Wizard-Worthy Treats

Author & Photographer: Rylen Sigman

Anyone who knows me will readily agree that I am huge nerd - especially when it comes to all things Harry Potter. A few years back, I bought The Unofficial Harry Potter Cookbook in the hopes that I could recreate some of the most iconic foods from the Wizarding World. Although it took some time, I finally made some of the recipes I had read about as a child - and now you can too!

I chose to make three recipes from the book: Pumpkin Pasties, Sugar Mice, and Butterbeer. I mainly chose these recipes because they seemed simpler than some of the others (Treacle Tart is a nightmare), and because I was curious about how they would turn out. I found that the recipes were fairly comprehensible and an overall success.

So, keep reading to find some spellbinding snacks you’ll want to conjure up for yourself!

(Except you can’t actually, because conjuring food is one of the five Principal Exceptions to Gamp’s Law of Elemental Transfiguration).


Pumpkin Pasties

Pumpkin Pasties are one of the first foods Harry tries when he gets on the Hogwarts Express. They’re kind of a cross between traditional English pasties (baked pastry pies full of meat and vegetables) and pumpkin pie. The result is a delicious pumpkin-filled pastry!

Makes 6 pasties

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Ingredients:

Pastry Crust

  • 1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour

  • 1 tablespoon granulated sugar

  • 1/4 teaspoon salt

  • 5 tablespoons cold butter, cut into chunks

  • 3 tablespoons vegetable shortening, chilled and cut into chunks

  • 4 to 6 tablespoons ice water

Filling

  • 1 cup canned pumpkin, not pumpkin pie filling

  • 1/4 cup granulated sugar

  • 1/8 teaspoon ground nutmeg

  • 1/8 teaspoon ground cinnamon

Recipe:

  1. Place the flour, sugar, and salt in the bowl of a food processor. Pulse a few times to combine. Scatter the butter and shortening over the flour mixture. Pulse about 15 times until the mixture resembles a coarse yellow meal with no white powdery bits remaining.

  2. Transfer the mixture to a large mixing bowl. Sprinkle 4 tablespoons of cold water over the mixture. Toss the mixture together with a spatula until it starts clumping together. If it's too dry, add more water 1 tablespoon at a time (better too wet than too dry). Gather the dough into a ball and pat it into a disk. Wrap it in plastic wrap and refrigerate for at least 1 hour.

  3. Combine the pumpkin, sugar, nutmeg, and cinnamon in a mixing bowl. Mix well. Preheat the oven to 400°F. Roll out the dough 1/8-inch thick. Use a saucer to cut out 6 inch circles. Hint: use lots of flour when rolling the dough so it doesn’t get too sticky.

  4. Put 2 to 3 tablespoons of the filling in the center of each circle of dough. Moisten the edges with water, fold the dough over the filling, and crimp with a fork to seal the edges. Cut slits to make vents. 

  5. Bake on an ungreased cookie sheet for 30 minutes or until browned. Tip: Although the pasties taste good on their own, they also taste super yummy after being microwaved with a bit of butter

Adapted from: Dinah Bucholz’ Unofficial Harry Potter Cookbook

 

Sugar Mice

In the books, Sugar Mice are candies that squeak and move - luckily, these ones are just candy!

Makes 20 sugar mice

sugar mice.png

Ingredients:

  • ¾ stick (6 Tbsp) butter, at room temperature

  • ¼ cup light corn syrup

  • ½ tsp pure vanilla extract

  • 3 cup confectioners’ sugar, sifted

  • 1 box Pocky sticks

  • 1 bag peppermint chips

Recipe:

  1. Combine the butter, corn syrup, and vanilla and beat until thoroughly combined. Add the confectioners’ sugar slowly on the slowest speed until it forms a dough-like consistency. Add more confectioners’ sugar, 1 tablespoon at a time, if the mixture is sticky. Wrap the fondant in plastic wrap and refrigerate until fondant is hard enough to use (the colder the better, otherwise it will be too sticky to work with)

  2. To make the sugar mice, pinch off a small piece of fondant and roll into a 1-inch ball. Roll the ball into an oval and pinch one end for the nose, so the whole shape looks like a teardrop. Make two indentations for eyes with a toothpick and poke on two peppermint chips for ears. Then break a Pocky stick into thirds and use one piece to poke in a tail. If the fondant gets too soft to work with, put it back in the refrigerator to firm up again.

  3. Repeat until all the fondant is used up. Line up the mice on parchment paper and leave out overnight to dry. If they start to get too warm, you can keep them in the fridge as well.

Adapted from: Dinah Bucholz’ Unofficial Harry Potter Cookbook

 

Butterbeer

Butterbeer is a refreshing drink found in Wizarding pubs such as the Three Broomsticks. Although this recipe can be made with alcohol, I chose to modify it slightly so it would be appropriate for all ages.

Makes 2 glasses of butterbeer

butterbeer.png

Ingredients:

  • 1 egg white

  • 2oz butterscotch (I substituted this with maple syrup)

  • 1 oz heavy cream

  • splash of vanilla extract

  • 1/2oz simple syrup

  • Several bottles of cream soda

Recipe:

  1. Shake egg white, butterscotch, cream, vanilla, and simple syrup in a tumbler over ice.

  2. Add to half a glass of cream soda and refill as needed.

Adapted from: 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LXDAu8DnALw&feature=youtu.be

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