Coffee

Our next new food item is one that many Americans simply cannot function without. Coffee appears eight times throughout the Harry Potter series-- the first while Mr. Dursley is dealing with the Masons (who may or may not be very influential on his drill sales):

"When dinner's over, you take Mrs. Mason back to the lounge for coffee, Petunia, and I'll bring the subject around to drills" (Chamber of Secrets 7).

Coffee is such a matter of personal preference that I'll just present a few of the ways it can be prepared instead of prescribing an actual recipe.

Drip Coffee is the most popular for home-brewing coffee. As you probably know, hot water drips through a filter filled with coffee grounds, resulting in a smooth and easy cup of coffee. Many people prefer this method simply because of its simplicity: set up the coffee maker, flip the switch, and go!

French Press Coffee is an option that comes in and out of style (probably based on what Starbucks says is hot right now... stupid Starbucks). Prepared in a special pot, the coffee grounds are infused into the water and then (mostly) pressed out of the beverage with the plunger. The result is a rich and dense coffee many folks enjoy.

Another very popular coffee preparation is espresso, made popular in America by coffee shops, who likely began using it because a complete brew should take less than 30 seconds (though I'm sure they would say it's because Italian Espresso is the best kind of coffee). In this process, almost boiling water is injected through the tamped down coffee grounds by steam- or piston-power, resulting in a strong cup of coffee topped with a golden foam.

There are lots of other ways to prepare coffee, and I'm sure there are people who disapprove of the three methods I've chosen to share. But since I'm about the furthest thing there is from a coffee snob, and I know about these three methods, I would venture to say that they are the three best known ways to prepare coffee. 

So whether it's black, au lait, latte, or mocha, go grab yourself a cuppa and start your day!

Cake

And so we begin Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets with a food only mentioned briefly in passing on Harry's twelfth birthday:

"Of course, his hopes hadn't been high; they'd never given him a real present, let alone a cake-- but to ignore it completely..." (Chamber of Secrets 5).

Since this mention of cake is super vague and non-specific (and is the only time in the entire series when Ms. Rowling doesn't tell us what kind of cake her characters are enjoying!), I get to choose what kind of cake we'll make! So we'll be trying a recipe for Hungarian Flourless Hazelnut Cake I found on allrecipes.com. 

You Will Need:

12 oz hazelnuts

2 tsp baking powder

6 egg yolks

5/8 cup granulated sugar

6 egg whites

1 pint heavy cream

1/8 cup chopped hazelnuts for garnish

1. Preheat the oven to 325 degrees. Grease and flour (I thought this was flourless?) a 9" springform pan.

2. Grind hazelnuts until very fine. Place in a bowl and mix in the baking powder.

3. In a large bowl, whip the egg yolks with the sugar until a pale yellow color. Beat in the hazelnut mixture.

4. In a separate CLEAN bowl, with CLEAN beaters, whip the egg whites until stiff.

5. Quickly fold 1/3 of the whites into the yolk mixture, then add the remaining whites and fold in until no white streaks remain.

6. Pour the batter into your prepared pan and bake for 60-75 minutes (mine was done after 60), until the cake springs back when lightly tapped.

7. When the baked cake has cooled completely, slice it horizontally into 3 (or just 2) layers.

8. Whip the cream until stiff, and spread generously between the layers, and on the top and sides. Sprinkle the top with chopped hazelnuts.

This cake is really delicious! Not too sweet, super easy to make, and such a pleasant hazelnut flavor. Yummy! I hope you enjoy it!

Stoat Sandwiches

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!!

Now that that's out of the way, we can move on to a very significant food item! We have reached the last new food to appear in Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone!

"Hagrid made them tea and offered them stoat sandwiches, which they refused" (Sorcerer's Stone 231).

The Internet is filled with posts from people who, like me, had no idea what "stoat" is. Ready for this?

 Hagrid eats these little cuties?! It turns out that stoats are that same animal who eats toast in the nursery rhyme song, "Mares eat oats and stoats eat toast" (apparently they changed it to "does eat oats" later... that's the version I always knew anyway). And Hagrid eats them!!! I am horrified. 

Sandwiches filled with these weasel/ermine-like rodents used to be super popular in Britain. Cant's imagine why they fell out of favor with the masses. Apparently people nowadays sometimes call steak sandwiches with very specific ingredients "stoat sandwiches," but the secret ingredients seem to be rather inconsistent. Regardless, we will certainly not be making stoat sandwiches, because I have no desire to discover what these cute little guys taste like in order to find a vegetarian substitute. 

But Happy Halloween anyway!

Cakes

Following an epic Slytherin VS Gryffindor Quidditch match (as well as overhearing a very suspicious conversation between Snape and Quirrell), Harry learns of a celebration in which we find our next food item:

"Everyone's waiting for you in the common room, we're having a party, Fred and George stole some cakes and stuff from the kitchens" (Sorcerer's Stone 227).

Ms. Rowling does not specify what kind of cakes our favorite twins have nicked from the kitchens (though in truth their arms were likely filled with all sorts of leftovers by the lovable house elves). Since the last recipe we tried turned out to be super involved, I have decided that we should make some simple English Tea Cakes. The recipe can be found here.

You Will Need (I halved this recipe and got 12 cakes):

2 cups butter, softened

1 cup sugar

2 tsp vanilla extract
4 cups all-purpose flour

60 walnut or pecan halves, toasted

1. In a large bowl, cream together the sugar and butter until light and fluffy.

2. Beat in the vanilla.

3. Gradually add the flour, mixing well.

4. Drop by heaping spoonfuls into greased muffin cups and flatten slightly. Press a nut into the center of each.

5. Bake at 350 degrees for 10-12 minutes (more like 12-15) or until edges are slightly browned. Cool for 2 minutes before removing from the tins. Makes 5 dozen according to the recipe (but their cakes must be awfully small!).

These little cakes have a delightfully subtle sweetness. And they're so easy to make! They would be an excellent choice for any elegant tea or casual evening on the sofa by the fire! Delightful! I hope you enjoy them!

Christmas Cake

We're in the midst of a stretch of Christmas-type foods in our long list, so you shouldn't be surprised by our next culinary creation:

"After a meal of turkey sandwiches, crumpets, trifle, and Christmas cake, everyone felt too full and sleepy to do much before bed except sit and watch Percy chase Fred and George all over Gryffindor tower because they'd stolen his prefect badge" (Sorcerer's Stone 204).

Dinah Bucholz includes a recipe for Christmas Cake (for grown-ups) in her cookbook. Heads up, there's about a million and seven ingredients. Also a heads up, it took me three days to make it, because certain parts need to sit overnight. According to Ms. Bucholz' research, you can let the cake flavors mature for years before frosting this cake. No wonder Christmas fruitcake gets such a bad wrap!

For the Cake, You Will Need:
1/2 cup dark rasisins
1/2 cup golden raisins
1/2 cup dried currants of cranberries
1/2 cup chopped dried dates
1/2 cup chopped dried apricots
1 cup brandy
3 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 cup ground walnuts
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
2 tsp ground cinnamon
1/2 tsp ground nutmeg
1/4 tsp ground cloves
1/4 tsp ground allspice
1.5 sticks (12 Tbs) butter, at room temperature
1.5 cups packed brown sugar
4 large eggs, at room temperature
grated zest and juice of 1 lemon
grated zest and juice of 1 lime
grated zest and juice of 2 oranges
1/2 cup marmalade
1 cup chopped walnuts
1/4 cup brandy, to finish
1/2 cup currant jelly, melted (smuckers actually does makes this in the US!)
2 pounds marzipan

For the Royal Icing, You Will Need:
3 large egg whites
1/4 tsp cream of tartar
5 cups confectioner's sugar
2 tsp vanilla

1. Place the dried fruit in a bowl and pour the brandy over it (I think a gallon-sized plastic bag is much better; that way all the fruit gets evenly soaked). Let soak overnight. Drain the fruit, reserving the brandy (If you use a plastic bag, you can cut off a tiny corner and squeeze out the brandy way more easily than by using a strainer).
2. Perheat the oven to 275 degrees. Grease and flour a 9" spring form pan and line with parchment paper. (I don't have a spring form pan, so I used 2 regular 9" cake pans).
3. Whisk together the flour, ground walnuts, baking powder, salt, and spices in a large mixing bowl.

4. In a separate bowl, beat the butter and sugar with an electric mixer until light and fluffy, scraping the sides as necessary.

5. Add the eggs one at a time, beating after each until incorporated.

4th egg

6. Add the zest and juice of the lemon, lime, and oranges, along with the marmalade and reserved brandy. Beat until combined (it might look curdled, and that's okay).

7. Add the flour mixture and mix on the lowest speed until combined. Add the soaked dried fruit and chopped walnuts, and mix until combined.

8. Scrape the batter into your cake pan(s), smoothing the top with your spatula. Bake for 2.5 hours (a toothpick inserted in the center should come out clean). Let the cake cool completely in the pan(s).

9. Invert the cake onto a plate and remove the bottom (if you have 2 cakes, like me, use the one that will become the bottom). Poke holes in the bottom with a skewer and spoon the 1/4 cup brandy over the bottom, then stack them back together.

10. Wrap the cake well in plastic wrap and store it upside down. It apparently will stay fresh for months (even years!), you just need to add another 1/4 cup brandy each month and wrap it up tight again before storing upside down!
11. When you're ready to assemble the cake, flip it right-side up on a plate or cardboard round and brush the top and sides with the melted jelly.

12. Roll out the marzipan on a work surface (you may need to dust it with powdered sugar) into a 14" circle. This was really hard with my very crumbly marzipan... it may not have been very fresh. And yes, you really will need at least 1.5 pounds. I only used 1 pound, and it wasn't really enough.

13. Drape the marzipan round over the cake, and trim off the bottom with a sharp knife.

14. To make the royal icing, beat the egg whites with the cream of tartar until soft mounds form.

15. Gradually add the confectioners sugar. Add the vanilla and beat on high until stiff. And they mean really stiff! I didn't beat my icing long enough and it caused mega problems later.

16. Use a spatula to spread the icing thickly over the top and sides of the cake. My icing was not thick enough and so I spent a good 20 minutes trying to get it to stop melting down the sides of my cake. I ended up just letting it harden at bit pooled on the plate edges and re-frosted with it later. Allow the icing to harden (it should) before serving. Do not put the cake in the fridge, it will apparently ruin the icing.

 

Once the cake has set, even after being cut, it can be stored at room temperature wrapped in plastic wrap. According to Ms. Bucholz, it will serve 16 hungry people for tea, or 32 stuffed people for dessert.

This cake is pretty tasty! It isn't often that one gets to use marzipan, but it really adds a nice flavor. Though I would suggest that if you are using two cake pans like I did, that you spoon 1/4 cup brandy over both layers to keep it more moist.

Enjoy!

Crumpets

What could be more British than having crumpets with tea? Apparently having it with your Christmas dinner:

"After a meal of turkey sandwiches, crumpets, trifle, and Christmas cake, everyone was too full and sleepy to do much before bed except sit and watch Percy chase Fred and George all over Gryffindor tower because they'd stolen his prefect badge" (Sorcerer's Stone 204).

You Will Need:
1 cup all-purpose flour
1 Tbs granulated sugar
1 tsp active dry yeast (1/2 a packet)
1/4 tsp salt
1 cup whole milk
1/4 stick (2 Tbs) butter, melted

1. Grease 4 crumpet rings (if you have those...) or 3.75" round cookie cutters, and a skillet/griddle.
2. Whisk together the flour, sugar, yeast, and salt until combined
3. Add the milk and melted butter and whisk until smooth.

4. Cover with plastic wrap and leave in a warm place until puffy and risen, about 1-1.5 hours.
5. Stir down the mixture.
6. Heat the griddle and put the crumpet rings inside. Note: I do not own crumpet rings or round cookie cutters, so I made crumpet rings out of tinfoil.
7. Using a measuring cup, pour 1/3 cup batter into each ring and cook over low heat until the tops fill with holes, about 5 minutes. If you are using tinfoil rings, like me, be sure to press the ring down into the griddle while you pour in the batter (resulting in the photo on the left) or else it will seep underneath the foil and make pancakes instead of crumpets (note the photo on the right).

full of holes

8. Carefully remove the rings with tongs (they will be very hot... unless you used tinfoil) and flip the crumpets over (they should be pale on the bottom still) and cook about 5 more minutes. Repeat until all the batter is used.

9. To serve, toast the crumpets until golden brown and spread with butter and jam.
(makes 8)

Today in the kitchen with Harry Potter, I learned that crumpets are basically the love-child of pancakes and english muffins. Also they are very tricky to make. If the cooking times are not perfect, there will either be no glorious holes, or one side will be overdone. My guess is it helps to be an old British nanny. Or a house elf.

Enjoy

Turkey Sandwiches

What is better the day after Thanksgiving (or Christmas!) than turkey sandwiches? At Hogwarts, everyone somehow manages to eat their Turkey sandwiches for dinner on Christmas (only hours after their enormous feast from lunch!):

"After a meal of turkey sandwiches, crumpets, trifle, and Christmas cake, everyone felt to full and sleepy to do much before bed except sit and watch Percy chase Fred and George all over Gryffindor Tower because they'd stolen his prefect badge" (Sorcerer's Stone 204).

Turkey sandwiches are pretty easy, and obviously can be made to suit everyone's tastes!

You Will Need:

your favorite kind of vegetarian turkey
two slices of your favorite bread
your favorite spread, like mayonnaise, mustard, hummus, whatever you fancy
a few leaves of lettuce, if desired
a few slices of tomato, if desired
slices of onion, if desired
sprouts, if desired
...pretty much anything else you desire

1. Spread your chosen condiment on your slices of bread and layer your chosen sandwich fillings and turkey between the bread.
2. Slice however you'd like, and enjoy!