Brown Butter Hot Buttered Rum

Brown Butter Hot Buttered Rum

This is the drink I want on the first cold night, and the reason I can have it in one minute is that the work happened back in September.

Hot buttered rum is not really a cocktail you mix. It is a batter you keep, a whipped mixture of butter, sugar, spices and ice cream that lives in a jar in the freezer. When someone wants a drink, you spoon some into a mug, add hot water and rum, and stir. That is the entire service.

Two changes make this one mine. I brown the butter first, which turns the whole thing nutty and toasted instead of merely sweet. And I swap part of the brown sugar for cane syrup, which is what my pantry has always had and what gives the finished mug its dark, faintly rum-like depth.

It also makes about twenty servings, keeps three months frozen, works with hot milk instead of rum for the kids, and fits in a half pint jar with a ribbon on it in December. There is not a more useful thing you can put in your freezer this month.

A short history

Hot buttered rum goes back to colonial America, where many families kept their own version and rum was widely believed to be nourishing, a strengthener of the body.

Butter in a hot drink was not a new idea even then. Buttered beer dates to the 16th century, and hot buttered rum was the early American twist on that family of drinks. Rum was cheap and plentiful in the colonies thanks to proximity to the Caribbean, and it was the first real spirit of the Americas, well before whiskey.

The batter-in-the-freezer approach is a modern American convention rather than a colonial one, but it is what makes the drink practical in a house where people show up unannounced.

Why brown butter and cane syrup

Browning butter means cooking it until the water evaporates and the milk solids toast to a deep gold. The butter smells nutty and looks flecked, and only the solids darken dramatically, not the fat itself. That toasted flavor is what most hot buttered rum is missing.

Cane syrup is pressed cane juice boiled down, made much the way maple syrup is, rather than a refining byproduct like molasses. It sits a shade darker than golden syrup and carries notes of dark sugar and rum, so you get molasses depth without molasses bitterness. It is also a natural fit for rum drinks, where it adds body even in small amounts.

Steen's is the benchmark. Norris and Alaga are good regional alternatives, though Alaga is a cane and corn syrup blend and runs thinner. If you cannot find any cane syrup, molasses substitutes one to one but brings more bitterness, and a rough homemade stand-in is two parts unrefined cane sugar to one part water warmed until clear.

And the ice cream is not a gimmick. It works as a creamy emulsifier that helps the butterfat disperse, and it keeps the frozen batter soft enough to scoop. Butter and sugar alone freeze into a brick.

Ingredients

Makes about 5 cups of batter, roughly 20 servings.

For the batter:

  • 1 cup salted butter, 2 sticks

  • 2 tablespoons water, for after browning

  • 1 cup packed dark brown sugar

  • 1/2 cup cane syrup

  • 1 1/2 cups powdered sugar

  • 2 cups vanilla ice cream, softened 30 minutes in the refrigerator

  • 2 teaspoons ground cinnamon

  • 3/4 teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg

  • 1/4 teaspoon ground cloves

  • 1/2 teaspoon fine salt

  • 1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Per drink:

  • 2 generous tablespoons batter

  • 6 to 8 ounces boiling water

  • 1 1/2 to 2 ounces dark rum

  • Freshly grated nutmeg

Method

Brown the butter. Melt the butter in a light colored heavy saucepan over medium low heat, then keep cooking and swirling. It will foam, get loud and bubbly as the water cooks off, then quiet down as the bubbles turn to fine foam and the smell turns nutty. Golden brown flecks will appear. This takes anywhere from 4 to 12 minutes depending on your heat, and the last minute is fast, so do not walk away.

Stop it before it burns. As soon as the color is where you want it, pour the butter and every one of those brown flecks into a heatproof bowl, scraping the pan. Left in the hot pan, residual heat will take it from perfect to scorched.

Cool it and replace the water. Whisk in the 2 tablespoons of water, which puts back roughly what evaporated during browning. Stir for a minute or two, then let it cool at room temperature, stirring occasionally so the solids stay distributed, until it is opaque and soft-solid, about the texture of room temperature butter. Do not skip this. Warm butter will not whip with sugar, and you will get a greasy batter that breaks in the mug.

Cream. Beat the cooled brown butter in a stand mixer or with a hand mixer until fluffy. Add the brown sugar, cane syrup, powdered sugar, spices, salt and vanilla, and beat about 5 minutes until light and smooth.

Fold in the ice cream. Add the softened ice cream and mix until smooth. Small flecks of butter are fine, they will melt in the mug. Finished batter should look about like very soft cookie dough.

Freeze. Pack into airtight jars or containers and freeze. It keeps 3 months easily, and up to about 4.

Serve. Put 2 generous tablespoons of batter in a warmed mug. Add boiling water to about an inch from the rim and stir until the batter dissolves. Pour in the rum, stir again, and grate nutmeg over the top.

Warm the mug first by filling it with hot water and dumping it out. A cold mug takes a hot drink down to lukewarm in about a minute.

For a crowd

Use a slow cooker on low. One full batch of batter, about 40 ounces, plus two fifths of rum, about 6 cups, plus roughly 18 cups of hot water makes 25 to 30 servings. Set out nutmeg and whipped cream and let people serve themselves.

Add the rum at the end rather than letting it sit on low heat for hours, since alcohol cooks off.

Gift Jars

Pack the batter into half pint jars, leaving half an inch of headspace, and freeze. Tie on a tag with the serving instructions, which are short enough to fit: two tablespoons, hot water to fill, two ounces dark rum, nutmeg on top. Add a line saying keep frozen and use within three months.

These are freezer gifts, not shelf stable canned goods. Do not water bath or pressure can this, and do not let anyone believe it can sit in a pantry. Hand them over frozen, in a bag, and say so out loud.

Troubleshooting

  • Greasy or separated in the mug: the brown butter was still warm when it was creamed. Cool it to a soft solid next time.

  • Batter froze rock hard: the ice cream was short or fully melted before folding. It should be soft, not liquid.

  • Tastes burnt rather than nutty: the butter went a step too far, or it kept cooking in the hot pan after browning.

  • Too sweet: cut the powdered sugar to 1 cup. The cane syrup is already contributing sweetness that other recipes get from more sugar.

  • Weak or watery in the mug: use more batter rather than less water, and warm the mug first.

  • Tastes flat: it needs salt, not more spice.

Frequently asked questions

What kind of rum?
A dark or aged rum. Its molasses and caramel notes line up with the cane syrup, and spiced rum works if that is what you have.

Can I make it without ice cream?
Yes, though the batter will freeze much harder and you will need to let it sit out before scooping. The ice cream is there for texture and emulsification.

How long does the batter keep?
Three months in the freezer comfortably, up to about four.

Can I use unsalted butter?
Yes, and if you do, increase the salt to a full teaspoon. Salt is what keeps this from tasting like frosting in water.

Is cane syrup the same as molasses?
No. Cane syrup is boiled down cane juice, while molasses is a byproduct of sugar refining. Cane syrup is sweeter, rounder, and much less bitter.

Do I have to brown the butter?
No, and the drink is still good with plain butter. But the browning is the whole reason this version tastes different from every other hot buttered rum.

Sources

Sources

History

Technique

Batter, serving, and storage

Cane syrup

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