In this era of extreme political correctness, one is never sure when it’s okay to say “Merry Christmas” versus “Happy Holidays”.  Thankfully, there is one holiday greeting we can all agree on… Joyous Eggnog Season! It’s the most wonderful time of the year!

I always get excited when my local grocery stores start stocking eggnog in late fall.  That first swig of the year is liquid magic.  The creamy, rich taste of the holidays puts a smile on my face.  And you should see how happy I look when I add brandy.

When it comes to cooking with eggnog, we become like Santa Claus in the the kitchen.  You know those cartoons where he wrinkles his nose and a regular space becomes a holiday wonderland?  That’s what eggnog does to ordinary recipes.  It’s like adding a pinch of Christmas to whatever you’re making.  In most cases, all you need to do is replace the milk in a recipe with eggnog.

These are some of my favorite breakfast recipes that use eggnog as a key component.

Have a very Joyous Eggnog Season!

Eggnog Pancakes – This is a recipe is for making pancakes from scratch. They come out very flavorful and surprisingly fluffy considering eggnog’s thicker-than-milk consistency.

Here’s a quick tip: You can take commercial pancake mixes and replace the milk or water in the instructions with eggnog…. Easy Eggnog Pancakes!

Eggnog Smoothie – Blending eggnog with a banana (or other fruit of choice)  is a fun way to turn an indulgent holiday treat into a (mostly) healthy holiday treat.  Add a shot of rum or brandy and it’s even more fun!

Eggnog Coffee – The easiest way to add holiday flavor to your breakfast is to stir a couple Tablespoons of eggnog into your morning coffee.  It turns a cup o’ Joe into a cup o’ Nick.  Saint Nick.  Get it?

Eggnog Muffins – If you want to share joy of Eggnog Season with others, these muffins are perfect little presents.  They’re portable and pretty.  Enjoy one on your way to work.  It’s like a Christmas party in your car.

These are jumbo eggnog muffins I made from the same batter.  I crushed gingerbread cookies to make a crumb topping – an idea Pepperidge Farms called “amazing”.

Here’s 3 more eggnog breakfast recipes I think you’ll like:

Eggnog Waffles

Eggnog French Toast

Pumpkin Spice Eggnog French Toast

For more holiday breakfast recipes, please visit the page on this site called Christmas Breakfast Recipes & Traditions.

I recently bought a loaf of Wonder Bread (rare for me as I usually go for whole grain). I used half the loaf to make Waffle Maker French Toast earlier this week.  Today, I wanted to do something unique with the remaining slices so I tracked down an old recipe for Austrian Bread Pancakes and modified it a little.

These pancakes remind me very much of bread pudding.  The inside is moist and almost custard-like (think of perfectly prepared French toast).  Currants, almonds and cinnamon provide an almost holiday-like flavor.  Made with torn pieces of bread, this is actually a griddled form of bread pudding.  So let’s change the name.  I present to you… Bread Pudding Pancakes!  Now watch me turn bread into pancakes…

The ingredients are white bread, apple cider, eggs, sugar, cinnamon, currants (or raisins), almond meal and butter.  Not pictured is flour – a late addition I included when the consistency of my batter seemed too thin.

First, you remove the crusts from the bread and rip the slices into small pieces.  I’m saving the crusts to make bread crumbs for later.  Next, you pour apple cider over the torn bread, give it a quick stir and let it set for about 10 minutes.

To make the batter, you start by mixing the egg yolks with the sugar and cinnamon.  Stir it up until you get an even consistency.

Now, you incorporate the bread.  The messy part of this recipe is draining as much liquid from the bread as possible.  I started using a strainer, but soon discovered the best way to do it was to squeeze the hell out of it with my hands.  The bread will still be quite wet.

So, add the drained bread to the sugar and yolk mixture followed by the currants, almond meal and flour.  Mix it up really well.  Next, beat the egg whites until stiff peaks form and fold that into the batter.  This recipe has no baking powder, so all the lift comes from the beaten egg whites.

Recipe Reality:  At this point, things get a little tricky.  These pancakes are difficult to flip so you have to 1) make the pancakes fairly small – about 2 tablespoons batter per pancake and 2) do a swift slip-n-flip motion with the spatula when the bottom is browned.  My first batch of pancakes were too tender and busted all up.  That’s when I initially added a little flour to the batter and everything was great after that.  (The linked recipe below has been adjusted to add the flour.)  As per usual, you cook the pancakes until they’re browned on both sides.  It took about 2 minutes for the first side and 1 minute for the other side.

The tenderness of these pancakes might make them tricky to work with, but that aspect is also what makes these pretty terrific.

Hopefully, the picture above gives you a sense of the bread pudding-like texture.  To complete the dish, I made some homemade applesauce to act as a topping.  A little bit of butter also helped these taste super good (as butter tends to do).

Here’s a card I whipped up to show how easy it is to make your own homemade applesauce:

And that’s how you turn bread into pancakes.  Join me in a few weeks as I attempt to turn orange juice into breakfast wine.  It’ll be a real miracle if I can pull that off. But that’s what I used to think about these scrumptious pancakes until I tried it.

“Everything is a miracle. It is a miracle that one does not dissolve in one’s bath like a lump of sugar.” – Pablo Picasso

“Miracles happen everyday, change your perception of what a miracle is and you’ll see them all around you.” – Jon Bon Jovi

This post is a companion piece to the following recipes on MrBreakfast.com:

Austrian Bread Pancakes (aka Bread Pudding Pancakes)

Homemade Applesauce (Pancake Topping)

We’ve all made faces on our pancakes.  But did you know… if you just tuck a few smaller pancakes under the face, you get a character.  In this case, it’s a caterpillar with pancakes that get increasing smaller as you reach the end of the body.

Here’s a tip:  Use two pancakes that are slightly larger than the face and you end up with a pancake snowman.

When it comes to kids and pancake characters (or breakfast buddies), there’s an added benefit you may not realize.  It’s a sneaky way to get kids to eat fruit.  A strawberry mouth, banana eyes, a raisin nose… super fun!  Unbeknownst to them, you’ve added to nutrition to a breakfast that is usually pretty low on the healthy scale.

Another thing I like about this caterpillar is that it can serve a couple people at once. There might be a fight over who get the face, but just have  some extra pieces of fruit available.  Everybody can have a caterpillar face.

This is one of those recipes where you don’t really need a recipe.  But you know what… here’s a recipe anyway.  Enjoy!

Pancake Caterpillars Recipe

Have you ever made a character or face out of your breakfast?  Post a comment below.  I’d love to hear about it!

This is a pancake caterpillar I made using small pieces of pancake to make the face.  It’s a little creepy.  My advice:  Use fruit.