All Hot and Buttered... Rum

Today I made my very first batch of hot buttered rum mix, using a recipe from my friend, Gail.  Last year she gave me a batch of hers, along with a copy of the recipe... wonderful gift!  And, it's sooooo easy to make.  First, in case you haven't read previous DIY/domestic diva posts of mine, you need to know that I am not a perfectionist in the DIY arena (as evidenced in the bumps you can see in the mix in the picture- they'll melt and it will be fine).  I've decided that what I am is optimistic.  I never measure, I just eyeball and scoop, yet I always assume it will turn out great... and a lot of the time it does.  This recipe is perfect for less-than-precise DIYers like me.  However, in the future there are a few things I would do differently, which I will share so those of you who sweat the small stuff will be prepared.

One final disclaimer:  If you are trying to be healthy, do not even look at these pictures because you will have to exercise to compensate for what you are about to see.  If you are willing to take that risk, though, maybe you can just drink your hot buttered rum while doing leg lifts?  Or not.

The recipe:



Put the following into a mixing bowl-

1 lb brown sugar
1 lb powdered sugar
1 lb butter
1 qt Haagen-Dazs vanilla ice cream
a dash of cinnamon

Cream all the ingredients together.  Then, store in the freezer until ready to use.

To use:  Add a heaping tablespoon of mix to a mug of boiling water and add a shot of rum.










So, that's what the recipe said.  Here is what I learned:

1.  It works just fine to squeeze your two pound bag of brown sugar in the middle and dump into the bowl the portion of the sugar that isn't held back by your hands.

2.  The above approach also works perfectly with the powdered sugar.

3.  This next tidbit matters if you care about the bumps in the picture at the top... soften your butter so that it will blend more easily (smoothly) into the rest of the ingredients.

4.  I substituted Dreyer's Slow Churned Rich & Creamy Vanilla Bean ice cream (you know, to be healthy).  However, the Dreyer's came in a 1 1/4 quart size, so I may have undone some of the "healthy" by eating a decent portion of the 1/4 quart leftover.  It's okay, though; I went for a run today.

5.  I have no tidbits about the cinnamon, but I do have a final mixing suggestion.  Mix the ingredients a bit by hand first to get the powdered sugar stuck to some of the rest of it.  Otherwise, the butter and ice cream stick to the beaters and act as small firing weapons, flinging the powdered sugar out of the bowl. I've heard this can even happen at low speeds.

So, there you have it.  Enjoy!