Butterbeer

Today's food item is the first occurrence of butterbeer in The Goblet of Fire, and it comes during one of Harry's many attempts at trying to avoid the vicious pen of Rita Skeeter:

"'She's gone,' said Hermione, looking right through Harry toward the end of the street. 'Why don't we go and have a butterbeer at the Three Broomsticks, it's a bit cold, isn't it?'" (Goblet of Fire 319).

If I remember correctly, we've done two butterbeer recipes already, but today's comes from homecooking.com. 

To Make 4-6 servings, You Will Need:

1 pint vanilla ice cream

1/4 cup butter, at room temperature

1/2 tsp butterscotch extract (I couldn't find this, so I used butterscotch syrup)

1/4 cup brown sugar

1 tsp ground cinnamon

1/2 tsp grated nutmeg

1 qt apple cider

apple slices for garnish, optional

1. On medium speed, beat together the vanilla ice cream, butter, butterscotch extract, brown sugar, cinnamon, and nutmeg until well combined. Place in an air-tight container and re-freeze.

2. Gently heat the apple cider on the stove until steaming hot.

3. Place 1 scoop of the ice cream in a mug and top with hot cider. Garnish with an apple slice if desired. 

Alas, this is not my favorite butterbeer recipe. It really isn't very tasty when it's no longer hot. And I definitely recommend using melted butter instead of just room-temperature butter and just re-freezing the ice cream for longer (unless of course, you'd like butter chips in your ice cream; I spent a lot of time spitting out butter bits). It tastes fine for a few sips/bites, but I'd suggest trying one of the other butterbeer recipes out there. Cheers!