years ago, Julie’s husband Scott began making homemade eggnog every year for the Christmas party they inherited hosting duties from Julie’s parents.

Suddenly it dawned on me that shoving booze into eggnog is a very good idea indeed. Shove enough booze into eggnog, and you can age it from one year to the next.

I’m not really interested in that, because I’m all about drinking the eggnog as quickly as I can. I can barely wait the 24 hours it takes for the flavors to blend in the fridge.

If you are looking for a great aged eggnog recipe, you can’t do much better than the one from Nutmeg Nanny.

Orange Spiced Eggnog

Since this holiday season seems to be dedicated to all things orange (hello there, No Bake Orange Cranberry Cheesecake Parfaits and Cranberry Fool with Grand Marnier Whipped Cream), I figured I’d try something a bit new with homemade eggnog: orange spiced eggnog.

Of course, as always, there is nothing new under the sun. There are lots of other recipes out there for an orange spice eggnog, but I don’t care.

The recipe I came up with is pretty straightforward with only a few spices and two types of alcohol that nicely reinforce the orange spiced theme.

How to Make Orange Spice Eggnog

This eggnog comes together pretty easily. The ingredient list looks a little long, but nothing is hard to find. You may already have a lot of the ingredients you need.

Ingredients

Here’s what you’ll need to gather for Eggnog Making.

Steep together:

• whole milk
• heavy cream
• granulated sugar
• 1/4 teaspoon kosher salt
• cinnamon sticks
• whole cloves
• whole allspice berries
• orange zest
  
  Add and cook until slightly thickened:
• eggs
• egg yolks
  
  To be added after the base cooks:
• spiced rum, (I used Captain Morgan’s)
• orange liqueur, (I recommend Cointreau for its pronounced candied orange peel flavor)
• heavy cream–not pictured. Whip that and fold it in to your chilled base before serving.

As far as the spices go, you can leave out what you don’t like and use more of what you do. There are no hard and fast rules.

Procedure

The first step in making eggnog is all about infusing the flavors of the spices and zest into the dairy. Once you have that done, you can add in the eggs and cook until thickened–no hotter than 170F.

Strain your eggnog to catch the whole spices and zest as well as any eggy bits that might be lurking.

Refrigerate for at least 24 hours so the flavors can mingle and get to know each other.

Before serving, stir in the alcohol, whip the cream and fold that in, and enjoy!

Questions?

If you have any questions about this post or recipe, I am happy to help.

Simply leave a comment here and I will get back to you soon. I also invite you to ask question in my Facebook group, Fearless Kitchen Fun.

If your question is more pressing, please feel free to email me. I should be back in touch ASAP, as long as I’m not asleep.

Holiday Printable Recipe Card

Simply click on the card to get a pdf you can download and keep in your holiday recipe box.

I made you three different kinds of blank printable holiday recipe cards, so please use them!

A Note About Measurements

My recipes are almost all written by weight, including liquids, unless otherwise specified.

For accuracy and consistency of results, I encourage you to buy–and use–a kitchen scale.

I promise that baking and cleanup will be so much quicker and easier.

This is the scale that I recommend for home use. I have owned and used one for years.

Love This Eggnog? Please Rate and Review. Thanks!

Thank you for spending some time with me today.

May your holiday be full of good cheer and plenty of spiced eggnog!

Take care, y’all.