I wanted to take the “You’re a keeper” line and put it into heart shaped cookies, because I can somehow imagine the girls at Hogwarts doing the same thing.

There’s no Amortentia in my recipe though, only butter sugar and vanilla. And a bit of lemon zest to combine with the bright yellow of the snitches. (Also because pink lemon cookies make think of pink lemonade!)

These are so cute and delicious, perfect for Valentine’s or Galentine’s Day!

(Also perfect to eat half a batch by yourself, I just confirmed it).

Ingredients:

For the cookies

• 1 stick of butter (non-salted)
• 1 egg
• 1 and 1/5 cups all-purpose flour
• 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/2 cup brown sugar
• 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1 tablespoon lemon zest
• 1/2  tablespoon lemon juice
• 1/8 teaspoon salt

For the icing

• 1 1/2 cups powdered sugar
• 2 teaspoons whole milk
• 3 teaspoons corn syrup (OR 2 EGG WHITES)
• 1/4 teaspoons vanilla
• 1 teaspoon lemon juice
• Food coloring, I used Yellow and Red

Instructions:

1. FOR THE COOKIES: In a small bowl mix the flour, baking powder and salt.
2. In a larger bowl, beat the butter and sugar until softened. Add the egg to the mixture and keep beating until well mixed.
3. Add the lemon juice, zest and vanilla to the same mix.
4. Slowly, add the flour mix to the butter mix. Keep beating until well combined and shaped like a dough.
5. Shape the dough into a large disk, cover it carefully and refrigerate for 1 hour. (You can also leave it overnight).
6. YOU’RE READY TO BAKE: 
7. Since I didn’t have golden snitch cookie cutters (I didn’t even have a heart shaped one…), I decided to make my own! I took a large piece of aluminum foil and rolled it until I had a large strip of aluminum (Kind of like a chewing gum wrapper, but longer). Then I just shaped it using a picture as reference and held it in place with a piece of tape.
8. Once you have your cookie cutters, transfer the dough to a clean counter and use a rolling pin to make it 1/4 inch thick.
9. Now cut the cookies! If you use the aluminum foil cookie cutters, BE CAREFUL. They’re flimsy and you will need to apply pressure slowly, making sure they don’t fold or disfigure. For the golden snitches I made 1 wing-shaped cookie cutter and also used a regular circle for the body of the snitch.
10.  Preheat the over to 350F, grease a cookie sheet and make sure to leave at least 0.5 inches between each cookie. Bake for 12 minutes or until the edges are golden brown.
11. FOR THE ICING: Mix all the ingredients except the food coloring. Then divide into different bowls and add colors to your liking.
12. Be patient. (Don’t be like me). 
13. Wait until the cookies are completely cool before decorating. If you’re adding text, wait until the first layer of icing has set, then add your favorite Harry Potter pun.
14. And Accio, Cookies! Your Valentine’s treats are ready.

I originally wanted to make 6 cookies so I could use all these puns, but, er – some cookies didn’t make it to the icing stage.

Here are other ideas you could use:

You leave me Stupefied

Neville gonna give you up

You’re a keeper

I A-dumbledore you

You’re the chosen one

You put a spell on me

Let me know if you do try them, and if you can come up with other Valentine’s puns! I’ll bake another batch for my Galentine’s celebration.

Happy baking!

The post Valentine’s Day Harry Potter Cookies appeared first on Pretty Geekery.

Also, not gonna lie, I LOVED doing that Harry Potter Food series last summer and have missed it so much! I had been considering making Queenie’s Apple Strudel since then, especially because this treat has such a beautiful scene in the movie. I just wasn’t sure if I was ready for such a baking challenge. 

But this time I decided to go for it anyway, and it turned out great! Also, I feel like it’s perfect timing because apple strudel screams FALL to me. 

With a flick of her wand, Queenie sends raisins, apples and pastry into the air. The concoction neatly wraps itself up into a cylindrical pie, baking on the spot, complete with ornate decoration and a dusting of sugar. Jacob takes a deep breath: in heaven.

As some of you may know, I’m not an experienced baker at all. My first ever successful baking experiment happened just last year, so there’s still a LOT of room for improvement. That’s why I decided to do some research before making my own Queenie’s Apple Strudel.

My main source was Rosanna Pansino’s recipe from the Nerdy Nummies video, though I made some minor modifications and took advice from all the following sources:

FANTASTIC BEASTS – QUEENIE’S APPLE STRUDEL from NERDY NUMMIES

Binging with Babish: Strudel from Inglourious Basterds

Rose Shaped Apple Baked Dessert by Cooking with Manuela

How to Make Real Deal Classic Austrian Apple Strudel by YVONNE RUPERTI 

Ingredients:

• 1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 tsp salt
• 1/2 tsp cinnamon
• 3 tbsp vegetable oil
• 1/3 cup warm water
• 4 tbsp melted butter
• 1 apple (red, gala or Fuji)
• 1 tbsp confectioner’s sugar

Filling:

• 3-4 apples (gala or Fuji)
• 1 lemon (juice and zest)
• 1/3 cup brown sugar
• 1/2 tsp cinnamon
• 1/4 cup raisins

Instructions:

For the dough I followed the directions from the Nerdy Nummies Apple Strudel: Mix flour, salt and cinnamon, then slowly add oil and warm water. To knead the dough I liked this video better, it’s basically punching and squishing the ingredients for about 10 minutes, but they show the technique really well. I also let it rest in a bowl for about 30 minutes after kneading, though I made the mistake of not covering the bowl with plastic wrap (I just put a towel over it) and the dough kind of oxidized and turned a bit grey. The flavor was fine, dough

For the filling I peeled and diced 4 Fuji apples (but ended up using 3 because they were BIG), added the sugar, cinnamon, lemon zest and about 90% of the lemon juice. I also microwaved the raisins covered in water for about 20 seconds and then added them to the mix. 

Now to the (second) hardest part of the recipe: stretching out the dough! I again used Binging with Babish‘s video for reference and used a large kitchen towel as support. After stretching the dough for what felt like hours (and with my boyfriend’s help), I decided it was thin enough (a.k.a. It wasn’t thin enough but I did my best). Many recipe sites say that you should be able to see the pattern of the towel through the dough…And well, that was really hard to achieve since the thinner it gets, it’s easier to accidentally make holes in it.

Many recipes recommended skipping all this trouble and just buy Filo dough since the flavor is basically the same. I’ll probably do that next time.

After stretching the dough I pre-heated the oven (actually toaster oven, my dear friend) to 425F. I couldn’t take a picture since my hands were too dirty at this point, but once the dough was stretched I tried to make it into an even rectangle by cutting the excess with a knife. I saved those extra pieces to make some braids.

Then I smeared the melted butter with a brush all over the dough and added the filling (only on 1/4 of the rectangle, on the far right).

Note: I diced 4 big Fuji apples for the filling, but it was a lot! I ended up using about 3 apples (and saved the rest to eat with my oatmeal yum). So after adding the filling I rolled everything like a giant burrito, adding more melted butter with every roll.

Before putting it in the oven I made some dough braids (the third most difficult part of this recipe) and covered everything with egg wash (a beaten egg + water). And into the oven for about 30 minutes at 425F and then 30 minutes at 350F. 

While the strudel was in the (toaster)oven I though I would have fun making some apple flowers. But, HA! This was actually the hardest and most tiring part! I followed this tutorial to make apple flowers in the oven. I had to cut a red apple in half-circles, add those to a bowl and microwave them covered in water and the rest of the lemon juice. Then put the half-circles together one over the over (in the shape of a garland) and rolled them to make them look like a rose. But they would not stay like that! After staring at those wet apples for almost an hour, I finally came out with a solution: make aluminum oil fixtures!

After some trial and error I ended up with the perfect aluminum rings that could hold my apple roses in place. Then I baked them at 375F for about 30 minutes.

And ta-da! After everything came out of the oven I just had to put it together: The apple flowers over the strudel, all topped with confectioner’s sugar. And I know you guys can imagine the amazing smell. I mean, this recipe has apples and cinnamon and everything nice…

The flavor was also pretty magical. And the texture of the filling was my favorite part! Like warm and mushy apple pie filling. I might add pecans the next time for a bit of crunchiness, I skipped them this time since the Fantastic Beasts script only mentions raisins, apples and pastry flying into the air. (Also, pecans were super expensive at the supermarket and I don’t exactly have a Harry Potter Food budget…)

Also, I think the crust would have been better a bit thinner. I liked the flavor but some parts were kind of thick and weren’t crisp enough. Next time I’ll definitely consider either buying ready to use pastry or learning Queenie’s spell.

But isn’t this charming?? I think Queenie’s Apple Strudel is the most complicated thing I’ve baked so far (or it might be a tie with Harry’s favorite Treacle Tart).

I’m really happy with the results, but also ready to make an improved version some other time. And I know this wasn’t as simple as a magic trick, but knowing that I can make apple strudel from scratch and then eating it for breakfast..?? That’s magical indeed

What do you guys think? Will you go pick some apples and make this strudel the Muggle way? Also, wouldn’t it be perfect for Thanksgiving? Or Christmas!

Let me know if you decide to make it

The post Fantastic Beasts Queenie’s Apple Strudel – Making Harry Potter Food Again! appeared first on Pretty Geekery.

I thought about making a cake to celebrate the occasion, but here at home we have zero self-control when it comes to baked goods, so having a complete cake would mean we would have to eat it all in one day (or less).

So I decided to go with something smaller and made cookies instead! And I’m really happy with my decision because they turned out delicious! Also, even though they’re cookies I tried to recreate Hagrid’s cake from the first Harry Potter movie. You know, the one that is slightly crushed because he sat on it…

Image credit: Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone – © 2001 Warner Bros

These were the first ever butter cookies I made and they were so easy and so good! I hope they inspire you to make your own because you will probably love them too!

I just made them this morning and they were gone by the time I started writing this blog post. (See? Baking a cake would have been dangerous!)

Ingredients:

For the cookies

(Recipe from RasaMalaisya.com)

• 10 oz butter (2 1/2 sticks)
  1 tablespoon Pam cooking spray, optional
  1 egg yolk
  3 oz + 1 tablespoon powdered sugar
  1/4 teaspoon salt
  11 oz all-purpose flour
  4 oz corn starch
  2 tablespoons full cream milk/whole milk
  1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

For the icing

(I came up with this one after reading a bunch of recipes)

• 1 1/2 cups powdered sugar
• 2 teaspoons whole milk
• 3 teaspoons corn syrup
• 1/3 teaspoons vanilla
• 2 drops red food coloring
• ALSO: 1 green icing tube to write the text

Instructions:

I used this delicious butter cookie recipe from RasaMalaisya.com and I loved it! It was super easy to make and I already had all the ingredients at home (which means I’m making these cookies every week until I’m sick of them – if that’s possible).

I basically mixed all the ingredients together until they looked like a cute ball of dough. Then refrigerated the dough for 1 hour.

After that, I took about 1/4 of the dough and used different glasses and tupperware containers to cut it into circles. (The rest of the dough was saved to make animal cookies :D!) I then baked these cookies at 350F for about 15 minutes. And ta-da! I broke two of them! It seems like I made some of the cookies too thin and they were too fragile.

But it’s okay. Nothing that can’t be solved with a little icing. Also, hey, great idea to make Frankenstein cookies on Halloween!

Also, I loved how pink they turned out! I made the icing by hand, by combining all the ingredients (except the food coloring) and mixing them in a bowl. After the mix had the consistency of honey, I started adding the food coloring. Be careful if you make it! I made sure to add just 1 drop, mixed it, and then added the other drop because I wanted it to be more pink. But I was nervous because adding one extra drop would have made it almost red!

To apply the icing I poured it into a ziploc bag, cut a little hole on it and drew a big circle on top of each cookie, let it rest for 5 minutes, and then filled the circle. I also used a toothpick to get rid of any bubbles that appeared on the pink surface.

And then, the main attraction! I used the Wilton icing writer tube to write “Happee Birthdae Harry” on top of each cookie. Note: the smaller cookies were super difficult to decorate! Next time I’ll try to make them bigger.

Here are the products I used to add color to these cookies. The red food coloring was amazing! The green icing was fine, I liked it on the bigger cookies, but it was hard to use on the smaller ones.

And ta-da! Happee Birthdae Harry! These cookies were SO GOOD! Though I think it helped that they were Harry Potter themed.

I could have made more of these because I still had dough and icing, but I wanted to make animal cookies too so I used the rest of the ingredients to make those!

Unfortunately we were so excited with my homemade animal butter cookies that we ate them too fast and I didn’t think about taking pictures, so I only have these two from my Instagram Stories.

Let me know if you make your own Harry Potter cookies! I would love to see them (you’re also totally welcomed to send me some by owl mail!!!)

The post HARRY POTTER COOKIES “HAPPEE BIRTHDAE HARRY” appeared first on Pretty Geekery.

But then someone suggested I should make lemon drops and I couldn’t refuse! How could I end this series without Dumbledore’s favorite candy?

Luckily, The Unofficial Harry Potter Cookbook had an easy recipe to make lemon drops.

So here comes the eighth one! (Oh, I wish the Harry Potter series also had an eighth book. So sad that there’s not an eighth book!).

Would you care for a lemon drop?”
“A what?”
“A lemon drop. They’re a kind of Muggle sweet I’m rather fond of. 

— Albus Dumbledore to Minerva McGonagall. Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone

Ingredients: (makes about 40 candies)*

• 1/4 cup water
• 1 cup granulated sugar
• 1/2 cup light corn syrup
• 1/4 teaspoon cream of tartar
• 1 teaspoon lemon extract

Substitutions I made:

1. I didn’t use cream of tartar or lemon extract since I couldn’t find them.
2. I added the zest of 2 lemons
3. 1 tablespoon lemon juice

*From The Unofficial Harry Potter Cookbook by Dinah Buchholz ©2010 Adams Media. 

Instructions:

Since I couldn’t find two of the ingredients for this recipe (blame my poorly stocked local market), I did my best to find good substitutes. Most cooking websites said that you could leave the cream of tartar out, especially if your recipe includes lemon juice. And instead of the lemon extract I used a combination of lemon zest and juice.

To cook it I just added all the ingredients but the lemon to a saucepan. And stirred the mixture over medium heat. Since I don’t have a candy thermometer I just kept cooking it until it was super bubbly, like a can of soda that was shaken before opening (Don’t laugh! That’s actually how it looked like).

When the mixture was super bubbly I took it out of the fire and added the lemon zest + juice. Then I waited a bit until the bubbles disappeared. After that I just took spoonfuls of the mixture and dropped it into a baking dish. I tried to drop it in the shape of little lemons but it was so difficult!

And since I couldn’t make them all look like lemons, when they got cold I rolled the drops into little egg-shaped thingies. I also put them over a bed of confectioner’s sugar so they wouldn’t stick to each other. Warning: Make sure you have someone to stop you from eating a lot of these. That would be too much sugar.

And ta-da! Sugary lemon drops just as Dumbledore likes them! I can see why he would be a fan, they’re sweet but also have that delicious lemony flavor! They remind me a lot of honey lemon cough drops, but sweeter.

I’m still not sure if the consistency is the right one, since I never had lemon drops before. But they’re really sticky and soft. Kind of like hot glue from a glue gun!

I liked them, haha. They only downside is that they started melting because it was a really hot day yesterday, so after a couple of hours they looked like when I first dropped them on the baking dish.

Still, it was a fun experience making candy and I’ll keep practicing so I can give candy as gifts on Valentine’s Day.

What do you guys think? Let me know if you decide to make some lemon drops! Especially if you can find the lemon extract! If you post pictures of your recipes, I would love to see them  on Instagram ?

Other Wizarding World recipes:

• Hagrid’s Rock Cakes
• Niffler Bread
• Kreacher’s Onion Soup
• Pumpkin Pasties
• Treacle Tart

The post Trying Recipes from Harry Potter: Lemon Drops appeared first on Pretty Geekery.

And of course, this series of Harry Potter inspired food had to include 7 magical recipes, because we all know 7 is THE magical number.

He had never had any money for candy with the Dursleys, and now that he had pockets rattling with gold and silver he was ready to buy as many Mars Bars as he could carry – but the woman didn’t have Mars Bars. What she did have were Bettie Bott’s Every Flavor Beans, Drooble’s Best Blowing Gum, Chocolate Frogs, Pumpkin Pasties, Cauldron Cakes, Liquorice Wands and a number of other strange things Harry had never seen in his life. – Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone, Chapter 6

Picture from the Harry Potter Wiki, found in Pottermore (CoS, CH8)

Did you ever wonder how the real cauldron cakes look like? They were never in the movies, so I always imagined them looking like a literal cauldron, extremely round and only possibly cooked with some magic… So I went to check the Harry Potter wiki and found this picture (on your left).

And, being honest, that image looks exactly like a chocolate cupcake with some green frosting. Not as magical as I thought, but still cute. Also, much easier to reproduce!

So let’s make some chocolate cup-cauldroncakes!

Ingredients:

Chocolate Cupcakes (for 12) 

• 1 cup all-purpose flour
• ½ teaspoon baking powder
• ½ cup unsweetened cocoa powder
• ¼ teaspoon baking soda
• ⅛ teaspoon salt
• ¾ cups plus 2 tablespoons granulated sugar
• 2 large eggs
• ½ cup milk
• ¼ cup canola oil
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• ¾ cups chocolate chips

Green Frosting (warning: this is super sweet!)

• 5 tablespoons butter
• 1 cup confectioners’ sugar
• 1/3 cup water
• 1/3 cup spinach (yes, spinach! Don’t worry, your frosting won’t taste like a green smoothie)

Instructions:

If you already have a favorite chocolate cupcake recipe, you can totally use it! I used my current favorite which I found here (thanks to my many hours checking Pinterest). Check out that blog post to read the complete recipe.

Also, if your current cupcake recipe doesn’t include chocolate chips, I strongly suggest you fix that

After mixing all the ingredients for the cupcakes, I sprayed some oil to my cupcake pan and put it in the oven without the little molds/papers.

Then to make some experiments! So… I know that some people make their own food coloring at home and I really wanted to try it too! So I added spinach and water to my blender to get this super green spinach water. After that I removed the little spinach pieces with a strainer.

To make the frosting I just mixed butter with confectioners’ sugar and added about 2 or 3 tablespoons of the green spinach water. This will taste mostly like sugar, so don’t worry about the spinach flavor.

I had made butter/sugar frosting before and really liked it, but for some reason this time it turned out even sweeter than before! So if you’re not a fan of sugary frosting, I would recommend using your own white-frosting recipe and include the green water somewhere (maybe substitute half the liquids in your recipe with green water).

Also… I made a very important discovery here! Since the frosting was too sweet I decided to add a bit of extra butter, but I made the “mistake” of heating it in the microwave (something that recipe books and blogs discourage). But the result was great!

When you add warm butter to this mixture, the whole thing gets lumpy and doesn’t mix well… so that gave me an idea. I needed to make it warmer and get more lumps! Then it would look like a real, bubbling potion, haha.

My cupcakes came out looking really cute!

Here’s a lazy cook tip: Get a small tray like this one so it fits inside the toaster-oven! Sometimes I feel like turning the oven on is too much work. But the toaster-oven is so small and friendly and easy to use… I honestly cook 80% of my food there.

So, I took one of the beautiful cupcakes and carefully removed the top part with a knife. It doesn’t have to be a big cut, just enough to remove the round bit at the top.

And, why should we do that?

1. Because I think they look more like cauldrons when you remove that part.
2. Because I got to eat all the removed parts.

After removing the round-ish part of the cupcake, I turned it upside down. And it kinda looked like a cauldron!

Then it came my favorite step: Making a hole at the top! (Which means eating more discarded cupcake parts!)

I used a knife to kind of draw a circle on top of each cupcake, and the removed it by pinching it with my fingers.

And ta-da! A chocolate cauldron cake with bubbly green frosting. 

I’m still not sure if that green potion looks tasty or disgusting. But it does look cute!

The chocolate cupcake was really good and moist. I thought the frosting was too sweet, so I ended up scooping out half of it at the end. But I still enjoyed the flavor combination, just maybe in a smaller proportion next time.

Aaaah, I wish I still had some.

By the time I’m writing this, the cupcakes are long gone. But they will remain in my heart forever. Or until I have my next cupcake.

I’ve been having SO MUCH FUN making these Harry Potter recipes!

I promised I would make 7 of them, but I really would love to make more in the future!

What do you guys think? Let me know if you decide to make some cauldron cakes. I would love it if you tagged me on Instagram if you post them

Other Wizarding World recipes:

• Hagrid’s Rock Cakes
• Niffler Bread
• Kreacher’s Onion Soup
• Pumpkin Pasties
• Treacle Tart
• Poor Muggle’s Butterbeer

The post Trying Recipes from Harry Potter: Cauldron Cakes appeared first on Pretty Geekery.

The thing is, there are already hundreds of butterbeer recipes all around the internet and I wasn’t sure I could come up with an interesting enough recipe of my own.

But then I thought… maybe it didn’t have to be ‘interesting’. It could be so much better than that! It could be an easy recipe!

So I came up with the simplest, easiest and cheapest version I could (a.k.a the poor Muggle’s version), while also trying to emulate the flavor of the frozen butterbeer from Universal Studios.

And though the flavor wasn’t quite the same, it was really good! It had the same rootbeer-ish flavor combined with butter and vanilla that I loved.

Ingredients:

• Root beer
• Vanilla ice cream

Butterscotch Sauce

• 4 tablespoons unsalted butter
• 1 cup brown sugar
• 3/4 cup heavy whipping cream
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 tablespoon vanilla extract (I decided to skip this ingredient)

Instructions:

Let me start by saying that this recipe is basically a root beer float with butter. This is the “poor Muggle’s butterbeer” version for a reason.

I knew that I wanted it to have the same sweet and buttery flavor of a butter hard candy, so I looked for a delicious looking butterscotch recipe. I used this one from Simplyrecipes.com. This recipe has basically the same ingredients as the hard candy, I just skipped the vanilla extract because the ice cream was already vanilla flavored.

My butterscotch came out looking really crumbly and harder than I expected it to be. It was impossible to mix it with the soda! But then my boyfriend suggested I fixed it by heating a bit of it with more butter to make it liquid-y again. And it worked! (Thanks to my boyfriend’s habit of Googling solutions for every problem in our life).

Pro-tip: When he said “heating it a bit”, he meant in the stove. DO NOT put it on the microwave because your kitchen will smell like burnt sugar all day. You will also ruin the mug you used. Though you will be happy that you used an ugly one. 

As soon as I had the liquid version of the butterscotch, I added 2 tablespoons to a glass. Then quickly added half the root beer and mixed it.

If you try it and you’re not quick enough, the butterscotch might not mix properly because it will harden.

After mixing for a few seconds, I added two scoops of vanilla ice cream (this will cause a lot of foam!). And finally, added the rest of the root beer.

And ta-da! A poor Muggle’s butterbeer.

The taste is basically what you’ll expect from a root beer float, except that it also has the buttery aftertaste of a butter hard candy. YUM.

If you want an even poorer Muggle’s recipe, you can skip the whipping cream and vanilla from the butterscotch recipe and just use the melted butter with sugar and a bit of salt. The flavor will be basically the same, but less creamy.

You might also adjust the butterscotch, root beer and ice cream proportions to taste

What do you guys think? Let me know if you decide to make some butterbeer. And also, you can tag me on Instagram 

Other Wizarding World recipes:

• Hagrid’s Rock Cakes
• Niffler Bread
• Kreacher’s Onion Soup
• Pumpkin Pasties
• Treacle Tart

The post Trying Harry Potter Recipes: Poor Muggle’s Butterbeer appeared first on Pretty Geekery.

I bet you remember a love-potion from Harry Potter called Amortentia, which causes an infatuation or obsession over the person who prepared the potion. Another effect of Amortentia is that the potion itself smells different for everyone, depending on what they find the most attractive.

So, for example, I would probably say that Amortentia smells like coffee, the inside of a new book and the churros from Disneyland.

In Harry’s case, this love potion reminded him of a broomstick, Ginny’s perfume and treacle tart.

“They chose the one nearest a gold-coloured cauldron that was emitting one of the most seductive scents Harry had ever inhaled: Somehow it reminded him simultaneously of treacle tart, the woody smell of a broomstick handle, and something flowery he thought he might have smelled at the Burrow. He found that he was breathing very slowly and deeply and that the potion’s fumes seemed to be filling him up like drink.” – Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince

I guess it’s safe to say that this tart is Harry’s favorite treat, so I was really excited to make it (and try it for the first time!).

I think this tart has been the most complicated recipe I have tried from Dinah Bucholz’s book. But it still was fairly easy for a non-experienced baker like me.

And it was so fun to make, especially because it looks so pretty at the end! I felt like Snow White while making this, and also had a strong urge to sing along with some cute birds and small forest creatures while putting it together.

Ingredients:*

• 2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 cup confectioners’ sugar
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 2 sticks cold butter
• 2 large egg yolks
• 1/3 cup heavy cream
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Filling

• 1 cup golden syrup or light molasses or corn syrup (I used light molasses)
• 2 1/4 cups fresh bread crumbs
• Grated zest and juice of 1 lemon
• 1 egg for brushing over the crust

*From The Unofficial Harry Potter Cookbook by Dinah Buchholz ©2010 Adams Media. 

Instructions:

As I do most of the time, I started by combining the dry ingredients. Then mixed the butter and finally the wet ingredients.

I did it all by hand because I don’t have a mixer or food processor. It was a bit messy (because of the butter) but not that difficult. I also felt more like Snow White because I’m pretty sure she didn’t have a food processor either. After tossing it for a while, I made a disc with the dough and refrigerated for 2 hours.**

** I’m not disclosing the complete steps for this recipe because that wouldn’t be fair to the author! 

To make the breadcrumbs I used a small coffee grinder and added slices of bread as needed. This was totally experimental but it actually turned out great!

After 2 hours I got the dough from the refrigerator and into the pan.

And then mixed all the ingredients for the filling. I know it looks ugly, but many things look ugly before cooking them, so I didn’t judge.

I was a bit hesitant about the lemon juice part because it looked like A LOT of lemon, plus the zest. But I wanted to follow the recipe, so I went with it and added the filling over the crust.

Then came my favorite part! I had never baked a tart before and was a bit intimidated by this braided kind of topping, but I think it turned out cute! I cut long strips and then put then together over a large sheet of aluminum foil. When I finished it, I just flipped it over the pan and cut the excess.

Look how cute that is. I would totally be attracted to it too.

I brushed the top with a beaten egg and baked it for 10 minutes at 400F. And then at 375F for around 30 minutes.

Oh, I know I say this all the time, but it smelled delicious! And I had a bit of the crust while taking some pictures and loved it!

Then I had my first whole slice and I wasn’t so in love with it afterwards. I din’t know what to expect since I had never had treacle tart before, but I found the combination of molasses and lemon juice a bit weird. It was super sweet but also had a citric flavor that I’m not used to.

But! I had another slice the next day and I liked it a lot more. The sweet/citric combination tasted so much better cold, I actually ate half of the tart by myself

Since I loved the crust, I’m pretty sure I’ll make this recipe again. I’ll just probably skip the lemon juice, or use half of it.

What do you guys think? Let me know if you decide to bake some treacle tart. And also, what would you smell if you had some Amortentia?? You can tag me on Instagram 

Other Wizarding World recipes:

• Hagrid’s Rock Cakes
• Niffler Bread
• Kreacher’s Onion Soup
• Pumpkin Pasties
• Treacle Tart
• Poor Muggle’s Butterbeer

The post Trying Harry Potter Recipes: Treacle Tart appeared first on Pretty Geekery.

I think pumpkin pasties are an emblematic dessert from the Harry Potter universe, so I wanted to make them as soon as I saw the recipe. And they were present in the Hogwarts Express when Harry and Ron first met and bonded over a bunch of magical candy. That makes them even more special!

Isn’t that a great way to start a friendship? I would also be best friends with a kid that selflessly shared so many candy (and saved me from eating a dry sandwich).

I also think that this treat in particular is a Hogwarts Express exclusive. Or at least I only remember the students eating pasties on their way to school. (Let me know if I’m wrong!)

Even though I had wanted to make these since I got the book, I postponed them many times because they looked too intimidating for me. I mean, it’s only been a couple of months since I first used an oven!

But honestly, these pasties were so easy to make! I’m sure there are many different ways to make pumpkin pasties, but I’m glad that the author went with a fairly simple recipe – that also tastes delicious

Ingredients: (makes 10 small pasties)*

Pasty Crust

• 1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 tablespoon granulated sugar
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 5 tablespoons butter
• 3 tablespoons vegetable shortening
• 4-6 tablespoons ice water

Filling

• 1 cup canned pumpkin
• 1/4 cup granulated sugar
• 1/8 teaspoon ground nutmeg
• 1/8 teaspoon ground cinnamon

*From The Unofficial Harry Potter Cookbook by Dinah Buchholz ©2010 Adams Media. 

Instructions:

I didn’t lie when I said these were super easy to make. For he pasty crust I just had to mix all the dry ingredients with butter and vegetable shortening. I did it with my hands because I don’t have a mixer or food processor.

And after that I added water. Ta-da! The dough was ready.**

** I’m not disclosing the complete steps for this recipe because that wouldn’t be fair to the author! 

I made a ball with all the dough, flattened it and let it rest on the fridge for about an hour. Then took the ingredients for the filling and mixed them in a bowl.

After waiting an hour, I took the dough from the fridge and divided it into ten small balls.

Since I didn’t have a rolling pin or a cookie cutter, I used a tall glass to flatten the dough balls and a round tupperware container to cut them into perfect circles (I’m an expert at McGivering, you know?).

Then simply took my circles of dough, added some filling and sealed them by pressing the edge with a fork. I also made some cuts with a knife so the pasties wouldn’t explode in the oven.

Before putting them in the over I brushed some beaten egg over the pasties. That gave them a beautiful brown color!

Then into the oven at 400 Fahrenheit! The time will depend on the size and number of pasties. I made two batches and they took between 20 and 30 minutes.

Look how cute they are! I loved them! They smelled delicious and tasted SO GOOD. I din’t expect them to be so yummy, but they rivaled even my favorite pasties from the local bakery.

The filling was really good even though it was so simple. It reminded me of store-bought pumpkin pie (I like that one a lot, haha). I will definitely try this recipe again with real pumpkin instead of canned puree.

But my favorite part was the crust. I don’t how something so simple can taste so good**. I could eat that crust by itself and be happy, I’m pretty sure I can make it again and fill it with meat or Mexican mole sauce.

** It’s probably all the butter.

Oh, I also made some bite-sized pasties with the excess dough, haha. They looked so cute! I wish I had hamster so I could give him one of these

Some friends got to try the pasties fresh out of the oven and they all liked them. I ate the leftovers the next day and I think they tasted even better (or maybe I just love older bread).

This has been my favorite recipe from the book by far! It was so simple, easy and delicious, I already bought another can of pumpkin puree to make another batch.

What do you guys think? Let me know if you decide to bake some pumpkin pasties, I would love to hear from your experience! Or you can tag me on Instagram 

Other Wizarding World recipes:

• Hagrid’s Rock Cakes
• Niffler Bread
• Kreacher’s Onion Soup
• Treacle Tart

The post Trying some Harry Potter Recipes – Pumpkin Pasties appeared first on Pretty Geekery.

If you have seen or read Fantastic Beasts and Where To Find Them, you know that at the end (SPOILERS AHEAD) Jacob Kowalski opens a bakery full of whimsical looking bread. That scene is probably my favorite from the entire movie! I love how Jacob decided to add a magical twist on his creations. And he and his customers look so happy! It’s my new dream to recreate every treat from that bakery.

But for now, I’ll settle for just one. The most charming creature and also the easiest one to bake, haha.

“…the pastries and breads on the counter, all molded into fanciful little shapes – we recognize the Demiguise, Niffler, and Erumpent among them. Jacob, serving, is very happy, his shop full to bursting with customers.”

Ingredients: (to make 4 Nifflers)

• 1 1/4 cups water
• 1/2 tablespoon active yeast
• 2 tablespoons oil
• 1/2 cup honey
• 2 eggs
• 1/2 tablespoon salt
• 4 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1/2 tablespoon sugar

Now, before you read my recipe, I must warn you that this Niffler baking experiment wasn’t exactly a success. They do end up looking really cute, but the texture was just okay. I’m still not sure if it was the recipe or if I messed it up. For now, I would recommend using your own bread recipe and come back to this post for the niffler instructions

Instructions:

I started by mixing the yeast with warm water and then added the oil, honey, salt and sugar. This was my first time making this kind of bread, so I just read a bunch of recipes on the internet and tried to adjust them to what I wanted. In hindsight that was a big mistake, considering my lack of baking experience

But anyway, the only way to get good at something is practicing and sometimes (most of the time, really) failing. After mixing the previous ingredients, I added 1 and a half eggs – the remaining half is for later. And slowly, cup by cup, added the flour. I kneaded it until it looked smooth and pretty like in this picture. Then I let the dough rest for two hours.

Here’s my second mistake: I used expired yeast (Remember the Looney Tunes? When someone makes a dumb mistake and their head turns into a donkey? That was me when I read the expiration date two hours after using the product).

Also, it was really cold and raining that day, so I probably killed the expired yeast without giving it a chance to bulk. When I checked the dough two hours later, it was almost the same size as when I left it! I looked for advice and read that I could add more flour and leave the dough in a warm place for 1 hour. So I preheated the oven, added like half a cup of flour, kneaded again, TURNED OFF THE OVEN, and let the dough inside it for an extra hour. And ta-da! It kind of bulked! It didn’t double in size as it was supposed to do, but it was good enough to make my niffler.

For the body of the niffler I made a ball of dough and then flattened it with my palms. Then used a knife to make two cuts on the sides. With a smaller ball of dough I kinda molded a niffler head (it’s just a ball with a snout). And added a bit of flour here and there when the dough got sticky.

Then to the fun part! I used a bunch of aluminum foil to create a niffler baby chair. I’ve seen this trick in baking competitions so I figured I would try it myself (who knew that you could actually learn something from the Food Network et al.!) There was a lot of experimenting, but I liked the baby chair set up because it kept my niffler in place.

At first I wasn’t sure about adding the front part of the “chair”, but I didn’t want to risk his arms touching the rest of the body, so I left it. Half-mistake number three: this part of the chair helped keeping the arms in place, but I should have removed it after about 15 minutes. By leaving it there, I didn’t allow the niffler’s belly to brown properly.

Before putting it in the oven, I added some raisin eyes and brushed it with the beaten half egg I had saved. Then into the oven for 45 minutes! (At 375 degrees F – 190 degrees C). I also read somewhere that if you noticed your bread was browning too much in some places, you could cover it with small pieces of aluminum foil to keep an even surface. So I kept checking the little niffler and covered his snout and legs when they got more brown than the rest of the body. Oh, and while checking his feet I got the idea of making little vertical cuts with a knife to simulate claws!

And here are the results! They ended up so cute! The smell was amazing and I was dying to eat them.

I made a second niffler but I think his aluminum chair was too reclined because he looks like he’s melting (he’s the one on the left side of the picture). I still love him. For this one I removed the aluminum foil parts during the last 15 minutes of baking, and I think that gave him a beautiful brown color.

After making two of these I had a bunch of dough left so I added some chocolate chips, made small cylinder shapes with the dough, and braided it. I baked these pieces just as the nifflers and they also looked and smelled amazing, though they weren’t as delicious as I imagined.

I’m not sure if the problem was the yeast, but the bread was kind of hard. It was still good, though! My boyfriend and I already ate it all, but we agree that the consistency made it feel like it was two-or-three-day-old bread. (But bread is bread and we will love it no matter what.)

I really liked how these turned out and I’m definitely baking nifflers again! Though next time I’ll check the expiration dates before mixing all the ingredients

What do you guys think? I hope you enjoyed my baking adventure! (And please, learn from my mistakes! Haha). Let me know if you decide to make your own niffler bread, I would love to hear your results. Or you can tag me on Instagram!

Cross your fingers so my Harry Potter treat next Monday comes out better than this one!

Other Wizarding World recipes:

• Hagrid’s Rock Cakes
• Kreacher’s Onion Soup

The post Fantastic Beasts and Where To Find Them – Niffler Bread appeared first on Pretty Geekery.

* with a side of Feelings.

I’m picking up another recipe from  The Unofficial Harry Potter Cookbook by Dinah Bucholz: Hagrid’s Rock Cakes.

I bet you Harry Potter re-readers remember these cakes. They are mentioned three times during the series (I did my research) including one time when Harry felt his teeth cracking after biting one.

Yeah, Hagrid’s cooking was not exactly good, but I bet he cooked with love! He was always so happy to have visitors, so I’m glad that Harry, Ron and Hermione were kind enough to pretend his food didn’t scare them.

Besides, Hagrid probably didn’t notice his rock cakes were literally rock-hard. Having a half-giant’s jaw and all.

“I’m starving,” said Harry, once the door had closed behind them and they were hurrying through the dark and deserted grounds; he had abandoned the rock cake after an ominous cracking noise from one of his back teeth. – Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, Chapter 11

Anyway, what he lacks in cooking skills, he makes up in heart. And because I like my teeth the way they are, I’m not going to replicate Hagrid’s rock-hard cakes, but the normal, eatable version.

Ingredients: (for 12 small cakes)**

• 2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1/2 cup granulated sugar
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 8 tablespoons butter
• 1 large egg
• 1/3 cup whole milk
• 1 cup raisins

** *From The Unofficial Harry Potter Cookbook by Dinah Buchholz ©2010 Adams Media. 

I actually made a little dance because I had all the ingredients in my kitchen! I love it when I already have everything a recipe calls for. It means I can easily replicate it the moment I crave it again.

I decided to cut all the ingredients in half to make only 6 cakes because I was pretty sure I was going to eat all the cakes I made the same day (and I did).

Instructions:

Basically, I poured everything into a bowl and mixed it. First the dry ingredients, then the rest.***

*** I’m not disclosing the complete recipe because that wouldn’t be fair to the author! 

After that I had fun playing with the dough until it reached this wet sand consistency. At the end I added the raisins, which ended up being too many. I would recommend adding half or 3/4 of the raisins in the recipe. (Unless you love raisins more than anything in the world).

Then into the toaster-oven! I didn’t want to use the full-size oven because I was only baking a small batch. I also decided to make the cakes a little smaller than recommended, around the size of a Ferrero chocolate. They ended up perfect! Like some kind of cookie-cake to go with my tea.

I baked them until they browned at the bottom.

THE KITCHEN SMELLED DELICIOUS. And I loved them! These cakes tasted like the ones at my local bakery, though there they don’t add raisins.

Next time I’ll use less raisins and I’ll be careful with the ones at the bottom of my cakes, because some of them got burned a little and tasted kinda funny. Some of the raisins also starting falling off because there were too many! (Not a problem though, I ate them from the plate). I’m excited to make rock cakes again but with chocolate chips.

Overall, I loved these cakes. I’m so happy I found this recipe because now I can make them anytime I want a quick baked treat.

I ate one of these as soon as I got them out of the oven and it was so good, all warm and mushy! But…they were even better when they got cold! I think rock cakes must be at least a little hard to fully enjoy them (not enough to break a teeth though). I really liked the crisp consistency they got after 40 minutes of taking pictures of them ;P

The author of the book noted that to achieve the rock-hard consistency from Hagrid’s cakes, you must bake them and leave them outside for about a week. I wasn’t able to try this because my boyfriend and I ate them all as soon as I took the pictures. SO-GOOD.

I’ll be posting a Wizarding World recipe every Monday!

Some of them will come from this book and others will be my own creations

I got The Unofficial Harry Potter Cookbook on Amazon for $12.20

The pink Hagrid umbrella was part of this figure set that I lost when moving out. (Though the umbrella magically survived).

Note: If you shop from some of the links on my blog I might get a commission!

Other recipes:

• Kreacher’s French Onion Soup

The post Trying some Harry Potter Recipes – Hagrid’s Rock Cakes appeared first on Pretty Geekery.