The Pioneer Woman's Hot Buttered Rum Recipe: Warm Up Your Winter Nights

The holiday season is all about the food, the drinks, and of course, family. But if you are looking for a delicious flavor, the Pioneer Woman’s hot buttered rum recipe is a guaranteed winter hit.

A simple but tasty mix of spices, dark rum, and butter, this recipe is incredibly beginner-friendly. With a combination of common ingredients and simple instructions, it’s not hard to get addicted to this one. After all, who said hot-buttered rum is exclusive to the holiday season?

Jump to:

• Ingredients
• Instructions
• Substitutions
• Variations
• Equipment
• Storage
• Pro Tips
• The Pioneer Woman's Hot Buttered Rum Recipe
• Comments

Ingredients

• Butter — ½ cup
• Cloves — 6 pcs.
• Brown sugar — 1 cup
• Dark rum — 1 ½ cups
• Orange — 1 ½ slices
• Apple pie spice — 2 tbsp.
• Hot water — 3 ½ cups

Instructions

1. For the butter mixture, combine the butter, sugar, and apple pie spice in a mixing bowl.

2. Stir well.

3. Add 2 tablespoons of the butter mixture and ¾ cup of hot water to your serving mugs.

4. Stir well.

5. Add ¼ cup rum to each one.

6. Garnish with cloves and pieces of orange slices, and serve hot.

Substitutions

• Brown sugar — The Pioneer Woman’s hot buttered rum recipe is a fairly flexible one. Although it is commonly made with light brown sugar, if you are craving something with a deeper flavor profile, feel free to opt for dark brown sugar. Your other options include honey and maple syrup, which will make your drink a bit sweeter.

• Apple pie spice — You can easily replace apple pie spice with cinnamon. Just decrease the amount by half. If that won’t cut it for you, a spice blend of nutmeg, cinnamon, and ginger might be better.

• Dark rum — If possible, you should stick with rum. If that’s not possible, you could consider using brandy or bourbon. Cognac will work, as well.

Variations

• Add flavor — Dark rum, brown sugar, and apple pie spice seem like a rich enough combination. But it can always get better. If those won’t make your hot butter rum savory enough, consider replacing half of the hot water with apple cider vinegar. The latter will provide a complex flavor to your drink.

• Add flair — The Pioneer Woman’s hot buttered rum recipe makes a good-looking drink. But why should you stop there? If some extra calories won’t bother you, you might want to garnish your drink with some whipped cream. While you are at it, go ahead and add some vanilla to the mix as well. And who would say no to some ice cream?

• Remove the alcohol — If, for any reason, you would like to omit the alcohol and still have your drink, you can easily replace the rum with apple juice. Apple cider will work as well. Just keep in mind that you should use ¾ cup of brown sugar to let the apple juice give the mixture its own shine.

Equipment

• Measuring cup

• Measuring spoons

• Mixing bowl

• Serving mugs

Storage

• Although the hot buttered rum itself can’t be stored, you can store the batter.

• Simply transfer the butter mixture into an airtight container.

• It will last for up to three weeks in your fridge. When you feel like having a spicy drink, simply heat the batter and continue the process from there.

Pro Tips

• The right rum — The Pioneer Woman’s hot buttered rum recipe can be made with any rum you have, but we would recommend using blackstrap rum. If that’s not an option, Jamaican rum will be great as well. Just make sure that you steer away from light rum.

• The mixing — You can combine the butter mixture manually. After all, it is only spice, butter, and sugar. However, you could also opt for using an electric mixer. That will not only make things easier for you, but it will also increase the quality of the mixture.