Greetings to all my favourite food addicts and baking beauties. It is that time again. As you may have already read in my other SOUP submission for this month, I have not had the best time of late, thanks to one particularly persistent pest. If you haven't got that far yet, I will briefly say that Professor Slughorn has yet again sent me a plethora of unwanted owls. Much to mine and Mummy's disgust.
However, that is not the point of this particular article. I'm sure you are all eager to see what my latest visit to Momma Fox's cottage has produced for you all to make. Well, this month was certainly not a disappointment! I had, of course, written to her as soon as the Editors gave us our assignments for the month and voiced my abject fear that I would have to agree to attend a party in order to find suggestions for her for "Slug Club" themed dishes. She quickly reassured me, by return owl, that such drastic measures would not be necessary. One of her cousins had been a founder member of the Club and had regaled her on more than one occasion about the quality of food that the Hogwarts House Elves had produced for the Professor's events. This meant that she had just the recipe for me, as her cousin had described his favourite dessert from those meetings in great detail.
When I arrived, she had gleefully pushed the familiar parchment into my hand and twitched her ears playfully. Her voice was a merry chirp as she proclaimed brightly, "Come on, come on, Child, get those sleeves rolled up, we have work to do. When we are done, we can enjoy our treats with a lovely glass of lemonade from the bottle that the lovely Luna Scamander sent me. She's struggling to get those fussy twins of hers to eat their vegetables, so I had to help, didn't I? She really is a dear to say thank you with a gift!"
Agreeing with a smile, I made a mental note to send Luna an owl and ask how she was. We had not spoken since my last interview with her, and I missed her effervescent charm. However, not wanting to keep Momma Fox waiting, I quickly got on with the task at hand. A simply sumptuous Butterbeer Trifle!
Ingredients:
For the Jelly layer:
1 packet jelly (Any colour or flavour will do, but apple is recommended)
500ml water
3-4 soft caramel cookies or biscuits
For the Butterbeer Custard:
2 tbsp custard powder
2 tbsp sugar
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp butterscotch flavouring
1 pint (568ml) milk
For the Cream:
300ml double cream
1 tbsp icing sugar
1/4 tsp vanilla
For the Decorations:
Golden toffee pieces
Dark chocolate curls
Honeycomb nuggets
2-3 soft caramel cookies or biscuits
Method:
1) To begin, you need to prepare your jelly by pouring the jelly mixture into a jug. Add just enough boiling water to dissolve it, and then top up to 500ml with cold water.
2) Place your caramel biscuits into the bottom of your glasses or serving dishes and then evenly cover with the jelly. Place in a muggle fridge to set for at least 1 hour. After one hour, you may also use a gentle swish of the Freezing Charm, Glacius, to finish off if the jelly is not firm enough. Just make sure you cast on the glass, not the jelly, as you do not want ice crystals in your jelly.
3) While the jelly is setting, make the custard by warming the milk in a saucepan or pewter cauldron over a low heat. Add the custard powder and sugar into a bowl and then use a few tablespoons of milk to work into a paste. Whisk this into the rest of the milk along with the butterscotch extract and the cinnamon, then return to the heat, stirring continuously in an anti-clockwise direction for 5 minutes until thickened. Remove from the heat and allow to cool. Do not attempt to rush this process by applying too much heat with your wand. This will cause the milk to burn.
4) Once the jelly has set and the custard is cool, spoon an even layer over the top of the jelly and return to the fridge for at least 30 minutes.
5) Prepare the cream by whisking together the double cream, icing sugar and vanilla until it forms soft peaks. Transfer into a piping back and swirl over the top of the custard.
6) Decorate the top using assorted caramel and chocolate-flavoured treats.
Several hours later, after a lovely session in the kitchen and the garden, I had heard many a story of Momma Fox's cousin's exploits, and I was almost convinced that attending a "Slug club" meeting might not be quite so bad after all. But note that I said almost. Even if I were to go, I still firmly believe it would only be to follow Mummy's instructions to remind the bumbling buffoon that, no, there was no way in Merlin's Pants that he was ever going to score a free painting from Mummy's collection! It simply was not going to happen. Ever.
So until next time, my dear readers, I hope you have a ton of kitchen fun, and you all manage to avoid the horrors I have been subjected to of late. Good luck! - Nikita