Hot buttered rum

The twelve cocktails of Christmas
#8: Hot buttered rum

This delicious, hot buttered rum certainly hit the spot after a cold, wet evening at the football. It’s beyond my photography skills to make this drink  beautiful, but I promise it tastes far better than it looks.

With a good apple juice and maple syrup instead of sugar, there’s just enough sweetness to take the edge off the rum.

The recipe is based on one from the BBC Food website – it makes one drink. I’ve also multipled the quantities by four and heated everything in small pot, which worked fine too.

• 1 tsp unsalted butter, softened
• 1 tsp maple syrup
• 1/4 tsp ground allspice
• 3 Tb golden or dark rum
• about 200ml apple juice, heated
• cinnamon stick
• freshly grated nutmeg

1. Add the butter, maple syrup, all spice and rum to a mug.
2. Fill the remainer of heated apple juice and stir to combine (or zap it in the microwave until hot – about a minute in our microwave.)
3. Garnish with a cinnamon stick and some freshly grated nutmeg.

Tags: apple juice, Christmas, cocktails, gluten-free, rum, vegetarian