Harry Potter Desserts

Treacle Tart
Originally uploaded by watchjennybake.

I'm breaking my usual posting schedule (every Monday) to post about the Harry Potter themed treats I made to bring to work today. One day I was bored and went through and wrote down all the mention of food in the Harry Potter books, in case I ever wanted to do a themed meal. I started poking around and discovered that fantastically named items such as treacle tart were real desserts, with real recipes. I honestly thought it was made up!

These days, an excellent source for Harry Potter recipes and party ideas is PotterParties.com. I made a treacle tart and pumpkin pasties last night. The treacle tart recipe was this one from the BBC web site, but it has already moved once so I'll post it again.

Ingredients

For the pastry

• 225g/8oz plain flour, plus extra for dusting
• 110g/4oz butter, chilled, diced
• 1 medium free-range egg, lightly beaten

For the filling

• 450g/1lb golden syrup
• 85g/3oz fresh breadcrumbs
• generous pinch ground ginger
• 1 lemon, zest, finely grated and 2 tbsp of the juice

To serve

• clotted cream or double cream

Preparation method

1. In a bowl, rub the butter into the flour with your fingers until it resembles fine breadcrumbs.
2. Mix in the egg with a knife, then knead on a clean, lightly dusted work surface to form a smooth dough.
3. Use the dough to line a 23cm/9in loose-bottomed tart tin, prick the base all over with a fork and leave to rest in the fridge for about 30 minutes.
   
4. Preheat the oven to 190C/375F/Gas 5.
   
5. Line the pastry with parchment paper and weigh down with rice or ceramic baking beans. Bake the pastry blind for 10-15 minutes, remove the paper and rice or beans and return the pastry case to the oven for a few minutes more, until light golden-brown.
   
6. For the filling, mix together the filling ingredients in a bowl and pour into the pastry case. Return to the oven and bake for about 30 minutes. Serve hot or cold with clotted cream or double cream.
   

Treacle is another name for golden syrup, which is like a light golden molasses - almost the color of corn syrup, but with a much nicer flavor. It is the key ingredient to many desserts in the UK, including sticky toffee pudding, which I was tempted to make instead. But I couldn't pass up the chance to make Harry Potter's favorite dessert!

This recipe includes lemon and ginger, and these flavors combined with the treacle create a dessert I imagine would be much more pleasing to the adult palate than a child's, but wizards may have different tastes than muggles. You can make this with a shortcrust recipe, but as there isn't much difference between that and pie crust, and I had already made a huge batch of pie crust for the pumpkin pasties, I used the same thing. I wish I had spent more time with what I put on the top... it looks a little horrid, but it tasted good. The treacle mixture becomes chewy which is a nice contrast to flaky crust. Definitely try this recipe!!


Pumpkin pasties are something I had read about and came up with my own recipe for them. I'm sure they're not much different from the other recipes you might find, but they are delicious and simple. One student said they were like mini pumpkin pies, which is a good way of looking at it. Pasties in general are hand-held pies, but these are even tinier than that!

Pumpkin Pasties
Pie crusts (can use store bought if desired)
1 can pumpkin pie filling*
1 egg mixed with 1 tsp water
Granulated sugar

Roll out pie crusts and cut into circles. Brush one side with egg wash. Put small amount of pumpkin pie filling in center. Fold over and pinch together. Brush with egg wash and sprinkle with powdered sugar. Bake at 375 F 15-20 minutes, or until crust is golden brown.

*If you can't find pumpkin pie filling, if it's not "in season" - combine canned pumpkin with spices and a little brown sugar, and you'll be fine.