A Harry Potter Feast with Lots of Treats!

Hello all! I hope you're enjoying your weekend, and that you had a fantastic Independence Day--I know I did! :)

I did something special for this 4th of July that I've never done before: I cooked a lot!!

This may sound a little strange, but I had a Harry Potter movie marathon on the 4th of July (that was the date that worked for my friend's and I), so the food that I made (with the exception of dinner) was not American- themed, but HP (Harry Potter) themed instead.

I prepared for my marathon by first looking up some Harry Potter recipes, which I am excited to share with all of you! If you're a fan like me, I don't need to tell you that these recipes are here just in time for you to make for a little (or big!) HP gathering before the premiere of the  last Harry Potter movie!!!!

If you think it's little last minute to make all of this food, don't worry, it's not too late! The 4th was a Monday. I did all of my grocery shopping on Sunday, and didn't start cooking until about 11:30pm Sunday night. I was up until 4am and then baked some more in the morning when I woke up! I made all this food in less than 12 hours!

Now, enough chit-chat. Let's get you cooking!

The first thing I made were these delightful goodies with an unappetizing name: Cockroach Clusters. (I got the recipe here at hoggyguild.tripod.com.)
These are super easy and fast to make. Here's how!

Ingredients:

6 oz. chocolate for melting (I used Nestle semi-sweet nuggets)

6 oz. peanuts (unsalted)

chocolate jimmies/sprinkles

Directions:

1. Melt chocolate in double boiler or microwave. (I used the microwave. Just be careful not to burn the chocolate--it helps if you stir it in between intervals of 30 seconds because if you don't, the chocolate holds its shape on the surface and looks like it's not melting.)
2. Stir in peanuts.
3. Drop onto wax paper.
4. Before chocolate sets sprinkle jimmies onto cluster

5. Put in the fridge until the chocolate hardens, and then enjoy!

Next on my list was Cauldron Cakes! In HP world, I believe these are supposed to be like little devil's food cakes with candy floss (whatever that is) in the middle. However, I found this recipe from food.com first and it looked good, so I decided to use it! 

Ingredients: 

(These measurements are a bit funny because I went to the original website, on which they have an option to change the amount of cakes that the recipe yields. The original recipe makes 21 cupcakes, but since there were only 4 people I was planning on serving, I brought the yield number down to 15 so I'd still have leftovers, but not too many. I had to estimate a lot of the measurements, but they turned out fine! You can go to the original recipe found in the hyperlink above and change the yield number to suit your preferences.)

Yields: 15 cupcakes

• 1 1/2 cups gluten-free flour (I used Bob's Red Mill All Purpose Baking Flour) 
• 1 1/8 cups sugar
• 2 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
• 3/4 teaspoon salt
• 3/8 cup softened butter or 1/2 cup softened margarine
• 3/4 cup milk
• 3/4 teaspoon vanilla extract (Make sure it's pure gluten-free vanilla extract, which shouldn't be hard to find. For a more thorough explanation on this, read this.)
• 2 1/4 eggs
• 5/8 teaspoon cinnamon
• 1/8 teaspoon ginger

Directions:

Prep Time: 10 mins

Total Time: 35 mins

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
2. Mix eggs, sugar, butter,cinnamon, ginger, and vanilla in large mixing bowl on whip for 2 minutes.
3. Mix other solid ingredients and milk in gradually in the large mixing bowl.
4. Put batter in muffin tins. 
5. Bake 25 minutes.
6. Decorate with sprinkles and frosting if desired. (I suggest you do! I used store-bought whipped-cream cheese frosting and sprinkled cinnamon on top.)
7. These cakes go well with honey. (I didn't try this, but you could use this instead of frosting! After tasting these, I imagine the two flavors would compliment each other.)

And voila! After I piped on the icing the next morning, I had cute gluten free cauldron cakes! :) 

The next recipe I'm going to share with you, from about.com, is actually the last one that I made of the night. However, I've saved another recipe for the last one of the entry :) 

These Rock Cakes are simple to make and so yummy--especially warm out of the oven with some butter and honey :) (That rhymes!) They're also delightfully British! They are comparable to scones (but smaller and gluten free, which are practically impossible to find!) and they are perfect for a Sunday breakfast/brunch or tea time, if you're not into Harry Potter!

Prep Time: 15 minutes

Cook Time: 15 minutes

Total Time: 30 minutes

Yields: 12 (Exactly 12, to my great shock!)

Ingredients:

• 8 oz/ 225g gluten free flour (Hello again, Bob!)
• 1 tsp double action baking powder (US) or 1 tsp baking powder (UK)
• 4 oz/110g soft butter or margarine
• 2 oz/ 55g granulated sugar
• 4 0z/ 110g mixed dried fruit (I used Craisins and that's all!)
• 2 oz/ 55g currants (I left these out, cause I'm not in England! I didn't have the time to go looking for them here in the US.) 
• 1 medium egg
• 1 - 3 tbsp milk
• Demerara sugar (brown sugar) for sprinkling
• Oil for greasing

Preparation:

• Heat the oven to 400F/200C/Gas 6
• Sieve the flour and baking powder into a large baking bowl, add the softened butter or margarine, and lightly rub together with fingertips until the mixture resembles fine breadcrumbs. (This may sound a little intimidating and bothersome to someone like me who's used to just using a spoon to mix 4 ingredients together from a box of cake mix, but it's not hard and totally worth the messy hands!)
• Add the sugar and the dried fruit and mix so all ingredients are well incorporated.
• Add the egg and 1 tbsp of the milk and mix to create a stiff dough. If the mixture is still dry add milk a tbsp at a time until required consistency.
• Lightly grease two baking sheets.
• Using a tablespoon divide the mixture into 12 mounds evenly spaced on the 2 baking sheets. Sprinkle with the demerara sugar.
• Bake in the preheated oven for 15 mins or until golden brown and well risen.

When they came out of the oven they were perfectly golden brown on top, and nice and soft on the inside.

I've saved the best for last. Friends, if you make only one recipe that you have seen on this post, let it be this one. These. are. incredible. (Not to toot my own horn, or anything.)

The "these" that I speak of are Pumpkin Pasties. (Pronounced "pahstees" with a short 'a,' instead of "paystees" with a long 'a.') If you've read the books or even seen the movies, you'll probably remember these being mentioned several times. Again, they don't look exactly the way they would in HP world, but who cares?! They're delicious! It was as if I had put a scrumdiddlyumtious charm on them. (For those of you who are unfamiliar with HP, I made that up.) 

Now that I've built these treats up so much, I have to explain something first. These would be super duper easy to make if you were making them non-gluten free, because the recipe just calls for pre-made sugar cookie dough like Pillsbury's. You would simply slice the dough, mold it to fit the shape of a cupcake or muffin tin, plop in some pumpkin filling, and bake!

I, however, can't have Pillsbury's cookie dough unless they ever make it gluten free. Therefore, these treats were only super easy to make (instead of super duper) because luckily, I found a fabulous sugar cookie dough recipe! It's from a cook book called "The Cake Mix Doctor Bakes Gluten-Free" by Anne Byrn. (I highly recommend buying this book, even if you're not gluten-intolerant! This is the only recipe I've tried from here so far, but the rest of them look amazing. There are recipes for 21 layer cakes including a wedding cake, 16 bundt cakes, 16 sheet cakes, 18 bars, cookies, and cupcakes, and 6 muffins, plus icing recipes!!)

Once I found this recipe, I made the dough, put it in the fridge overnight, and made the pasties in the morning. It was pretty easy to make! Here's the dough recipe:

Ingredients:

1 package (15 ounces) yellow gluten-free cake mix (I used the Betty Crocker mix.)

8 tablespoons (1 stick) unsalted butter, at room temp.

1 large egg

1 tablespoon pure vanilla extract

Wax paper for wrapping the dough

(I've simplified this recipe. If you're just making cookies, you'd also need your toppings and an egg white to make your them stick.)

Directions:

1. Place the cake mix, butter, egg, and vanilla in a large mixing bowl and beat on low speed with an electric mixer until the ingredients are well combined, 1 minute. Cut a piece of waxed paper about 14 in. long. Place the cookie dough on the waxed paper, then lift one edge of the paper over the dough and press with your hands to form a log about 12 in. long and 2 in. in diameter. Tightly roll the dough in the waxed paper and place it in the refrigerator to chill for at least 2 hours or overnight.

And that's all you need to do for this recipe, as far as dough goes. Once it has chilled, follow this recipe, found on food.com. 

Ingredients:

Yields: 12

• 1 (28 ounce) can pumpkin pie filling
• 3 tablespoons powdered sugar
• 1/2 teaspoon pumpkin pie spice (optional) (Recommended, along with some cinnamon, by me!)
• Brown sugar to be sprinkled on top, or incorporated into the pumpkin, if you wish. (My idea)

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
2. Cut cookie dough into 12 equal pieces and press into the cups of a muffin tin making sure to go up the sides.
3. Fill with pumpkin pie filling-most likely you will have extra should you wish to make more. (You will want more. Trust me.)
4. Bake for 20-25 minutes.
5. Remove and let cool.
6. Sprinkle with powdered sugar and pie spice. (I didn't do the powdered sugar. Just cinnamon and brown sugar!)

And here is the final product! Everyone who tried one loved them! :)

And there you go! Good luck and have fun on your baking adventures!

<3

Miss GF

P.S. Leave me comments with any questions or baking stories you have! :)