19 Ingredients To Upgrade Your Eggnog This Winter

We wait all year, and fall approaches, we finally see it: eggnog on the shelves at the grocery store. While there are several homemade variations of the seasonal beverage, and even some new takes like eggnog cookies, the traditional recipe remains rather simple. At its heart, old-fashioned eggnog is made with egg yolks, milk, heavy cream, sugar, and nutmeg — it's a velvety, rich concoction that embodies holiday cheer. That doesn't mean you have to stop there. Plenty of eggnog is packed with more spices, like cloves or cinnamon, or topped with a dollop of whipped cream or a dusting of nutmeg, but you can take your beverage even further.

Part of the beauty of eggnog is that it's so versatile. Whether you buy it in stores or make it at home, there are various ways to elevate traditional eggnog, from spiking it with flavored liqueurs to adding bold flavors like caramel, or more unique ones like pumpkin or cayenne. Here, we'll delve into some of the many ingredients you can use to spice up your eggnog this winter.

By combining pumpkin and eggnog, you can create an autumnal drink that captures the essence of the season. Pumpkin adds a layer of earthy sweetness and a subtle hint of spiciness to your eggnog, which is already spiced and sweet on its own. Pumpkin also brings a host of nutrients, including beta-carotene and vitamins A, B1, B6, and C. Try whipping pumpkin puree into your eggnog for extra creaminess. To take your beverage to a whole other pumpkin-y level, top your pumpkin-infused eggnog with a shake of pumpkin pie spice. With cinnamon, nutmeg, allspice, and cloves, this spice blend will enhance both the pumpkin and the eggnog.

Tropical, sweet, and slightly nutty, coconut offers a nice contrast to the spiced elements of eggnog, making for a surprisingly tasty combo. There are a few ways that you can incorporate coconut into your eggnog. You can use coconut milk instead of regular milk when making eggnog from scratch, or use coconut cream instead of heavy cream like this recipe for Coquito-style eggnog that's perfect for Christmas. You could also use coconut to make your eggnog dairy-free. To amp up the coconut flavor even more, try adding toasted coconut flakes to the beverage or coat the rim of the glass with them.

There are a couple of different ways to incorporate the flavors of Irish cream into your eggnog for a richer tasting drink. You could add a shot of Irish cream liqueur (like Bailey's Original Irish Cream) or a dash of Irish cream extract if you prefer a nonalcoholic version of eggnog. Another way to marry these flavors together is to create an Irish coffee eggnog. Just mix Irish cream liqueur with your favorite freshly brewed coffee. Then add a splash of that combination to your eggnog for some sweet and delicious indulgence with the robustness of coffee.

We're thinking eggnog but made for a chocolate lover. It's as easy as a drizzle of chocolate syrup around the glass, a topping of dark chocolate shavings, or a dusting of cocoa powder. While milk chocolate might be bordering on too decadent, bittersweet chocolate chips would add a balanced sweetness. Just melt some down, and swirl it into your eggnog for a chocolatey, cozy treat. You could also use a different kind of chocolate, such as Mexican chocolate (a blend of chocolate, cinnamon, and nutmeg), like in this Mexicocoa eggnog recipe. If you're a fan of spiked eggnog, try adding Crème de Cacao or another kind of chocolate liqueur.

If you want to transform your eggnog, turn to ice cream for some inspiration. You could go with a simpler route and do a sort of eggnog float — just pour some eggnog over a couple of scoops of vanilla or butter pecan ice cream. Making an eggnog milkshake is another easy way to pair these flavors. With a little more work, you can also churn your own ice cream that's been flavored with eggnog for a delicious combination of the two. Besides vanilla and butter pecan, some other ice cream flavors to consider are chocolate, peppermint, or hazelnut.

Substituting light brown sugar for white sugar in your homemade eggnog recipe gives the beverage a buttery, almost butterscotch-like flavor. But if you want to keep your recipe the same or if you opt for a store-bought version, you can easily add brown sugar to the finished drink and get a similar flavor. For a more sophisticated drink, try topping the beverage with some caramelized brown sugar brûlée. Sweetening your whipped cream with brown sugar or adding it to your eggnog spice blend are some other easy ways to create that caramelized flavor in your eggnog.

Instead of adding regular rum to your eggnog, try using spiced rum, which is usually enhanced with caramel, cinnamon, vanilla, or nutmeg. While a shot of alcohol in your drink would suffice, you could also infuse whipped cream with spiced rum and top your spiked eggnog with a dollop of it. If that's too much rum for your taste, try just a splash of spiced rum in your eggnog topped with the boozy cream. You could also incorporate the typical flavors of spiced rum and forgo the alcohol. Just add a rim of caramel, cinnamon, and nutmeg to your eggnog glass.

For either a dairy-free eggnog or a nutty addition of flavor, try substituting almond milk for the dairy in your recipe. With most dairy milk, the same amount of almond milk can replace it. You might want to use almond milk that's slightly sweetened to account for losing the richness of the cream. However, if you want to keep the dairy, a splash of almond milk can deliver that same nuttiness without taking away the velvety texture the cream gives. Mixing two parts of almond milk and with one part of vegan oil can emulate heavy cream if you want to go entirely dairy-free.

Both chocolatey and nutty, Nutella is a simple ingredient that will add a lot of rich flavor to your eggnog. It's thick, so you won't easily be able to mix a scoop of the hazelnut and cocoa spread into your creamy beverage. But you can melt it down into more of a syrup. Then you can drizzle some in your glass or blend a little into the eggnog. To make a syrup out of Nutella, put the spread in a nonstick saucepan with equal parts water and stir continuously on low to medium-low heat until it becomes smooth and runny.