
Homemade Coconut Cream Pie
This decadent Coconut Cream Pie is a classic! Made with a graham cracker crust, creamy coconut filling, and topped with rum-spiked whipped cream this made-from-scratch pie will be your go-to!
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Homemade Coconut Cream Pie
This decadent Coconut Cream Pie is a classic! Made with a graham cracker crust, creamy coconut filling, and topped with rum-spiked whipped cream this made-from-scratch pie will be your go-to!
READ: Homemade Coconut Cream Pie
This decadent Coconut Cream Pie is a classic! Made with a graham cracker crust, creamy coconut filling, and topped with rum-spiked whipped cream this made-from-scratch pie will be your go-to!
These oh-so-gooey and gloriously boozy sticky buns include all the delightful flavors of hot buttered rum baked up in a yeasty spiral of holiday cheer. Swirls of buttery soft dough, spiced sugar filling, and a gooey spiced and rum-spiked caramel glaze makes these hot buttered rum-inspired sticky buns perfect for your holiday brunch! This post […]
These oh-so-gooey and gloriously boozy sticky buns include all the delightful flavors of hot buttered rum baked up in a yeasty spiral of holiday cheer.
Swirls of buttery soft dough, spiced sugar filling, and a gooey spiced and rum-spiked caramel glaze makes these hot buttered rum-inspired sticky buns perfect for your holiday brunch!
This post is sponsored by The Spice Hunter, our favorite source for non-GMO herbs and spices sourced from ideal growing regions around the world.
With a filling of brown sugar and festive spices, and a sweet and sticky caramel topping spiked with dark rum, not to mention ample chopped pecans for crunch and contrast, these hot buttered rum-inspired sticky buns are a feast for the senses.
You all know how I feel about boozy baking, and these gloriously gooey, sensually spiced, and ravishingly rum-soaked sticky buns are proof that adding booze to baked goods is always a good idea. It’s the kind of recipe you’ll find yourself coming back to again and again.
Hello new Christmas-morning tradition!
The flavor inspiration for these sticky buns comes from hot buttered rum, a popular fall and winter drink dating back to colonial times, when rum was believed to be a miraculous cure-all and ‘strengthener of the body’. In fact, a hot rum-based drink like this was probably enjoyed medicinally more often than recreationally.
A hot buttered rum is traditionally made by mixing hot water with rum, sugar, spices, and a pat of butter for added richness and a luxurious mouth feel.
It’s similar to a hot toddy, both sweetened and sometimes spiced drinks served hot, but a hot buttered rum contains the notable addition of butter and, obviously, uses rum instead of whiskey.
Hot buttered rum recipes vary greatly in the mix and proportion of spices, but most include a mix of cinnamon, nutmeg, allspice, cardamom and cloves.
For this recipe, rather than raid the spice rack for a pinch of this and a pinch of that, we used a packet of Hot Buttered Rum drink mix from The Spice Hunter. One packet is split between the spiced sugar filling, while the rest is added to the gooey caramel topping along with a generous glug or two of dark rum.
The spice mix is already perfectly balanced, and also makes the filling part super easy (just mix with a bit of brown sugar and sprinkle away). No pinches (or measuring spoons) required!
We baked a batch of these sticky buns last weekend, assuming that a somewhat complicated recipe like this would necessitate at least a second go-round to get it right (although surprisingly, other than a mishap involving a plate that was slightly too small and hot caramel everywhere, that first batch was pretty darn perfect which almost never happens). Knowing we were going to be making another batch the following weekend anyway, we made quick work of packing the still-warm buns in recycled takeout containers and delivering them to our neighbors, saving just two for ourselves.
The following day Taylor warmed one up for an afternoon snack, quickly realizing that a reheated sticky bun is indeed a fabulous afternoon stack, and immediately started lamenting the fact that we had given the rest away.
Needless to say when we made the final batch to photograph, we kept most of them for ourselves.
What’s the difference between a sticky bun and a cinnamon roll anyway?
Well, they both start out with a soft and yeasty dough, rolled into a tight spiral with a cinnamon-sugar filling.
The main difference is sticky buns are baked on a bed of hot, gooey caramel and chopped pecans, and then inverted immediately after baking, not unlike an upside down cake. The bottom becomes the top, the gooey caramel oozing down the sides of the buns and your fingers.
These sticky buns are made using a dough very similar to my favorite cinnamon roll dough recipe, which I used previously for these Matcha Black Sesame Cinnamon Rolls.
The dough begins with what’s called a tangzhong, an asian technique for soft and tender yeast breads. Pre-cooking a little bit of flour and liquid like this allows the dough to better absorb more liquid, resulting in a softer, more tender final product.
The dough is easily made in about 45 minutes, including a 20 minute rest and 10 minutes of kneading in a mixer to form a soft and silky smooth dough. While you can let the dough rise and then roll it out, I prefer to refrigerate the dough overnight and assemble the following day. Refrigerating the dough makes it a bit stiffer and easier to work with.
When cutting your rolls, use a piece of unflavored dental floss or sturdy thread to slice the dough as if it were clay. This results in far cleaner cuts than even the sharpest serrated knife, and no squishing either.
Once rolled and cut, the buns are arranged in the baking pan on a bed of gooey, rum-spiked caramel and chopped pecans. Much like an upside down cake, this gooey bottom layer will ultimately become the tops of the buns.
While I prefer to let the dough rise overnight and assemble the morning of, if you started your dough earlier the previous day, you can also roll and assemble the buns in the pan the night before. Cover tightly and refrigerate overnight. In the morning they should be noticeably puffy as pictured above. Let them sit at room temperature as you preheat the oven and then bake. If you’re aiming for a breakfast of sticky buns as opposed to a brunch, this might be a more feasible schedule.
After baking, the buns are immediately inverted onto a platter, the caramel base becoming the gooey top of the bun.
You want to do this while the buns are still hot, which means that the caramel is still dangerously hot, so please be careful when inverting your buns. I like to use a set of silicone-gripped grill gloves, which allow me to grip onto the pan much easier than a normal oven mit.
You can use a large rimmed plate, baking sheet, or a cutting board with a groove in it (the groove will catch any overflow). Invert the platter on top of the baking pan, put a hand firmly on top of the platter and on the bottom of the pan, and quickly flip the whole arrangement upside down. Then gently lift up the pan, the buns should release easily (if the caramel cools too much it could get sticky).
This recipe is for a small batch, yielding 9 buns that’ll perfectly fit in a 9-inch square baking pan. You can use a 9 or 10-inch round baking pan, although you may only have space for 8 buns in that case (you could always bake the straggler in its own ramekin with a spoonful or two of caramel sauce in the bottom if you like!)
This recipe can also be doubled and baked in a 13-by-9-inch baking pan as well.
Any leftover buns should be covered and refrigerated. Reheat for a few seconds in the microwave or pop it in a warm oven for a few minutes until warmed through, and enjoy!
Your favorite warm holiday cocktail is transformed into deliciously gooey sticky buns spiked with rum and fragrant holiday spices.
Let us know what you think!
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Disclosure: This post was created in partnership with The Spice Hunter®. As always, all opinions written are purely our own. We’re incredibly grateful for opportunities like these that allow us to continue sharing delicious recipes with you, so thank you for supporting us and the brands we love.
We’ve partnered with Santa Teresa 1796—a dry, refined rum crafted in Caracas, Venezuela—to share a winter-ready sipper you’ll want to stir up all season long: a rum-forward riff on the classic Martinez cocktail from Maine-based bartender Harper Fendler…
We’ve partnered with Santa Teresa 1796—a dry, refined rum crafted in Caracas, Venezuela—to share a winter-ready sipper you’ll want to stir up all season long: a rum-forward riff on the classic Martinez cocktail from Maine-based bartender Harper Fendler.
With the temperature dropping here in Maine, I’m beginning to layer up. The boots and heavier jacket are a given, but come winter, I like to have something to warm the soul, too.
Finally! I’ve figured out how to make the perfect homemade mojito. Mojitos are bubbly rum cocktails that taste minty-fresh, citrusy and a little sweet. Club soda stretches…
The post Classic Mojito appeared first on Cookie and Kate.
Finally! I’ve figured out how to make the perfect homemade mojito. Mojitos are bubbly rum cocktails that taste minty-fresh, citrusy and a little sweet. Club soda stretches out the flavors to create an afternoon-worthy sipper. Mojitos are ultra refreshing on warm days, and I feel like I’m on vacation every time I get my hands on one.
Mojitos originated in Cuba and I hope to taste a real one someday. We enjoyed Cuban-style mojitos in Miami over a long Valentine’s weekend earlier this year. Mojitos happen to be the only cocktail my husband will drink (he’s usually more of a beer and wine guy). I studied the bartenders’ methods while we were there so I could learn how to make them at home.
At Old’s Havana, they lined up highball glasses all the way down the bar, added a generous spoonful of sugar to each, followed by several sprigs of fresh mint (or yerba buena, as they call it). They mixed the mojitos in the glasses by the order, garnishing them with real sugar cane. I swizzled my drink and swayed to the beat of lively Latin string music playing just a few feet away. I honestly don’t know if it was an authentic or manufactured Miami experience, but it was magical nonetheless.
Outside of Miami, great mojitos can be hard to come by. Many bars don’t keep fresh mint on hand so they’ll turn down the request, and my own homemade attempts over the years have been lackluster. Now that I’ve studied and practiced my mojito technique, I’m excited to share my mojito recipe with you today!
Turns out, you just need five basic ingredients (mint, lime, sugar, rum and club soda) and a few simple tips to make the best mojito you’ve ever had. You won’t even need a shaker or simple syrup for this classic mojito recipe. Cheers to a long weekend!
The post Classic Mojito appeared first on Cookie and Kate.
Nothing tastes like summer or a day at the beach like a piña colada. Our simple version requires just 2 ingredients: frozen ripe pineapple and coconut milk.
Let us show you how it’s done, plus easy ways to add protein if enjoying as a smoothie, or boo…
Nothing tastes like summer or a day at the beach like a piña colada. Our simple version requires just 2 ingredients: frozen ripe pineapple and coconut milk.
Let us show you how it’s done, plus easy ways to add protein if enjoying as a smoothie, or booze if enjoying as a cocktail.
What Is a Piña Colada?
The piña colada is a frozen blended drink that originated in Puerto Rico.
The Jungle Bird is a tropical rum cocktail with a twist! Bitter Campari offsets sweet pineapple juice to make a balanced, refreshing mixed drink. Love fruity drinks but want something more complex? Here’s the drink for you: the Jungle Bird! It’s one of the few rum cocktails to pair tropical flavors with an Italian bitter: Campari. You might know Campari from the ubiquitous Negroni: an ultra dry and bitter drink. But add it to a tropical drink and the effect is surprising. Campari perfectly balances the drink and gives the finish an intriguing complexity. In fact, it’s become a favorite around here…and that’s saying something, given our extensive library of cocktails. It hits all the right notes: sweet, tart, fruity, and bitter. What’s a Jungle Bird cocktail? The Jungle Bird is a tropical cocktail made with rum, pineapple juice, and Campari. The story goes that it was invented in 1978 at the Aviary bar of the Kuala Lumpur Hilton. The telltale sign it’s that it’s modern: it fuses the Italian bitter Campari with the tropical flavors. This drink recently surged in popularity, fueled by the Negroni craze. The drink is often garnished with pineapple leaves to mimic the feathers of […]
The Jungle Bird is a tropical rum cocktail with a twist! Bitter Campari offsets sweet pineapple juice to make a balanced, refreshing mixed drink.
Love fruity drinks but want something more complex? Here’s the drink for you: the Jungle Bird! It’s one of the few rum cocktails to pair tropical flavors with an Italian bitter: Campari. You might know Campari from the ubiquitous Negroni: an ultra dry and bitter drink. But add it to a tropical drink and the effect is surprising. Campari perfectly balances the drink and gives the finish an intriguing complexity. In fact, it’s become a favorite around here…and that’s saying something, given our extensive library of cocktails. It hits all the right notes: sweet, tart, fruity, and bitter.
The Jungle Bird is a tropical cocktail made with rum, pineapple juice, and Campari. The story goes that it was invented in 1978 at the Aviary bar of the Kuala Lumpur Hilton. The telltale sign it’s that it’s modern: it fuses the Italian bitter Campari with the tropical flavors. This drink recently surged in popularity, fueled by the Negroni craze. The drink is often garnished with pineapple leaves to mimic the feathers of a bird. The ingredients in a Jungle Bird cocktail are:
The Jungle Bird uses dark rum: something altogether different than the light rum you’ve got for daiquiris and piña coladas. Here’s a breakdown of the differences:
Can you use light rum in a Jungle Bird? Sure. It won’t taste quite the same, but it’s similar. Of course if you’re a purist: go grab a bottle of dark rum!
Campari is an Italian bitter with a bright red color! It’s easy to find, most famously used in the Negroni and other classic cocktails like the Americano and Boulevardier.
What does Campari taste like? It’s tastes bitter, fruity, and spicy all at once. It’s infused with different herbs and fruits, part of a secret recipe. Fun fact: Campari was originally colored so brightly red due to a dye made of crushed insects! That’s no longer in the modern recipe, so it shouldn’t deter you from grabbing a bottle.
It’s quick and easy to make a Jungle Bird once you’ve got all the ingredients on hand! It’s a typical shaken cocktail that you’ll shake in a
Love Campari? There are so many interesting drinks with this Italian liqueur to try outside of the Negroni. Here are some great Campari cocktails to test out:
The Jungle Bird is a festive and fun cocktail, great for parties or a laid back evening! It’s great as a:
The Jungle Bird is a tropical rum cocktail with a twist! Bitter Campari offsets sweet pineapple juice to make a balanced, refreshing mixed drink.
Keywords: Jungle Bird, Rum cocktail
Love mixed drinks with rum? Here are a few more to add to your repertoire:
A Couple Cooks - Healthy, Whole Food, & Vegetarian Recipes
The hottest days of the year are here and so are mojito watermelon wedges! Just in time! I’m back with one more embarrassingly easy recipe for you before the 4th! I know we already discussed sheet pan s’mores, but if you haven’t soaked your watermelon wedges in mojito syrup yet, are you really living? No. […]
The post Salted Mojito Watermelon Wedges. appeared first on How Sweet Eats.
The hottest days of the year are here and so are mojito watermelon wedges!
Just in time!
I’m back with one more embarrassingly easy recipe for you before the 4th! I know we already discussed sheet pan s’mores, but if you haven’t soaked your watermelon wedges in mojito syrup yet, are you really living?
No. I think not.
And wait! Just and FYI that you don’t really NEED the rum for this recipe to be so refreshing and incredible. Leave it out if you don’t drink or want to make this for the kids. It’s still just as good because it’s loaded with fresh mint and lime!
Slice your watermelon into triangles. Well, honestly? Slice the watermelon however you want! However is easiest for you. You could do cubes or even melon balls. I’m doing wedges because right now at this moment in my life I find them the cutest.
That is what 2020 has turned into… me deciding that watermelon wedges are cute.
You’re also going to make a quick mojito syrup. This is just water, lime juice, maybe rum, sugar, lime zest and fresh mint. All simmered together and then poured over the watermelon.
YES.
We’re going to soak the watermelon in the mojito syrup. Throw a sheet pan in the fridge and let the watermelon hang out in the syrup.
Honestly can’t even tell you right now how much I’d like to be a wedge of watermelon just relaxing on a platter of mojito syrup.
Sounds heavenly.
I’ve seen people soak watermelon wedges in tequila before (I mean, OMG, yes please) so I figured the mojito flavor would be a huge winner. And it totally is!
These are SO good on a hot summer day. They are cold and fresh with hints of lime and mint. And easy! And cute. Of course.
Tastes like summmmmer.
The post Salted Mojito Watermelon Wedges. appeared first on How Sweet Eats.
Note: I’ll be making this cocktail today at 6pm CET (Noon ET, 9am PT) on my IG Live Apéro Hour on Instagram. To watch, head to my profile on my IG profile page at that time, and when the circle around my profile pic says “Live” – click on it to tune in. And on Tuesday, May 26th, my guest will be Pierre-Olivier Rousseaux, owner…
Note: I’ll be making this cocktail today at 6pm CET (Noon ET, 9am PT) on my IG Live Apéro Hour on Instagram. To watch, head to my profile on my IG profile page at that time, and when the circle around my profile pic says “Live” – click on it to tune in. And on Tuesday, May 26th, my guest will be Pierre-Olivier Rousseaux, owner of Dolin vermouth, who will explain how vermouth is made, how to use and store it, and answer your other questions. More info, as well as how to watch it in replay in my IGTV channel archives, is here.
People sometimes pick up vermouth blanc, called bianco vermouth in Italian, and don’t realize until the open the bottle that the vermouth is sweet, when they thought they were buying dry vermouth. Don’t worry if it happened to you; it happened to a friend one mine too, who happens to be a notable spirits writer. On the upside, you’ve now got one of the principal ingredients for one of my new favorite cocktails, the El Presidente.
Continue Reading El Presidente cocktail...
Banana bread meets classic Bananas Foster in this mouth-watering mashup. Made with caramelized sugar and bananas and a splash of dark rum, it’s a tantalizing twist you’ll simply adore. While it might look like a normal loaf of banana bread, this loaf features something extra special: a rich caramelized banana base and a glug or […]
Banana bread meets classic Bananas Foster in this mouth-watering mashup. Made with caramelized sugar and bananas and a splash of dark rum, it’s a tantalizing twist you’ll simply adore.
While it might look like a normal loaf of banana bread, this loaf features something extra special: a rich caramelized banana base and a glug or two of dark rum.
I am, apparently, in a breakfast-baked-goods sort of mood. I’m not craving cookies or cakes or brownies; no, all I’ve wanted to bake these last few weeks are muffins, coffee cakes, and, obviously banana bread.
Clearly I’m not alone in this last craving… as evidenced by the fact that Instagram is basically 32% banana bread these days.
I can’t quite explain it. Maybe it’s the fact that none of us can get to the store as often to replenish our fresh bananas, so when we do get out, we buy two bunches instead of one, without quite realizing that, no matter how green they were when we bought them, we can’t feasibly eat two bunches before they start to get spotty.
That’s actually good news, though, because, when it comes to banana bread, the spottier the bananas, the better. In fact, I’d argue that yellow bananas with black spots aren’t quite ripe enough—rather, the bananas should be the opposite: black with yellow spots—that’s when you know they’re perfect for banana bread.
Pro tip: if you find yourself with more than 2 or 3 spotty bananas at once, they freeze beautifully. Just peel, place in a labeled zip-top bag, and freeze for up to 6 months. And next time the banana bread (or banana muffins or banana cake) craving hits, all you need to do is let them defrost for about an hour or so, until they are soft (but not runny; drain of any excess liquid if there is any), and then mash them into your favorite banana bread recipe (which, if I have anything to do with it, will be this one).
So what makes this banana bread different from every other recipe out there?
Caramelizing together the brown sugar, butter, and banana beforehand gives this banana bread and extra special depth of flavor, and superb moistness that lasts for days. While you might not notice a difference just tasting it, I’m sure if you compared it to a loaf made in the standard way, you’d definitely notice a difference.
The process does take a bit longer than your standard banana bread, since the caramel mixture needs time to cool otherwise it’d scramble the eggs on contact (I don’t think I need to tell you that that would be no bueno). It’s not any harder than basic banana bread as any extra time involved is entirely inactive (is it a coincidence that 45 minutes is the exact length of an episode of Outlander? I think not.)
[Note: Today’s guest on my Apéro Hour on IG Live will be distiller and founder of Pierre Ferrand cognac, Citadelle gin and Plantation rum, Alexandre Gabriel. Tune in April 22 at 6pm CET, Noon ET and 9am PT. Visit here for instructions on how to watch live. Because this will be a split-screen video, you can only watch it in replay in my Instagram Stories…
[Note: Today’s guest on my Apéro Hour on IG Live will be distiller and founder of Pierre Ferrand cognac, Citadelle gin and Plantation rum, Alexandre Gabriel. Tune in April 22 at 6pm CET, Noon ET and 9am PT. Visit here for instructions on how to watch live. Because this will be a split-screen video, you can only watch it in replay in my Instagram Stories within 24hrs after it’s originally aired.]
Since the confinement started, I’ve been doing a daily Apéro Hour on Instagram Live, archiving some of the episodes on my IGTV channel. Since I’ve never been able to get a tv show of my own, I decided just to do my own. (What could go wrong? And even so, what happens during confinement, stays in confinement. Right?) And when you’re the boss…and the producer, talent booker, presenter, cameraman, mixologist, and dishwasher…you get to call the shots. So I did, and invited some of my favorite bartenders, cocktail writers, and spirit-makers to come and talk about what they do.
Due to quirk in the platform, split-screen interviews can’t be archived (so I don’t get to call all the shots…) but it’s been really fun having people on that you might not normally get to meet, like my friend Mat who distills brandy and gin in Burgundy, Margot who owns Combat, a great cocktail bar in Paris, David from Belleville Brûlerie who showed us how to make the perfect café crème with a moka pot, and Alexandre Gabriel, who not only distills cognac and Citadelle gin, but also owns Plantation rum.
Continue Reading Daiquiri Cocktail...