3 Harry Potter brews to give you a taste of Hogwarts

Harry Potter has a special magic all of its own. I was out of high school when the series started and didn’t get into it when it was first released.

I’m so glad I waited. Discovering the books with my husband and son is amazing. We started the books when he was 5, and two years later we are still obsessed.

True to form, I have become a little obsessed with the food in Harry Potter. Well, not the food, exactly, but the drinks!

Butterbeer definitely sounds worthy of sneaking into Hogsmeade for. The first thing we tried was the “secret” Starbucks recipe. You can find the recipe for the Butterbeer-inspired latte here. It was good, but it didn’t feel all that different from most Starbucks drinks.

I knew we could do better.

At home, I decided to start things out right with a pat of butter. Why not? I kept the salted caramel aspect from the Starbucks version. Though I live in Texas now, I’m not the biggest root beer fan and completely skipped that aspect of it, which features very heavily in the Universal Studios version.

The experimenting went from there. For a final touch, I brought out the hand mixer and created a mountain of froth on top — better than whipped cream, in my opinion.

The final drink, like beer, has a lovely foamy head that tastes creamy and rich. The salt gives it great depth and brings out the buttery flavor even more. It’s perfect for grabbing a cup and sitting in front of the fire while reading The Prisoner of Azkaban together.

As the feeling of fall returns (I say feeling, because let’s face it, in Texas we don’t have real seasons), I start to crave the comfort of warm drinks like this. Even though the books span the entire school year, they always make Halloween and Christmas feel so special.

For my son’s Hogwarts birthday party, he requested I make pumpkin juice along with the butterbeer. I decided to make a cold version of butterbeer as well and came up with floats. They were a big hit!

Now, the thing about pumpkin juice is that real pumpkin juice doesn’t go over that well. Apple is a juice that kids do really like, and adding some subtle spice is the key here. Serving it out of a pumpkin is a bonus

!

Butterbeer recipe

Makes two servings

Ingredients:

• 1 tablespoon of butter
• 2 cups of milk
• 2 tablespoons of salted caramel sauce
• 2 teaspoons of hazelnut syrup

Directions:

1. Melt butter in a medium saucepan.
2. Add milk, and heat gently.
3. When milk just starts to bubble and boil, turn down to a simmer.
4. Stir in caramel and hazelnut syrup, and heat until it dissolves.
5. Turn off heat, and use stick blender directly in pan until foam rises to the top of the saucepan.
6. Pour into mugs, sprinkle with nutmeg or drizzle with more caramel, and enjoy.

Butterbeer floats recipe

Ingredients:

• Cream soda
• Vanilla bean ice cream
• Caramel sauce

Directions:

This one is easy!

1. Put a scoop of ice cream in a mug.
2. Pour cream soda over the ice cream.
3. Drizzle with caramel. It gets nice and foamy and lovely — just the way a butterbeer should be.

Pumpkin juice recipe

Ingredients:

• 10 cups of apple juice
• 2 cups of apple cider
• Generous sprinkle of cinnamon and nutmeg

Directions:

1. Combine all ingredients, and stir to combine.
2. Pour over ice to enjoy cold.