At a glance
You're creating a luxurious, creamy eggnog liqueur using a double boiler method—this involves whisking egg yolks, cream, and sugar over gentle steam until the mixture thickens nicely, then stirring in rum and vanilla bean for that classic holiday flavor. The trickiest part is maintaining steady heat and whisking continuously to get the right consistency without scrambling the eggs, so patience and a good whisk are your best friends here.
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Set up a double boiler
Prepare a double boiler: fill a pot with water and place it on the stove. In a stainless steel bowl that fits neatly over the pot (it shouldn't touch the water, but should sit snugly on top), combine the egg yolks, cream and sugar.
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Add the vanilla
To get the seeds out of the vanilla pod, slice it lengthwise with a sharp knife and scrape them out. I also like to toss in the scraped pod itself, and I even leave it in the finished bottle.
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Whisk continuously
Grab a whisk and turn on the heat. Once the water starts simmering, whisk the mixture over the steam until you're practically steaming yourself!