Family Activity: Butterbeer Beverages

My kids are HUGE Harry Potter fans.  When we went to Universal IOA, we also bit the bullet and ate at the Three Broomsticks. The atmosphere there is pretty good, but the food is pricey (it cost us over $100 to eat there) We had a challenging day and you can read about it here:  {{sigh}} 

I thoroughly enjoyed my fish n' chips, and my husband enjoyed his food.  The kids either did not care for theirs, but ate it anyway, or they wanted to let it go to waste.   I ate a lot of what was left on their plates.  

We were even of split opinions on the Butterbeer.  I loved it, my husband liked it and the kids gave it mixed reviews.  Two of the boys did not like the foam.

A couple of years ago Lawboy came home from a Harry Potter activity with some homemade Butterbeer.  It was really gross.  The stuff at the park was much better.  After a lot of searching I came across this recipe for Butterbeer.  It is still very sweet, but much closer to what we had in the park.  I am going to copy the recipe and link below, but I think the next time I make this I will either useless of the brown sugar mixture, or just less brown sugar.  

Frozen Butterbeer
http://prudencepennywise.blogspot.com/2011/04/harry-potter-world-and-butter-beer.html

Servings: 4

Ingredients

		1 cup light or dark brown sugar
		2 tablespoons water
		6 tablespoon Butter
		1/2 teaspoon Salt
		1/2 teaspoon cider vinegar
		3/4 cup heavy whipping cream (divided)
		1/2 teaspoon Vanilla Extract
		Four 12-ounce bottles cream soda

Directions

Frozen Butterbeer

(adapted from Fox News Recipe)

Estimated cost: $6.00 Place your cream sodas in the freezer about 30 minutes before you plan to have butterbeer. (This recipe takes about one hour because of cooling time.) 

In a small saucepan over medium heat, combine the brown sugar and water. Bring to a gentle boil and cook, stirring often, until the mixture reads 240 F on a candy thermometer. Stir in the butter, salt, vinegar and 1/4 heavy cream. Set aside to cool to room temperature (about 30 minutes). Once the mixture has cooled, stir in the vanilla extract. 

Meanwhile, in a medium bowl, combine 2 tablespoons of the brown sugar mixture and the remaining 1/2 cup of heavy cream. Use an electric mixer to beat until just thickened, but not completely whipped, about 2 to 3 minutes. To serve, in the bowl of a blender, combine about 1/4 cup brown sugar mixture, 1/2 cup cream soda and two scoops of vanilla ice cream. Blend until smooth. Pour into glass and add additional cream soda to fill to the top. Stir with a spoon to blend. Top with whipped cream mixture. Repeat.