Anyone who grew up in America the mid-20th century – or at least visited a diner – has had an egg cream. It’s fizzy and sweet, and technically contains neither eggs nor cream.
Made with milk, seltzer, and typically, chocolate or vanilla syrup, this sweet classic is thought to be developed in New York City by Eastern European Jewish immigrants. I love them and order them in lieu of milkshakes in an effort to be “healthier.” Hahahaha.
As I’ve gotten older, though, I consume sweet things less and less in a health effort and because my tastes have changed up a bit since I was a kid (not unusual).
But I still crave them from time to time, and the other night, I decided I wanted one…but I lacked chocolate syrup, milk, and the desire to go out and buy any. But I did have a chocolate cherry liqueur and heavy cream left over from a recipe. So I improvised.
I used these three ingredients:
First, I poured in about 2 oz of chocolate cherry liqueur:
Next, I added about 2 oz heavy cream. The cream looks like a lot more than it is due to the fact that the cream seems to smush the liqueur. I know. I’m sure there’s a scientific explanation for this, something about density or buoyancy or whatever, but I don’t know what it is.
After that, I mixed them with a spoon:
And finally, I added the seltzer:
Look at all that foam!
Ok, I lied, I also garnished it with a sprinkle of cocoa powder…although, only because I didn’t have any maraschino cherries.
I’ve made these for my family and so far they really like them – like me, they like egg creams but wish for something slightly less sweet.
The really fun part of this is that you can pretty much use any liqueur you like. I used chocolate cherry liqueur, because 1. I love that combo, and 2. my seltzer happened to be black cherry. But you can use Kahlua, or a straight coffee or chocolate liqueur, or peppermint/mint, or whatever you enjoy.
Cheers!
words in scarlet ink 