I have a hot buttered rum recipe for you! While it would be socially irresponsible of me to classify this cocktail as "healthy," it is low in carbs and completely sugar-free. If you are on a low carb diet or watching your sugar intake, but craving a warm, wintery holiday cocktail then this is for you, my friend! It's creamy, decadent, and perfect for a holiday get-together or special occasion.
Don't forget to PIN it for later!
Low Carb Hot Buttered Rum
So here's the deal, hot buttered rum is usually loaded with sugar.Traditionally recipes call for anywhere between ¼ cup to an entire cup (!) of sugar. Not today, mixology snobs! As per usual, I'm throwing tradition to the wind and doing things a little differently. Instead of sugar, we're using a low carb sweetener as a replacement.
I recently fell in love with monkfruit sweetener by total accident. I sent my partner to the health food store to pick up Swerve for a recipe I was working on, and they were out. We spent some time on the phone hashing out the ingredient labels while googling until he found something on the shelves that I could have: Lakanto Monkfruit Sweetener.
Sweeteners are hit or miss for me, so I was hesitant to even try. I almost sent him somewhere else to look for Swerve, which is Erythritol and Stevia. I loathe xylitol, love Erythritol, feel pretty "meh" about Stevia, and had never tried monkfruit. Since the Lakanto brand had monkfruit and my beloved Erythritol, I decided to give it a shot. OH. MY. LAWD! I'm a total convert for sure; I much prefer the flavor of this blend. It got me excited about making sweet stuff, which I hardly ever do! So that's what I'm using in the recipe, but feel free to use whichever sugar-free sweetener you prefer.
The Sugar-Free Hot Buttered Rum Recipe
This is a super easy hot buttered rum recipe; no fancy steps or mixology skills required. If you can bring something to a boil, you can handle this!
For the recipe, you'll need to gather some things: rum, unsalted butter, low carb sweetener, cinnamon, nutmeg, salt, and water. Put all of your ingredient in a saucepan, except the rum, and bring to a boil. Drop it down to a simmer for a few minutes, whisk the mixture, then remove from heat. Mix in the rum and serve. Enjoy your low carb, sugar-free hot buttered rum!
Looking for more low carb cocktail recipes?
Try one of these!
📖 Recipe
Ingredients
- 2 cups water
- ¼ cup butter unsalted, ½ stick
- ¼ cup monkfruit sweetener or preferred low carb sweetener
- 1 tsp cinnamon ground
- ½ tsp nutmeg ground
- sea salt to taste
- 1 cup rum
Instructions
- Combine water, butter, sweetener, cinnamon, nutmeg, and sea salt in a saucepan and bring to a boil. Reduce heat to a simmer and whisk ingredients well. Simmer for 5 minutes and remove from heat.
- Mix in rum and serve!
Notes
Nutrition
Hi, I'm Tasha–nutritionist, recipe developer, and multi-published cookbook author.
This looks delicious! Just in time! Thank you!
Do you use dark or light rum???
If you wanted to make this alcohol free how much rum extract do you think could be added to mimick the flavour? And should more liquid be added to balance?
Hi Christeen, that's a good question! I'm not really familiar with rum extract, so I'm not really sure what a good ratio to swap the two ingredients out would be. Most extracts are highly concentrated, so your line of thought to add liquid to balance seems like the way to go if you do give the recipe a try. Sorry I don't have a definitive answer for you!
This sounds excellent! But would it still be good if you cooked it and then put it in the fridge? We live in Louisiana and so it wont be cold here for very long! Lol
I'm assuming zero carbs, as they're not in your nutritional summary at all!? Also, is it white rum and could I sub spiced rum instead?
So, if you really want to knock this out of the park, use a can of coconut milk instead of water and a splash of vanilla extract. I used 1/4 cup confectioner sweetener and dark spiced rum. The consistency is like eggnog instead of watery. I call this concoction, Hot buttered island rum. 😉
Wow, thanks! I thought I was going to have to skip our traditional Christmas cocktail, but you have saved Christmas. I am also a monkfruit advocate and recommend it to family and friends even if they don't need to diet because it has no bitterness or after taste like Stevia.
Just wanted to mention for monkfruit newbies that the Lakanto in dry forms, (ie: monk fruit/erythritol combo) which I use, is a 1 to 1 equal measure with sugar. However, pure monkfruit is 300 times sweeter than sugar. So not all brands and/or forms it comes in are the same. I have used the Lakanto Classic=white granulated sugar, Lakanto Golden = light brown granulated sugar, and Lakanto Powdered=white powdered sugar (also know as confectioner's sugar) with great success. The Lakanto liquid I haven't tried yet but the equivalents are on the label.
Thanks for the recipes and the work you put in to make me healthier and thinner.
p.s. The Lakanto Drinking Chocolate is mega over sweetened. I'm returning mine to Amazon & just using unsweetened cocoa powder & Lakanto classic to make my hot chocolate.
Can erythritol or stevia be used?
What do you think about substituting coconut water for some of the water?
Or perhaps some whole milk instead if some water?