The Unofficial Harry Potter Cookbook (11 page)
These buns do not keep well. They should be eaten within a few hours of baking.
Hagrid's glue-your-teeth-together fudge turns out to be quite useful: after Hagrid's been taken to Azkaban, Harry feeds some to Fang to keep him quiet. Fang can't bark because his fangs are stuck together. Fudge is not foolproof, so it's no surprise Hagrid's didn't come out quite right (see
Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets
, Chapter 15).
Making fudge was the “in” thing to do at women's colleges in the 1880s. Can you imagine if that were the in thing to do at colleges today? Times have certainly changed. We don't know who invented fudge, though some speculate that a batch of caramels came out wrong — it was “fudged” — but it seems it was invented in the United States.
1 cup granulated sugar
1 cup packed dark brown sugar
1 stick (8 tablespoons) butter
½ cup heavy cream
2 tablespoons black treacle or dark molasses or blackstrap molasses
¼ teaspoon cream of tartar
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
Grease an 8-inch square pan and set aside. Combine the granulated sugar, brown sugar, butter, heavy cream, treacle, and cream of tartar in a medium saucepan. Cook over medium-high heat, stirring constantly, until the butter is melted and the ingredients are combined. Wash down the sides of the pot with a pastry brush dipped in hot water if sugar crystals form on the sides, to prevent recrystallization. Clip a candy thermometer to the side of the pot and continue to cook without stirring until the mixture reaches 240°F on the candy thermometer.
Remove the pan from the heat and stir in the vanilla. Allow the bubbles to subside and the mixture to cool slightly, about 5 minutes. Remove the thermometer and beat or stir vigorously with a wooden spoon until the mixture loses its gloss and is very thick, 15 to 20 minutes. Scrape the mixture into the prepared pan and smooth the top. You can use a piece of plastic wrap and the palm of your hand to do this.
Cool completely before cutting into 1-inch squares.
Makes 64 pieces
If the mixture gets too hot, the fudge will seize up into a hard, grainy clump when you try to stir it. If it doesn't get hot enough, the fudge will not thicken and will remain a gloopy mess. You can then try to save it by putting it back in the pot with some water (don't worry; the water will evaporate) and reheating it to the correct temperature.
Hagrid is about to offer fruitcake to Harry and Ron, but he is very nervous. He suspects that any moment he will be carted off to Azkaban for a crime he did not commit. When he hears the knock on the door, he is so agitated that he actually drops the cake on the floor (
Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets
, Chapter 14).
Once upon a time, in the faraway city of Dundee in Scotland, a factory produced marmalade. But it did not produce marmalade the whole year. So the rest of the year, the manufacturers came up with the idea to make a fruitcake with orange peel, also adding the almonds brought by the Spanish traders. Thus was born the Dundee cake.
Candied orange peel is next to impossible to find, so this recipe uses marmalade.
If you are an adult and you wish to make traditional Dundee cake, simply replace the apple juice with brandy.
2 cups all-purpose flour
½ cup finely ground almonds
1 teaspoon baking powder
½ teaspoon salt
1½ half sticks (12 tablespoons) butter
1½ cups granulated sugar
2 large eggs
¼ teaspoon almond extract
Juice and zest of 1 orange
¼ cup marmalade
¼ cup apple juice
½ cup dark raisins
½ cup golden raisins
½ cup currants or dried sweetened cranberries
¼ cup chopped candied cherries, optional
Whole raw almonds for covering the cake
Preheat the oven to 300°F. Grease and flour a 9-inch cake pan that is at least 2 inches deep and set aside. Whisk together the flour, ground almonds, baking powder, and salt.
In a separate bowl, beat the butter and sugar with an electric mixer until light and fluffy, scraping down the sides of the bowl as needed, about 5 minutes. Add the eggs one at a time, beating after each until incorporated. Add the almond extract and beat until combined. Add the orange zest and juice and the marmalade and beat until combined. Add the apple juice and beat until combined. Stir in the flour mixture at the lowest speed until combined, scraping down the sides. Stir in the dark raisins, golden raisins, currants or cranberries, and candied cherries, if using.
Scrape the batter into the prepared pan and smooth the top with a rubber spatula. Place the whole almonds in concentric circles on top of the cake. Bake for 1 hour; then reduce the temperature to 275°F and bake for another hour or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.
Remove from the oven and cool completely in the pan. When completely cool, invert the cake onto a cardboard round and immediately reinvert the cake onto a serving platter or another cardboard round.
Makes 16 thick slices or 32 thin slices
Harry is having a nasty turn. It's no fun seeing into Voldemort's mind. About to be really sick, he gets up from the table abruptly. Kreacher, out of newfound concern for his master, offers him treacle tart (see
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows
, Chapter 12).
Treacle is a byproduct of sugar refining, much like molasses. It's used mostly in England and has a delicious taste. If you can't find golden syrup (which is light treacle), you can use light molasses, dark corn syrup, or even pure maple syrup.
Tart Crust
1 cup all-purpose flour
½ cup finely ground almonds
¼ cup granulated sugar
¼ teaspoon salt
1 stick (8 tablespoons) cold butter or margarine, cut into pieces
1 large egg yolk
1 tablespoon heavy cream
1 teaspoon vanilla
Treacle Filling
1 large peach, thinly sliced
1 cup golden syrup or dark corn syrup
2 cups fresh bread crumbs (6 to 8 slices fresh bread processed to crumbs in a food processor)
½ cup chopped almonds
1 teaspoon ground ginger
1 egg beaten with 1 tablespoon water, for brushing the top
Combine the flour, ground almonds, sugar, and salt in a large mixing bowl. Using a pastry cutter, two knives, or your fingertips, cut the butter into the flour until the flour is completely coated with fat; in other words, no white powdery flour remains and the mixture resembles coarse yellow meal. Or pulse in a food processor 15 to 20 times until the mixture resembles coarse yellow meal, and then transfer it to a large mixing bowl.
Beat the egg yolk with the cream and vanilla and pour it into the flour-butter mixture. Toss with a spatula until the dough clumps together, then knead briefly. Form 1/3 of the dough into one disk and the remaining 2/3 of the dough into another. Wrap in plastic wrap and refrigerate at least 2 hours or up to 3 days.
Preheat the oven to 350°F. Remove the larger disk from the refrigerator and sprinkle both sides generously with flour. On a heavily flour-dusted work surface, roll out the dough to an 11-inch circle. Fit the dough into a 9-inch tart pan and press in the bottom and sides. This dough is very, very hard to work with, but it's also very forgiving, especially if you use margarine in place of the butter (sacrificing some flavor, but oh, well). You can gather it up, knead it, and reroll several times without its becoming tough. If it gets too soft, put it back in the fridge to firm up.
Lay the thinly sliced peaches on the bottom of the tart. Warm the golden syrup in the microwave or a small saucepan just until it's runny. Combine the golden syrup, bread crumbs, chopped almonds, and ginger in a mixing bowl and mix well. Scrape the mixture into the tart shell and spread it evenly over the peach slices with a rubber spatula.
Remove the smaller disk from the refrigerator and sprinkle both sides generously with flour. On a heavily flour-dusted work surface, roll out the dough 1/8-inch thick. Cut the dough into strips with a sharp knife. Lay half the strips over the tart in one direction and lay the other half over the tart in the opposite direction to form a lattice. Don't try weaving the strips. Just laying them down will be hard enough, as the strips may break as you move them and you'll have to keep fixing and patching.
Brush the strips with the beaten egg and bake the tart for 45 minutes, until golden brown. Serve warm or at room temperature with or without a scoop of vanilla ice cream.
Serves 8
Harry's suffering from the shock of watching a schoolmate being murdered by Voldemort and barely escaping with his own life, and apart from Ron and Hermione, Hagrid is one of the few people he can confide in. Indeed, several days after this tragic episode, Harry finds himself in Hagrid's hut, having tea and Hagrid's “doughy” cookies (see
Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire
, Chapter 27). If you wish to produce results like Hagrid's, you can try making the cookies twice as thick as specified or baking them for half the time.
“Biscuit” is the English word for “cookie.” Biscuits are an old food, and the Romans, of course, made dry biscuits, which they fried and ate with honey and pepper. Once the Middle Ages were past, cooks learned to mix sugar with eggs, and to cream butter with sugar, so we have them to thank for the many varieties of “biscuits” that abound today.
3 cups all-purpose flour
½ teaspoon baking soda
¼ teaspoon salt
2 sticks (16 tablespoons) butter
1½ cups granulated sugar
2 large eggs
1½ teaspoons pure vanilla extract
Turbinado sugar or granulated sugar, for sprinkling (Introduction)
Whisk together the flour, baking soda, and salt.
In a separate bowl, beat the butter and sugar with an electric mixer until light and fluffy, scraping down the sides of the bowl as needed, about 5 minutes. Add the eggs one at a time, beating after each until incorporated. Add the vanilla and beat until combined. Stir in the flour mixture on the lowest speed until combined, scraping down the sides as needed. Divide the dough in half, form into disks, wrap in plastic wrap, and chill until firm, about 2 hours.
Preheat the oven to 350°F and line two cookie sheets with parchment paper. Remove the chilled disks from the refrigerator. Working with one disk at a time, roll out the dough ¼-inch thick. Using a 1½-inch or 3-inch cookie cutter, stamp out rounds of dough. Place the rounds on cookie sheets and sprinkle with turbinado sugar or granulated sugar.
Bake for 12 minutes, switching and rotating the pans midway through baking. Remove to a wire rack to cool. Repeat until all the dough is used up.