New York’s famous hot-weather quencher, the egg cream, is made with neither eggs nor cream. The original is a simple, refreshing combination of milk, seltzer, and Fox’s u-bet chocolate flavor syrup. On our menu at Sidekick at the Ferry Building in San Francisco, we’ve switched out the Fox’s syrup for Recchiuti’s Extra-Bitter Chocolate Sauce.–Sue Conley and Peggy Smith
LC Much Depends on Chocolate Syrup Note
This is not the classic egg cream of your childhood. This is actually quite superlative to that egg cream—but only if you opt for chocolate syrup that’s actually “chocolate syrup” and not “chocolate flavor syrup.” You know what we mean. It doesn’t have to be made from scratch but it does have to be void of high-fructose corn syrup and any other scary multisyllabic ingredients. What’s also crucial to your egg cream experience is achievning that classic egg cream froth just like the ones from the soda fountain. We have recipe tester Carrie Shimozato and her husband to thank for the foolproof frothing approach in the recipe below. When they attempted the original recipe as found in the book, they failed to produce the longed-for frothy effect. Not wanting to disappoint his wife, Carrie’s husband tweaked the technique until she was satisfied. (Turns out the trick lies in the stirring, not the shaking.) What a guy. And what an egg cream.
Egg Cream
Ingredients
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Recipe Testers Reviews
This easy peasy, recipe is as delicious as a Yoo-hoo. I made mine in a frosty stainless steel shaker. So simple and so wonderful! If you have an immersion blender, you may want to enlist it to get a really foamy head on this puppy!
I'd never tried an egg cream, since I'd assumed from the name that I wouldn't like it. Wrong! My daughter and I were both pleasantly surprised that we enjoyed this very much. We both love chocolate, and although neither of us is a big seltzer fan, in this drink it works. I wasn't able to find Fox’s U-Bet chocolate syrup that the author says is used in New York egg creams, nor was I able to find Recchiuti’s Extra-Bitter Chocolate Sauce, which is suggested for the San Francisco version. The only thing I found in my local grocery store that was the closest thing to chocolate sauce was in the ice cream toppings section, and it was Smucker's Special Recipe Dark Chocolate topping. I think we found a new drink to enjoy in the warmer months.
I remember my Dad and grandparents talking about this drink when I was little, so I was very curious to try this. It's so easy and fun to make and, apparently, refreshing to drink. (I'm allergic to chocolate, so I had to depend on others' opinions this time.) My tasters described it as a grown-up version of chocolate milk—only better. The ingredients and glasses must be as cold as you can make them. By the time I made the last egg cream, things had started to warm up and the egg cream just wasn't as good. I would recommend keeping the glasses in the freezer and pulling them out, 1 at a time, as you make the egg creams. Also, don't be temped to cheap out on the chocolate sauce. Buy a very good dark chocolate sauce. I don't think the same effect could be had with milk chocolate syrup as the slight bitterness of the chocolate sauce is what makes this good. I used a simple syrup I had on hand. This is a fun drink to make for the kid in us all.
When I first heard about an egg cream, I was immediately turned off by the idea because drinking something with eggs and cream on a hot summer day seemed unappetizing. Of course, once I realized what was actually in an egg cream, I was intrigued. But I was still wary, because even the thought of milk mixed with seltzer seemed a little off to me, as I imagined a watered down chocolate milk that was fizzy—and quite possibly for not good reasons. However, it wasn't a bad drink at all, and in fact, it was surprisingly good. I thought about describing it as a fizzy chocolate milk, but that doesn't quite reflect the bright and appealing quality that the fizz brings to the chocolate milk. It isn't watered down. I think the addition of simple syrup is what helps. On a hot day, an egg cream would definitely be preferable to just chocolate milk. The ingredients and amounts worked, and adding the seltzer last gave me that special soda shop frothy top that I longed for. I think you can easily get away with making half or even a quarter of the simple syrup recipe, unless you anticipate making many of these egg creams or using it for other purposes. But note that it takes about 45 minutes for the simple syrup to cool down completely, so it might be best to make this at least an hour before you plan on serving the drinks or even the night before and keep the syrup in the fridge so everything remains ice cold.
Since I'm living in San Francisco, I had to try this egg cream recipe. I'm not a big fan of drinking chocolate, as usually it's way too sweet for my taste. But this one was pretty good. Not too sweet, nice flavor (I used Peet's chocolate syrup), and kinda light on the tongue. My kids liked it, too. We'll make it again for sure.
Fizzy water, chocolate, some sweet syrup and a little dairy, and you have an egg cream whenever you want one. I used my soda maker for the fizzy water, added the rest of the ingredients, and had a wonderful treat. This will be great for satisfying the sweet tooth.
This egg cream recipe brought me back to my childhood in the Northeast. The combination of ingredients was right on with what I remember. I may have added additional chocolate in past versions, but this was good with the amount specified.
The fabled egg cream. I've heard of it, figured it for something like a nog, yet never tried it. Looking at the paltry list of ingredients, none of which I am overly fond of when consumed alone, the allure lessened. Yet this drink far exceeded my expectations. Think chocolate-flavored Italian soda—sorta like a milkshake without the accompanying guilt and bloat. I imagine you could play around with the simple syrup, perhaps infusing it with mint or a nutty extract for a more complex flavor. I don't know that I'd agree with the contention that it's a thirst quencher, but it certainly quenches that postprandial urge for something a little sweet and a little bubbly that can be made in a jiff. It's the tastiest misnomer I've had in some time.
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There’s no crying in baseball. And there’s no simple syrup in egg creams. Stop trying to fix what ain’t broke. Fuhgeddabowdit. Sheesh! (Said the girl who grew up in the Bronx, whose mother grew up in the Bronx, and whose grandmother had a candy store in the Bronx.) U-Betcha.
:)
So tell me, BXGRL, how do you really feel about simple syrup in egg creams?!
I have yet to taste an egg cream. As a child whenever I accompanied my father to a Jewish deli he would order an egg cream. He would never let us taste it. After all he would say, you don’t want to drink a raw egg do you? Well, we didn’t. Yes, he knew what he was telling us. I think he just didn’t want to order a round for the table!
Abbe, I think you may have hit the nail on the head…!
I feel that there are so many ingredients in recipes that can be switched around and enjoyed. HOWEVER, when it comes to a true egg cream the only way to do it is the original (the right way) way and that is using Fox’s U-Bet which can be found in just about every grocery store i have ever been to or checked out on their web site for retail locations or even ordered thru their own web site.
Faleen, thanks for that!