Hot Buttered Rum Cookies

Well. I've ventured into the unknown (for me at least) of making cookies without a recipe. Again by necessity. I've run out of chocolate chips, and discovered this right AFTER I came back from a store run for dinner ingredients. OF COURSE. How do I keep running out of things without me realizing it? Especially things like this that I'm the only one in the house that uses them. *Sigh* Oh well. Life goes on. So, being the innovative (and slightly desperate) person that I am, I searched my cupboards and pantry for inspiration. And I found it. Hot buttered rum mix. I'm not a fan of hot buttered rum myself, the idea of rum in and of itself is slightly nauseating to me, but my husband likes it, so we happened to have a container. Having had the drink only once, I had NO idea what was actually in it, only that it smelled wonderful. If you choose to make your own instead of using a store-bought mix, it's super simple, just see the recipe I have posted for it. 


Okay. Onto the cookies. I made this recipe up, and I'm pretty darn proud of myself for it. Because I had to tweak it quite a bit as I went along, there are no in process shots. Sorry guys, I'll get some next time I make these. 


Ingredients:


1 cup butter, softened (2 sticks)
1 cup brown sugar
1 tsp vanilla
1/3 cup hot buttered rum mix
1 tbsp Kahlua (or other coffee-flavored liqueur)
2 eggs
2 2/3 cup flour
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp cinnamon
1/4 tsp cloves
1/4 tsp nutmeg


Directions:


Preheat oven to 325º. Line a cookie sheet with parchment paper or silicone baking mat.


Cream butter. Add sugar, vanilla, hot buttered rum mix, and kahlua, mix until well blended. Add eggs, and mix until just barely combined. If you're using a hand mixer, PUT IT DOWN NOW. Trust me. You'll thank me later. If you've got some fancy Kitchen-Aid with a super slow setting and/or a paddle attachment, please, feel free to continue. I've got a hand mixer with beater attachments only, and I've already ruined one batch of my molasses cookies by not putting it down before I put the dry ingredients in. Trust me. Do it.


Mix the remaining dry ingredients together and mix into the wet. Do not over mix. Again, learn from my mistakes! 


Roll into 1" balls, roll in sugar (or you can do a mixture of sugar, cinnamon, cloves and nutmeg like I did! I kept about the same proportions of sugar and spices as in the cookies). Bake for 8-11 mins (mine were 10 on the dot). Let cool on the cookie sheet for a minute or two, then transfer to a cooling rack, or parchment paper over a kitchen towel on the counter. 




Okay. So, for whatever reason, these cookies have a slightly apple-y taste to them. I used Reser's Hot Buttered Rum mix for these, since I had it on hand already and it needed to be used. 

That may have been it? I'm open to interpretation though, and if anyone makes it with the homemade (which I'm going to next time around!), let me know if it makes a difference. After they were cooled off, they also tasted a bit like snickerdoodles! YUM! 


Here's the finished product:

DELICIOUS!