Spiced Butterscotch Sauce and Hot Butter-scotched Rum

It’s been cold here this week. I’ve had to take the hummingbird feeder inside to thaw and one particularly possessive hummingbird has been guarding the nectar, dive bombing another birds that dare to sip. While cold sugar water isn’t my thing hot liquor water can be and so the winter warmers continue.

I’ve been thinking about what gifts to give this year. I’ve also been thinking about whipping up some hot buttered rum batter for the Christmas season. When I ran across Smitten Kitchen’s Butterscotch Sauce I thought why not combine the two so folks don’t feel obligated to booze it up- they’ll have options. Drinks or dessert or both. The choice, my friends, is yours.

Spiced Butterscotch Sauce

enough to fill five 4 ounce jars (which, in my case, means one ‘tester’ and four jars to give away as gifts)

• 1 stick (4 ounces) unsalted butter
• 1 1/2 cups (about 9 ounces) packed brown sugar
• 3/4 cup heavy cream
• 3 tsp vanilla
• 1tsp (or more) flaky sea salt or kosher salt
• 2 tsp cinnamon (I used ceylon which is a bit mellower so perhaps a bit less depending on type and how fresh your spices are)
• 1/2 tsp garam masala
• 1/2 tsp nutmeg (this is a guess I just grated some in until it seemed like enough)
• 1/4 tsp ground clove

Melt butter in a medium heavy-bottomed saucepan over medium heat. Add the sugar, cream and salt and stir until well blended. Bring to a very gentle boil and cook for about 5 minutes, stirring occasionally.

Remove from heat and add the vanilla extract, stirring to combine.

Taste and add more salt if desired just be careful- butterscotch and caramel are insanely hot, I’ve burnt my tongue more than once on sugary goodness.

Add spices and throughly combine.

Sauce will thicken as it cools. Serve as a sauce over ice cream or it is also wonderful in hot buttered rum- see recipe below. Store refrigerated in a covered container.

Recipe

Hot Butter-scotched Rum

This bad boy is bold and warms you from your tongue to your toes.

In a heat proof mug or glass combine

• 1 TBS Spiced Butterscotch Sauce
• 2 ounces of your favorite gold or dark rum, and
• 6 ounces of boiling water

Stir to combine. Garnish with a cinnamon stick and/or whipped cream drizzled with just a bit more sauce. For my photo shoot I tried this with the coffee infused rum, yum! but it definitely benefitted from the added indulgence of whipped cream.