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A Toasty Cocktail Recipe in Honor of Hot Buttered Rum Day
Photo by Krista Simmons/LAist
Today is National Hot Buttered Rum Day, and even though the weather is starting to warm up, we couldn't resist the temptation to whip up a batch of this toasty little cocktail.
According to Justin Pike over at the Tasting Kitchen, we've been sipping on this venerable drink since Colonial times in America. "Once America started importing molasses from Jamaica, distilleries opened across New England in the 1650s," he says. "Adding rum to hot drinks like toddies and nogs seemed natural."
Pike is whipping up a fancy version of the cocktail over at his bar tonight made with dark rum, housemade butter batter, apple butter, fresh-pressed ginger, Allspice dram, hot water, cinnamon, nutmeg, cloves and dark brown sugar as a sweetener.
We went a little bit more old school with ours, riffing off a recipe from good ol' Martha Stewart.
Here's how it's done:
Ingredients
4 ounces (1 stick) room-temperature unsalted butter
1/2 cup packed dark-brown sugar
1 teaspoon finely grated tangerine zest (oranges work just fine too)
3/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
3/4 teaspoon ground ginger
1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg
6 ounces dark rum (We are fans of Flor de Cana)
3 cups boiling water
Fresh tangerine juice
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Cream the butter, sugar, orange zest, cinnamon, ginger, and nutmeg with a mixer on medium speed until combined. That should take about about 1 minute. It should look like this, super smooth with the spices well-mixed in.
Photo by Krista Simmons/LAist
Combine 2 tablespoons spiced butter with 1 1/2 ounces (about 3 tablespoons) Flor de Cana in each of 4 heatproof glasses. Pour 3/4 cup boiling water over each, and stir. Top each with a squeeze of fresh orange juice. Spiced butter can be refrigerated and stored in a mason jar for up to 2 weeks.
**If you're put off by a little froth on top, either use clarified butter or skim the mixture through a cheese cloth (or even a spoon) to get rid of it.
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