Shalom Friends!
While I was in Israel, a pretty amazing thing happened. My Facebook fan page reached 10,000 fans. Wow!! I was so busy doing food research and filming that I didn’t even have a chance to acknowledge this milestone. So, I’m acknowledging it now!
I can hardly believe how quickly this project has grown, and it is all thanks to YOU, the food lovers who read my blog every week. I started blogging on January 1, 2010. In only 8 months, we’ve created an awesome community of people who love Jewish food. I have many exciting plans for the future, and it’s great to know so many amazing people are along for the ride!
So I was thinking we should do something to celebrate… and of course, my mind wanders to deli food. So, I decided to share with you my simple and delicious recipe/instructions for a deli-style Chocolate Egg Cream. It’s the easiest thing in the world to make, and it’s guaranteed to put a smile on your face (unless you don’t like chocolate—or you’re lactose intolerant). Try it. You’ll love it. It’s perfect for a hot summer evening. If you’re feeling naughty, add a splash of kahlua! 🙂
The chocolate egg cream is a tasty drink that’s been around since the 1920’s. Popular in New York’s deli scene, it contains neither egg nor cream. Nobody’s totally sure where the name came from, though there are many theories.
While a traditional egg cream is made with a high-pressure seltzer “siphon” bottle, most of us don’t have those readily available at home. I’m including instructions for those who have siphon bottles as well as those who don’t. If you don’t have a siphon bottle, you’ll have to improvise to get that lovely foamy white cap on top of your egg cream, and it won’t taste quite the same as a true deli-style egg cream… but it will come close!
As far as chocolate syrup goes, Fox’s U-Bet brand is traditional and works best flavor-wise… but if you have Hershey’s on hand, it will do in a pinch. You can also use vanilla syrup for a Manhattan style egg cream, the process is the same. Enjoy!
Thank you all so much for being a part of this project. If you’re enjoying the blogs and recipes, please click “Share” on my fan page and let your friends know about ToriAvey.com—help spread the word! Let’s keep this community growing and thriving.
xoxo Tori
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Chocolate Egg Cream
Ingredients
- Whole milk
- Soda siphon with CO2 cartridge and chilled water OR bottled seltzer water
- Chocolate syrup
Instructions
Instructions for Egg Cream Without Siphon Bottle
- Put a long-handled metal spoon into a tall drinking glass. Fill the glass a little less than 1/4 with ice cold whole milk.
- Pour plain seltzer SLOWLY into the milk, leaving about 1 inch at the top of the glass. If you've done this right, you should already see a nice creamy foam developing on top of the drink.
- Use the long-handled metal spoon to stir and quickly blend the chocolate with the milk and seltzer, stirring at the bottom of the glass, doing your best not to disturb the foam at the top of the glass. Stir till the chocolate is well blended into the drink. After stirring, top the drink off with a little more seltzer till the foam rises to the top of the glass, almost overflowing.
- And there you have it-- a chocolate egg cream with a beautiful white cap on top! Don't worry if you don't get it right the first time, it takes a little practice to make it perfectly.
Instructions for Egg Cream With Siphon Bottle
- Fill your siphon bottle with ice-cold water, making sure you have a fresh CO2 cartridge installed.
- Put a long-handled metal spoon into a tall drinking glass. Fill the glass a little less than 1/4 with ice cold whole milk.
- Squirt your seltzer water into the glass in a thin stream with as much pressure as possible. Fill till the foam is about 1 inch below the glass rim. If done correctly, a creamy white foam cap should develop. If not, try again-- it takes practice!
- Pour chocolate syrup in a thin stream through the center of the foam until the foam rises just above the rim of the glass.
- Use the long-handled metal spoon to stir and quickly blend the chocolate with the milk and seltzer, stirring at the bottom of the glass, doing your best not to disturb the foam at the top of the glass. Stir till the chocolate is well blended into the drink. Remove the spoon. Enjoy!
- Don't use a straw. A foamy mustache is half the fun. 🙂
Nutrition
Egg creams!! Oh, the pleasures of growing up in NY! Seems like most comments are from us nostalgic New Yawkas.
I’m from Brooklyn and grew up drinking egg creams. Thank you for posting this!
Fox’s UBet is the one and only chocolate syrup to be used. Hershey’s or anything else doesn’t cut it.
You are absolutely right billy. The ONLY syrup to use for a REAL egg cream is UBet. I’ve been making egg creams for over 60 years, even though I’m only 39?. We put our egg cream glasses in the freezer. It keeps the egg cream cold for a longer time. Enjoy!
When I was living in the Bronx as young boy, often after dinner ( we called it supper) my father would send me to the corner candy store with an empty quart milk bottle and I would get it filled with a fountain made egg cream made right in the bottle. I would also get a pint of hand-held packed choc.chip ice cream to go along with it.
Lster on when I was in Bronx Science H S, I worked as soda jerk in Krum’s on the Grand Concourse and served zillions of egg creams. Thanks for reminding me of great times.
Love this! Thanks for sharing great memories Bernard.
I used to be a soda jerk in Brooklyn at Sarah’s on Kings Highway. How lucky I was back then. Once I tried a coffee egg cream not too bad. Strawberry didn’t go over well.
And after that a pretzel or knish with mustard.
Good times…..
Lived on Boston Rd in the Bronx used to go to corner candy store (Stan n Rubys) for a egg cream best drink going brings back a lot of good memories and good times
The one thing that I learned from my best friend in Brooklyn who owned a candy store and made egg creams all day long was, aside from what everyone has already mentioned, the real key to a great egg cream is that the milk MUST be incredibly cold or slightly frozen. The milk starts to form shavings around the side of the glass or the container. The fact is, he was right. I’m 67 years old and have been making my own for over 45 years. U-Bet is a must. Hershey’s is not a viable alternative. So, milk goes in first, then the U-Bet, stir slightly to mix and then add the seltzer, as indicated by most, stir it briskly until the head forms. That’s all there is to it!
There is no “organic” milk in an egg cream!
Milk is absolutely an ingredient in an egg cream, Irv. I don’t see why it can’t be organic milk instead of conventional milk, since they both taste the same.
Most, if not all, of the milk in traditional egg creams was organic.
I remember so well growing up in the Bronx and going to a soda Fountain store to get a deli sandwich and an egg cream. Loved it and I was thinking about what I was having with my meal and my husband tells me it looked like a chocolate egg cream. I googled it to find out how to make it and there you have the recipe. I was drinking chocolate milk with diet soda. (It tasted good too). Thank you so much for reminding me of the good times!!! And recipe.