This is the best butter rum muffin recipe. One of my favorites, I tested several recipes and came up with and created my own DELICIOUS one.
Every summer, we head up to Boothbay Harbor, Maine. We love it there and if we’re so fortunate, we get to stay about a week, and enjoy everything that Boothbay Harbor has to offer. Every morning, we head to the General Store in East Boothbay, and we each get a Butter Rum muffin. A muffin that we look forward to enjoying all year, I set out in my test kitchen to recreate the recipe. After NINE attempts, I finally came up with a Butter Rum Muffin Recipe that just may be even better than those from the General Store!
Best Butter Rum Muffin Recipe
Though I did ask the owner if she would share her recipe, she quickly declined, so there was only one thing to do. Make my own butter rum muffin recipe. Bringing home a half dozen for research and development, I was focused and determined. Who knew that a muffin recipe would be so challenging to recreate. Every attempt came up short of that delicious butter rum-y flavor. I would bake a small batch, compare bites with the Maine version, and every time, I was missing one key component, but what was it?
I set out and continued my research, but then started thinking about extracts. It’s extracts that enhance flavors, especially in baked goodies, so of course this would make sense with this muffin recipe. I started out using vanilla extract and that was a complete miss. The vanilla robbed the rum flavors and it tasted more like a vanilla muffin. I pondered over my collection of flavored extracts and got me wondering if there’s a such thing as butter rum flavoring.
Done, and done! Not only did I recreate the coveted recipe from Maine, but I came up with an even better recipe!
Here Is My Favorite Muffin Recipe Of All Time
In this recipe, I used large-sized muffin pan, where I could bake 6 muffins per pan. Although I lean toward the larger muffins, all sizes have their virtues. The recipe also calls for butter rum flavoring, and you can find that here.
Butter Rum Muffins
Equipment
- Muffin Pan
Ingredients
- 12 Tablespoons butter room temperature
- 1 1/2 cups sugar
- 3 eggs
- 3 teaspoons butter rum flavoring
- 1 cup sour cream
- 1/4 cup milk
- 2 1/2 cups flour
- 2 teaspoons baking powder
- 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 1 12 ounce bag butterscotch chips
- 2 Tablespoons brown sugar for sprinkling
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees Place paper liners in muffin pans and set aside.
- In a bowl, sift together flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt. Set aside.
- Using an electric mixer, cream together butter and sugar until light and fluffy. With the mixer on low, add the eggs, one at a time. Add the butter rum flavoring, sour cream and milk. Mix until combined.
- Keeping the mixer on low speed, slowly add the flour mixture and beat until just mixed. Fold in the butterscotch chips with a rubber spatula.
- Scoop the batter into muffin pan(s), filling 3/4 of the way full. Sprinkle the tops with a generous amount of brown sugar.
- Bake for 18-20 minutes or until toothpick inserted comes out clean. Cool in pans for 5 minutes, then remove. Serve warm or even at room temperature. Delicious either way!
Would you like another delicious muffin recipe? Then look no further than here!!
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I can’t wait to make these! Can you tell me where you find the butter rum flavoring? I’ve been to multiple stores looking for it but am only finding rum extract. My mom mentioned I could maybe use candy flavoring. Is that the same thing? If so, same amount used? Thank you so much!
You can always find the butter rum flavoring on Amazon.
Best,
B
I have separate butter and rum flavorings which I’ve had for awhile. I use 2 tsps of each, which tastes good to us in the resulting muffins. Amazon was the source but I see butter rum is available in one bottle.
Hi VW,
I’m enjoying all of your recipe testing feedback. I do use the butter rum extract that comes in one bottle, and I did find it from Amazon.
All my best,
Brooke
We love butter rum muffins and buy large tasty ones at ShopRite’s bakery. Unfortunately, they don’t always have them. I’ve tried 5 times to bake them without success – hard, too dense, just not good. My 6th try was this recipe: Wow, 90% as good as the commercial version, which means very tasty! I would definitely bake again but did have one problem I don’t know how to solve. Most of the chips melted and/or sank to the bottom, making a sticky (but tasty) mess. I used skim milk but otherwise the exact recipe. Used only an 11 ounce bag of chips which still seemed like too many to me. The commercial version is a large muffin, so I used a large 6 muffin size tin and baked for about 30 minutes, which seemed about right texture-wise. The yield was 10 large muffins. Is the larger size and longer bake time the reason the chips sank or melted? Any suggestions on how to fix my sinking chips problem, which would result in perfect large muffins? Thanks for the recipe and any suggestions.
Hey there!
Thank you for the 5 star rating! I’m so happy my recipe is a winner! It took me nine tries to perfect my recipe, so I’m with you on all those attempts. Here is what I suggest to fix the sinking chips problem: Before you pour the chips into the batter, toss them with a couple tablespoons of flour to lightly coat them. This will keep the chips suspended in the batter and will hopefully keep them from sinking. 2 Tablespoons of flour is enough and will not change the flavor of the muffins.
I hope this helps.
xo,
Brooke
I made standard size muffins this time. The yield was 18 muffins. The flour on the chips worked as they didn’t sink to the bottom of the paper. I also reserved some of the chips and sprinkled on the top. The cooking time was 5 minutes longer (25 minutes total). Is that because I’m using skim milk instead of regular? The muffins didn’t brown well so I tried 4 minutes under the broiler, which helped. Overall, I though the jumbo texture was better, so I’ll try again with regular milk and try to not overmix.
Hi VW,
I do believe the cooking time was longer because of the skim milk. Let me know how your recipe works with the whole milk!
These have a delicious flavor. I left off the brown sugar though. Is that why my muffins didn’t brown on the top? Any suggestions?
Hi Naimah! The sugar sprinkled on top does caramelize, which gives that golden color on top. Although optional, the sugar also adds a nice crunch as well. I hope this helps. 🙂
These look delish! I’m cutting back on carbs now, but as soon as I’m transitioning, I have to try these!
Good for you, Sara!! Stay strong and keep going!
Oh my yumminess, Brooke. These sound amazing. I’m not much of a baker. In fact, I’m a bit of a disaster when it comes to anything that involves an oven. My daughter on the other hand is a pro so I’ll be sending this recipe on to her so she can spoil her Mom 😉
I’m not the best baker either. In fact, I don’t really enjoy it. However, I do really enjoy making muffins because they basically are foolproof. This recipe is delish and even if you don’t bake them yourself, hopefully your daughter will and give you a few!
These butter rum muffins look delicious!
I cannot wait to try them.
Have a great day,
Kippi
They are so good, Kippi!!
Can’t wait to visit Maine again and try these muffins. Rum cake is one of my husbands favorites, but we use real rum. This will be on my list to make soon.
How many does this recipe yield
This recipe yields 12 regular sized muffins and 6 jumbo sized muffins.
Hi, if I can’t use butterscotch chips is there something else you would recommend? Or would there be an issue just leaving them out? I have a child with peanut allergies and unfortunately the only butterscotch chips I can find have a peanut warning.
Hi Michelle,
You can omit the butterscotch chips, though the muffins will lack that “butter” flavor. But, give it a shot for sure!!