Harry Potter Feast

Before the release of the final Harry Potter movie, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part II, my sister Cady and I decided it would be best to celebrate the end of an era with a feast.  Months in the works, it all came together for July 10th, less than a week before we planned to see the movie on the 16th.  It's taken me forever to finish this post (call it laziness), but alas it is here, just in time for our second round of the movie today.

The day before (Saturday), we did the last of the shopping, and started most of the food preparation.  Shopping spanned three different stores, and disappointingly not finding black licorice ropes to put the finishing touches on the cauldron cakes.  Finally, we began our 4 hour bake-fest.

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Pumpkin Juice:

• 2 2/3 cups pumpkin pie filling
• 3 1/2 cups apple juice
• 3 1/2 cups apricot nectar
• 2 teaspoons cinnamon
• 3/4 teaspoon ginger
• 1/2 teaspoon nutmeg
• pinch of salt

In a large pitcher, mix together pie filling with apple juice and apricot nectar until desired consistency.  Add spices.  If desired, add more spices.

Note: That made one large pitcher for us and, in my opinion, it tasted very similar to the drink sold at The Wizarding World of Harry Potter.  I was very pleased with it.  We used a dark, pulpy apple juice though, none of that mostly sugar stuff!  We made the pumpkin juice from our own recipe.  We found a number of recipes online, but most of them called for actual pumpkin instead of pumpkin filling.  We didn't want to mess with that, so we just made up our own based on the ingredients on the pumpkin juice bottle from The Wizarding World of Harry Potter and some of the recipes we found.

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Treacle Tarts:

• 32 shortbread pastry cups
• 11 tablespoons black treacle
• 1 heaping teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 4 oz unseasoned bread crumbs

Combine treacle, cinnamon, and bread crumbs until thoroughly mixed.  Spoon into shortbread pastry cups and place on cookie sheet.  Bake at 350 degrees for 15-20 minutes.

Note: Adapted from this recipe.

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Cauldron Cakes:

• chocolate cake mix (plus ingredients on box)
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 1 tablespoon cornstarch
• pinch of salt
• 2 cups milk
• 2 egg yolks
• 1 tablespoon butter
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Prepare the chocolate cake according to the directions on the box.  Coat pan with shortening and flour completely.  Bake according to directions on box in muffin pan without cupcake liners.  Cool completely before removing and turning upside down.  (The widest part needs to be on the bottom.)

While cupcakes are baking, make pudding filling.  Combine sugar, cornstarch, and salt in a small saucepan; gradually stir in milk.  Cook over medium heat, stirring constantly, until mixture comes to a boil.  Cook 1 additional minute, stirring constantly.  Remove from heat.

Beat egg yolks at medium speed of an electric mixer until thick and lemon colored.  Gradually stir about one-fourth of hot mixture into yolks; add remaining hot mixture, stirring constantly.  Bring mixture to a boil over medium heat and cook 1 minute, stirring constantly.  Remove from heat; stir in butter and vanilla.  Cover with plastic wrap and chill until firm.

When cupcakes are completely cooled, use a spoon to remove the middle of the cake, careful not to dig all the way through.  When pudding is firm, fill the holes in the cakes to the top.  Serve immediately.

Makes 24, or the number of cupcakes on the cake mix box. 

Note: If you wish to have different colored potions, I suppose you could use food coloring on some or all of the pudding.  Left overs need to be kept refrigerated.  Pudding recipe from The Southern Living Cookbook.

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Pumpkin Pasties:

• 4 pie crusts
• 2 cups pumpkin pie filling
• 1 cup firmly packed brown sugar
• 1/2 cup butter, softened
• 2 eggs, separated
• 1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
• 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 cup evaporated milk
• 1/4 cup sugar

Combine pumpkin, brown sugar, butter, egg yolks, spices, and salt in large mixing bowl, beat until light and fluffy.  Add evaporated milk, beat until just blended.

Using a round cookie cutter, cut circles into pie crusts.  Spoon filling onto one side of the circle before folding in half and sealing with a fork.  Cut three slits in the top.   Brush with egg whites.  Bake on a greased cookie sheet at 400 degrees for 10 minutes, and reduce heat to 350 degrees and bake an additional 45-50 minutes.

Makes 12-16 pasties.

Note: We used the lid to our can of shortening, which is about six inches in diameter.  Filling recipe from The Southern Living Cookbook

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Butterbeer:

• 24 oz cream soda
• 2 oz butterscotch schnapps

Serve immediately to keep carbonation.  Makes enough for 2-3 people.

Note: Use butterscotch schnapps over butterscotch extract in order to get a lower alcohol content.  Butterscotch extract has almost twice the alcohol content than schnapps.  If you desire a less sweet beverage, substitute 12 oz of cream soda for plain soda water.  Adapted from this recipe.

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Aside from beverages and the baked goods, we had sherbert lemons from my Honeydukes jar.  And licorice wands, which was just black licorice.  (Yum.)  For the main course, we had roast beef, broccoli, roasted potatoes, and yorkshire pudding.

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Yorkshire Pudding:

• 9 ounces all-purpose flour (2 cups)
• 1 1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
• 4 large eggs, room temperature
• 2 cups whole milk, room temperature
• 1/4 cup beef drippings, divided 

Preheat oven to 400 degrees.  Leave 2 tablespoons of drippings in roasting pan and place in oven.  Place the flour, salt, eggs, milk, and remaining 2 tablespoons of drippings into the bowl of a food processor or blender and process for 30 seconds.  Pour the batter into the hot roasting pan and bake for 35 to 40 minutes or until puffed and golden brown.  While the pudding is cooking, carve the roast.  Serve the pudding with the roast.

Note: A 3-bone-in standing rib roast cooked in a 13 by 9 inch roasting pan will give you enough drippings for the pudding.  Prepare pudding while roast is resting.  Recipe found here.

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For music during the feast, I made a CD of seven songs, one from each movie.  "Prologue" from The Sorcerer's Stone, "Harry's Wondrous World" from The Chamber of Secrets, "Double Trouble" from The Prisoner of Azkaban, "Hogwarts' Hymn" from The Goblet of Fire, "A Journey to Hogwarts" from The Order of the Phoenix, "Dumbledore's Farewell" from The Half-Blood Prince, and "At the Burrow" form The Deathly Hallows, Part 1.  The CD just played quietly in the background throughout the meal.

My mom was able to download Lumos, the font from the American books, so I could make place cards for each guest and labels for the variety of food.  I thought it was a nice touch to the formal dinner.  At each place setting, you can see we have three glasses that are all mismatched--it made me feel like we were at the Burrow!  One class was for water, one for butterbeer, and one for pumpkin juice.  It was a lot to drink, but they were all tasty!

The feast went just as planned and turned out to be so much fun.  It was really cool to have our own celebration for the end of this series and to do everything ourselves.  I must say, it was almost as authentic as being at the Wizarding World of Harry Potter at Universal Studios Orlando!

And no, this was not a costumed affair.