Celebrating Harry Potter

Are you sick of monotonous muggle food? For all of you Harry Potter fans wanting to bring the wizarding world to life in honor of the newest movie, here are three delicious recipes straight from Hogsmaid:

Butterbeer
Yields 6-8 glasses

Ingredients
1 cup butterscotch schnapps
7 cups cream soda (almost one 2 liter bottle)

Directions
Carefully mix just before serving, adding the schnapps to the soda then stirring gently to mix well, or the fizz will dissipate too soon.

You can also find butterscotch flavoring near the vanilla flavoring in the baking section of the grocery store, but it is more difficult to find, and actually the flavoring is 35% alcohol where the schnapps is only 15% alcohol by volume, so if you're making large quantities of butterbeer, just buy the schnapps.

Cauldron Cakes
Yields about 3 dozen cupcakes from a standard cake mix

Ingredients
Your favorite devils food cake recipe, made into cupcakes and black string licorice

Directions
Bake your cupcakes according to the instructions, without using paper cup liners. Slice off the top of the crown of each cupcake so that when it is turned upside down, it sits flat. This gives you more of a cauldron shape than a cupcake shape. Cut the black string licorice into small pieces and poke them into the cupcakes as cauldron handles.

Pumpkin Pasties
Yields about 3 dozen miniature pasties

Ingredients
2 eggs, slightly beaten
3/4 cup sugar
1 1 lb. can pumpkin
(or 2 cups fresh, roasted in the oven then pressed
through a strainer to save your Pumpkin Juice to drink!)
1/2 tsp. salt
1 tsp. cinnamon
1/2 tsp. ginger
1/4 tsp. cloves
1 2/3 cups evaporated milk (1 can)
1/2 tsp. allspice
9 oz pie crust pastry (enough for two single standard pie crusts)

Directions
Bake the pie filling only (no crust) in a large casserole dish in hot oven (425 degrees) for 15 minutes. Keep oven door closed and reduce temp to moderate (350 degrees F) and continue baking for 45 minutes or until table knife inserted in center of dish comes out clean. Cool on wire rack.

Make or purchase pie crust pastry. Roll thin and cut into circles approx 4" in diameter. Put a spoonful of the cool pumpkin mixture towards one side of the center of the circle. Fold over the crust into a half-circle and firmly crimp the edges closed. Slice three small slits in the top for venting, place on a greased cookie sheet, and bake only until crust is a light golden-brown. Great served at room temperature, then you don't have to worry about your guests possibly burning their mouths from the steaming hot pumpkin inside!

Thanks to these recipes, you don’t have to apparate to Hogwarts to eat these treats, you can make them right at home!