It's so close to Christmas now, and we're at the end of our Wizarding December ! We would like to wish our readers all the best for Christmas, and we hope you've enjoyed the Harry Potter themed posts.
To finish, we are going to make Butterbeer, the popular beverage served in Hogsmeade village, and enjoyed by thousands of wizards around the world. The main question is : What does Butterbeer really taste like ? J.K. Rowling, author of the Harry Potter series, described it as being a little bit like less-sickly butterscotch. From the book, it does seems like Butterbeer has a very low alcoholic content, not enough to affect humans, but enough to get house-elves drunk.
However, for this Butterbeer, we are actually going to adapt an original recipe from "The good Huswifes Handmaide for the Kitchin", an old English cooking book published in 1588, including the first recorded recipe for "Buttered Beer" - a Tudor Era drink. Here is the original recipe as transcribed from the book :
To make Buttered Beere
Take three pintes of Beere, put fiue yolkes of Egges to it, straine them together, and set it in a pewter pot to the fyre, and put to it halfe a pound of Sugar, one penniworth of Nutmegs beaten, one penniworth of Cloues beaten, and a halfepenniworth of Ginger beaten, and when it is all in, take another pewter pot and brewe them together, and set it to the fire againe, and when it is readie to boyle, take it from the fire, and put a dish of sweet butter into it, and brewe them together out of one pot into an other.
The result of this drink will not taste anything like butterscotch, therefore, probably not anywhere close to the butterbeer that Harry Potter and his friends enjoyed in the books. It actually tastes like a sweet, warm, spiced beer ! We adjusted the spices slightly until it reached our personal liking, and used a bit less cloves and nutmeg than the original recipe asked for ( We used 1/4 teaspoon instead of 1/2 a teaspoon ). About the Ale, we got our hands on a bottle of Old Speckled Hen, and we thought it worked out nicely. You can of course make it work with any other good Ale you can get yours hand on, but the taste may differ slightly.
 5 minutes |
 15-20 minutes |
 3 pints (475 ml/pint) |
Ingredients
1500 milliliters of good Ale
1/4 teaspoon of ground ginger
1/4 teaspoon of ground cloves
1/4 teaspoon of ground nutmeg
5 egg yolks
150 grams of brown sugar
100 grams of unsalted butter
Kitchenware (optional) :
Milk Frother
Tankard Glasses
Butterbeer time !
>> Pour the ale and the spices in a large saucepan and place over a low heat. Temperature control is the main challenge of this recipe : try to keep your beer under 70°C to avoid alcohol evaporation and don't allow it to reach boiling point. If you have a thermometer, try to stay around 50°C, overall, you should be able to test how hot it is with your fingers without burning yourself.
>> In the meantime, mix the egg yolks and brown sugar together until combined.
>> Once your ale is warmed up, take off the stove and add the egg-sugar mixture. Start whisking immediately, and put the saucepan back on the stove while mixing for 5-10 minutes, or until slightly thickened.
>> Take the saucepan off the stove once more, and add the diced butter. Keep mixing until completely dissolved.
>> Once ready, use a milk frother or a plunging mixer to create some froth. Pour into your tankards, filtering the froth with a spatula until it's about two thirds full, and top it off with some of the froth to add the head.
>> In the meantime, mix the egg yolks and brown sugar together until combined.
>> Once your ale is warmed up, take off the stove and add the egg-sugar mixture. Start whisking immediately, and put the saucepan back on the stove while mixing for 5-10 minutes, or until slightly thickened.
>> Take the saucepan off the stove once more, and add the diced butter. Keep mixing until completely dissolved.
>> Once ready, use a milk frother or a plunging mixer to create some froth. Pour into your tankards, filtering the froth with a spatula until it's about two thirds full, and top it off with some of the froth to add the head.
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