Butterbeer, the Harry Potter Treat

Last week (or maybe it's two weeks ago now?) we decided to have ourselves a Harry Potter movie marathon, in celebration (and as a refresher) to the Half-Blood Prince coming out in theaters. We owned the first three, and then ended up buying 4, and then borrowing 5. Each night we would watch a different one. Bobo now knows how to say 'Poht-a' for Harry Potter, so cute, but he was less than impressed with having to sit through all those movies.

Anyway, by the time we got to HP 4, Todd had this excellent idea that we should make butterbeer! After sorting though thousands of recipes online and debating amongst ourselves as to what the delicious treat must surely comprise in the REAL Hogsmeade (because duh it's all real you know), we settled on a warm, butterscotchy, clog-your-arteries version.

We made two versions, and as we still have cream soda I am just waiting for the right moment to pull out a third version, but that will have to wait. Maybe I'll make it tonight for my second viewing of Twilight (thought it was super dumb the first time, hoping maybe it will be better the second).

So for the ingredients we decided on:

• cream soda as our "beer" component
• butter (duh)
• butterscotch (also duh)
• vanilla ice cream
• marshmallows (for topping)
• whipped cream (for topping)

The first batch we made was successful and pretty good, but we decided it had too much cream soda 'beer' and not enough 'butter'. We started with a pot on the stove, putting in about a third or half stick butter, a few generous tablespoons of Mrs. Richardson's butterscotch syrup, and a few scoops of vanilla ice cream. We simmered the ingredients until they were nice and hot and combined, and then poured in the cream soda to taste... then let everything get nice and hot again because it tastes better all warm and cozy.



We topped it with canned whipped cream and marshmallows, and all in all it was quite good. I put a rather lot of cream soda to 'butter' mixture, so it had a definate bite and fizziness.



The second time we made it, a few days later, was even worse for you. This kind really, save for winter when you need to pack on a layer of polar bear fat. And also, I think it would be best served in small cordial glasses rather than by the mugful, because you just might get a heart attack.


So again I started by simmering together butter - a half stick; almost half the jar of butterscotch; several large scoops of vanilla ice cream and THEN I even added two generous handfuls of marshmallows (think rice krispie treats). Once it got thick and hot I slowly added some cream soda, careful not to make it TOO cream soda-y, stop before you taste too much of the fizzy kick.



Then we poured into mugs, bemoaned the status of our arteries, and enjoyed. This is a fabulous drink to keep in mind for winter time to change up the whole hot chocolate ritual, its super fattening and very comforting and will be great for snowy nights waiting for Santa to arrive. Cheers!