Acid Pops

Rejoice, my friends, for we have finally reached the last sweet mentioned during Harry's first visit to Honeydukes:

"And the Acid Pops? Fred gave me one of those when I was seven-- it burnt a hole right through my tongue" (Prisoner of Azkaban 200).

Like a few other food items we've been through on this journey, a major ingredient in Dinah Bucholz' recipe for Acid Pops is citric acid. I do not own citric acid, and don't particularly want to buy several pounds of it either. If you'd like to try some acid pops of your own (assuming you can't just pop over to Honeydukes), pick up a copy of The Unofficial Harry Potter Cookbook and whip up a batch!

Cockroach Clusters

Yes, there really are still more interesting sweets from Honeydukes for us to savor (though Harry doesn't seem to excited about this one):

"'How about these?' said Ron, shoving a jar of Cockroach Clusters under Hermione's nose. 'Definitely not,' said Harry" (Prisoner of Azkaban).

Most recipes I've found online for Cockroach Clusters are just chocolate-covered haystacks. While delicious, these don't seem to really evoke "cockroach" to me. I decided to adapt a recipe I found at The Apron Archives.

You Will Need:

Rollos, unwrapped

Pecan halves

Melting Chocolate

1. Place a sheet of parchment paper on a cookie sheet. Arrange the unwrapped Rollos on the parchment, at least 1.5" away from each other.

2. Place the cookie sheet in an oven preheated to 350 degrees for about 3 minutes, until the Rollos are soft but not melted out of shape.

3. Press a pecan half on top of each Rollo, smooshing them into an oval-ish shape. Let the Rollos harden.

4. Melt more chocolate over top of the pecans, and smooth with a tooth pick or your finger. This is when you get to be extra creative. Use the chocolate to create antennae, legs, wings, whatever suits your fancy. I really hate cockroaches, so I stuck with nice cartoony antennae :)

These are quite delicious. Funny, you wouldn't think that Cockroach Clusters would taste like Turtles! Haha!

Anybody?
(cricket, cricket)

Blood-Flavored Lollipops

We've reached a new sentence! We've reached a new sentence! We are however, still inside Honeydukes:

"Ron and Hermione were standing underneath it, examining a tray of blood-flavored lollipops" (Prisoner of Azkaban 197).

The only way I can think of to make vegetarian-friendly blood-flavored lollipops is to taste-test a whole lot of things to discover what tastes irony. Firstly, that sounds like it would be decidedly not fun. Secondly, I can't think of any iron-tasting ingredients that would liquify enough to be involved in the candy-making process. So we will not be making blood-flavored lollipops.

Why do you even want to eat blood-flavored lollipops anyway? 

Ew.

Exploding Bonbons

My friends, we have finally reached the last item in this epic sentence (only took us a whole month, oy):

"Creamy chunks of nougat, shimmering pink squares of coconut ice, fat, honey-colored toffees; hundreds of different kinds of chocolate in neat rows; there was a large barrel of Every Flavor Beans, and another of Fizzing Whizbees, the levitating sherbert balls that Ron had mentioned; along yet another wall were "Special Effects" sweets: Droobles Best Blowing Gum (which filled a room with bluebell-colored bubbles that refused to pop for days), the strange, splintery Toothflossing Stringmints, tiny black Pepper Imps ('breathe fire for your friends!'), Ice Mice ('hear your teeth chatter and squeak!'), peppermint creams shaped like toads ('hop realistically in the stomach!') fragile sugar-spun quills, and exploding bonbons" (Prisoner of Azkaban 197).

The question of the hour thus becomes how to make bonbons explode... I hope you like my solution! 

You Will Need:

melting chocolate

Zotz (remember this classic candy? It's a hard candy filled with acidic sugar, and if you chomp down on it, it sure does feel like an explosion!)

1. Melt your chocolate according to the manufacturer's instructions.

2. Roll your unwrapped Zotz, one at a time, in the melted chocolate and place on a sheet of wax paper.

3. Allow the melted chocolate to set, and enjoy!

These are some very surprising bonbons! Not only are they worthy of Honeydukes, but they would fit in with the merchandise at Zonko's or Weasley's Wizard Weazes as well! The people who tried mine all had fabulously funny reactions when the candy exploded :) I don't think I'll make them again, since chocolate and acid-filled candy aren't really my favorite combination, but they sure were fun! Enjoy!

Peppermint Creams

I adore chocolate and peppermint, so I am very excited about the sweet we're making today:

"Creamy chunks of nougat, shimmering pink squares of coconut ice, fat, honey-colored toffees; hundreds of different kinds of chocolate in neat rows; there was a large barrel of Every Flavor Beans, and another of Fizzing Whizbees, the levitating sherbert balls that Ron had mentioned; along yet another wall were "Special Effects" sweets: Droobles Best Blowing Gum (which filled a room with bluebell-colored bubbles that refused to pop for days), the strange, splintery Toothflossing Stringmints, tiny black Pepper Imps ('breathe fire for your friends!'), Ice Mice ('hear your teeth chatter and squeak!'), peppermint creams shaped like toads ('hop realistically in the stomach!') fragile sugar-spun quills, and exploding bonbons" (Prisoner of Azkaban 197).

The first time I made peppermint creams according to Dinah Bucholz' recipe, they completely flattened out and were almost impossible to eat. Today, I have finally acquired a frog-shaped candy mold. And since Ms. Rowling stipulates that our peppermint creams are in fact shaped like toads, we'll be using that (and hopefully will be more successful than with no mold at all!).

For the Peppermint Cream, You Will Need:
3 Tbs unsalted butter, at room temperature
1/4 cup light corn syrup
1/4 tsp peppermint extract
1 1/4 cup confectioner's sugar

1. Beat together the butter, corn syrup, and peppermint extract until completely combined.

2. Slowly beat in the confectioners sugar on the slowest speed until completely combined. Refrigerate until ready to use it.

For the Candies, You Will Need:
a batch of peppermint cream
Melting chocolate
a frog-shaped mold

1. Melt the chocolate according to the manufacturer's instructions. Spread the chocolate in a significant (but still thin!) layer in each mold. Allow the chocolate to set.

2. Spoon a small amount of peppermint cream inside each chocolate shell. The goal is to fill the mold, but not over-fill it. If you do, your toads won't lay flat!

3. Cover the peppermint cream with more melted chocolate and allow them to set completely.

4. Before unmolding the toads, I recommend placing the whole thing in the freezer for a minute or two. It really makes the candy much easier to pop out. Unmold the toads and Enjoy!

Yummy! These peppermint creams are like giant Junior Mints! While they don't actually hop in the stomach, I highly recommend that you try some yourself! Bon Appetit!

Ice Mice

Yet another magical sweet greets us today:

"Creamy chunks of nougat, shimmering pink squares of coconut ice, fat, honey-colored toffees; hundreds of different kinds of chocolate in neat rows; there was a large barrel of Every Flavor Beans, and another of Fizzing Whizbees, the levitating sherbert balls that Ron had mentioned; along yet another wall were "Special Effects" sweets: Droobles Best Blowing Gum (which filled a room with bluebell-colored bubbles that refused to pop for days), the strange, splintery Toothflossing Stringmints, tiny black Pepper Imps ('breathe fire for your friends!'), Ice Mice ('hear your teeth chatter and squeak!'), peppermint creams shaped like toads ('hop realistically in the stomach!') fragile sugar-spun quills, and exploding bonbons" (Prisoner of Azkaban 197).

I've made Ice Mice once before, and my skills at sugar sculpting are sadly lacking. Making them however, reminds me of one of my favorite attractions at Disney's Epcot: the Japanese sugar sculpting Lady! (seriously, watch that video, she's amazing, and I have the most glorious memories of watching her while I lived there). But alas, I am not a Japanese professional candy-sculptor. So you just have to deal with the sad little mice I make with Dinah Bucholz' sugar mice recipe from The Unofficial Harry Potter Cookbook. 

You Will Need (I halved this recipe):

3/4 stick (6Tbs) unsalted butter, at room temperature

1/4 cup light corn syrup

1/2 tsp vanilla

3 cups confectioner's sugar, sifted

1. Combine the butter, corn syrup, and vanilla and beat until thoroughly combined.

2. Add the confectioner's sugar slowly, while beating on the slowest speed, until it forms a dough-like consistency. If the dough seems too wet or sticky, add 1Tbs of confectioner's sugar at a time.

3. Wrap the fondant in plastic wrap and refrigerate until ready to use. It will keep for up to 6 weeks. 

4. To form the mice, pinch a piece of fondant off the ball, roll into a body, add a head, pinch little ears, etc. Basically we're sculpting with sugar :) If you'd like, use a toothpick to make eyes, and a piece of licorice for a tail :) Repeat, repeat, repeat.

5. Place the mice on parchment paper and leave them out overnight to dry (except that mine have always melted... so maybe let them dry in the fridge).

If you make your dough dense enough (keep adding powdered sugar), these should turn out pretty adorable. My dough always ends up pretty sticky... I can literally form one mouse before I have to put the dough back in the fridge to firm up again. But if you're successful, they turn out pretty cute! Eating one is about all I can handle, since, as you may have noticed, they're basically just sugar! But that one is pretty tasty! So enjoy!

Levitating Sherbert Balls

Today we continue plowing through Harry's first visit to Honeydukes:

"Creamy chunks of nougat, shimmering pink squares of coconut ice, fat, honey-colored toffees; hundreds of different kinds of chocolate in neat rows; there was a large barrel of Every Flavor Beans, and another of Fizzing Whizbees, the levitating sherbert balls that Ron had mentioned; along yet another wall were "Special Effects" sweets: Droobles Best Blowing Gum (which filled a room with bluebell-colored bubbles that refused to pop for days), the strange, splintery Toothflossing Stringmints, tiny black Pepper Imps ('breathe fire for your friends!'), Ice Mice ('hear your teeth chatter and squeak!'), peppermint creams shaped like toads ('hop realistically in the stomach!') fragile sugar-spun quills, and exploding bonbons" (Prisoner of Azkaban 197).

As I brought up in my last entry, according to Ms. Rowling's grammar, levitating sherbert balls are in fact the same thing as Fizzing Whizbees (and yes, in the book, it is spelled s-h-e-r-b-e-R-t). The Honeydukes shop (at Universal Orlando) disagrees, and Dinah Bucholz includes a recipe for Sherbert Balls in The Unofficial Harry Potter Cookbook. 

Normally, this would mean that we would make some Sherbert Balls. Unfortunately, Ms. Bucholz' recipe includes citric acid, which I have only been able to find online, and I really have no other need for it other than this recipe. And since I am a poor starving artist, I won't be spending my rent money on esoteric ingredients. The recipe does look like a lot of fun though, so if you feel like giving it a try, you should check out Dinah's book and make yourself some "Levitating" Sherbert Balls!