Butterbeer, My Biggest Harry Potter Love (Sorry George!)

If you really know me, then you know I'm obsessed with Harry Potter.

So it should be no surprise that I decided to make butterbeer.... on several occasions in fact.  After the first taste, I knew I was in love.  (Sadly though, I personally feel my first batch was the absolute best I've made.  I haven't quite gotten it as perfect since although Indy will disagree with me.)

There are a lot of butterbeer recipes out there.  Just Google it and you'll see for yourself.  I took bits from a couple of recipes to make mine although both recipes were relatively the same.

I pretty much followed this recipe:  http://thisshatteredsymphony.blogspot.com/2010/10/creating-butterbeer.html but added in the rum extract from recipe #1 here:  http://wizardingworldpark.com/top-5-butterbeer-recipes/2010/08/20/ .... not sure it made that much of a difference but I liked it all the same.

My original batch (from the 4th of July) was made somewhat like this:

*1 cup light brown sugar
*2 tablespoons water
*2 tablespoons butter
*1/2 teaspoon cider vinegar
*1 cup heavy whipping cream, divided (although I will say the whipping cream you put on top of the drink per the recipes above wasn't stellar.... although admittedly my whipped cream sucked regardless LOL)
*1/4 teaspoon vanilla extract
*1/4 teaspoon rum extract
*1/8 teaspoon pumpkin spice (can be left out if you don't like it)
*4 12 oz cans of A&W Cream Soda (but only because we can't buy Virgil's Cream Soda -- the best cream soda EVER -- locally any more)

Mix brown sugar and water in a small pot.  Over medium heat (doing it over medium heat will help the mixture cook slowly so you don't burn it), boil sugar mixture until it reaches 240* on a candy thermometer, stirring continuously.

After you've reached 240*, add butter, cider vinegar, and 1/2 cup of whipping cream to the pot.  Mix together well and remove from heat to let mixture cool.  I stir it occasionally to make sure it stays smooth and doesn't settle too much.

Once cool, add vanilla and rum extracts as well as pumpkin spice.  Be sure to mix the spice in very well or half the batch may taste more pumpkiny than it should.

At this point, I measure 1/4 cup of the sugar mixture out into each glass.  Then pour in about 1/2 a can of cream soda and mix well.  You'll have a lot of foam come up as you're mixing but it's supposed to be that way!  It is butterBEER after all!

Once it's good and mixed together, add the last 1/2 of the cream soda and stir again.  Put in the fridge for an hour or so (I like mine cooler so I leave it in longer) and enjoy!

Oh right... the other 1/2 cup of whipping cream listed above was used to attempt to make a whipped topping.  (The recipes linked above have the directions I followed.... because apparently I was going back and forth between them while I was cooking.)  Personally, I didn't like it.  The foam that comes off the butterbeer was enough for me!


And that, my friends, is butterbeer!  Maybe I should go make another batch to keep me company on this raining day!