Butterbeer Recipe

Today, to celebrate the release of my blog, I will release my custom designed Butterbeer recipe.
Results show that the most popular part of the Wizarding World of Harry Potter, is purchasing and drinking the JK Rowling-approved refreshment. Both frozen and still are served at the theme park, but are rather pricey in my opinion, especially on top of the fees spent on the whole holiday.
Since March 31st when WB Studio Tour opened, Butterbeer has been available from a location (the tour) within the home country of myself, and our favourite protagonist. This is where I first discovered the magic of this wizarding drink.

Butterbeer served at The Wizarding World of Harry Potter

Over the past few days I have been scouring the 'net, searching for the best Butterbeer recipe. This included consulting Yahoo answers, checking various other blogs, and reading various newspaper websites.
Through all this research I have recorded each recipe, and took the best bits of everything, but had to take the limits of UK supermarkets, and price (as my Dad was paying for it) into consideration. I didn't want to make it just using cream soda, whipped cream, and some butterscotch ice cream topping on the top; I didn't want to make something that would take hours and hours; I wanted to make something that was like the real one, the one JKR approved.

There were two ingredients that I found always came out as the base of the drink. These were Cream Soda for the drink, and Heavy Cream (although here in civilised Britain we call it Whipped Cream) for the froth.
Cream Soda proved a problem for me, as us Englishmen do not seem to have such a taste for it as over in America, so it isn't very common. Bottled versions would be ideal as the are cheaper than cans but they all seem to be sugar free(!) although they do have a very different colour to the Coke like colour of Butterbeer. With much thought I did used the Lemonade looking cream soda, and used various food colourings to get it to the correct brown.

Next, came the butter dilemma. I had various options including Butterscotch sauce, Butterscotch ice-cream toppings, or just butter. These turned out to be very rare within Britain, too sweet mixed with the cream soda, or just disgusting (all those oils mixed with Cream Soda! Yuck!). Then I though what about Butter extract? Also known as Imitation Butter this wouldn't make it any sweeter, but would still give it a buttery taste. This put in the drink, and paired with Vanilla Extract in the froth would be perfect. (I also read instead of the Vanilla and Butter Extracts in the froth, some Toffee flavouring would be far better, but although similar to the one served at the Studio Tour, its not quite the same.

Then having tasted that option I thought about a few improvements I could make. Cider Vinegar seemed rather popular so I added this to the drink and it made it better. This is when I decided I needed to make the  froth a bit sweeter to match the drink. I added a few spoonfuls and realised that was one of the best decisions of the recipe. It made it so much more addictive (if that was even possible!).

I know that in the books it is said to be mildly alcoholic, but to make mine child friendly, I chose not to use them. If you want to make yours a bit boozy, then by all means, replace the Butter flavouring for Butterscotch Schnapps; or put a bit of Rum extract into the drink.

Butterbeer Recipe

Ingredients (measurments are up to your personal taste):

• Cream Soda
• Whipped Cream
• Sugar
• Butter Extract (Imitation Butter)/Butterscotch Schnapps
• Vanilla Extract
• Food Colourings
• Apple Cider Vinegar

Method:

1. Fill the glasses you are using almost 3/4 of the way full with Cream Soda.
2. Put a few drops of Butter Extract into each of your Cream Soda's and mix in well.
3. Add the smallest amount possible of Cider Vinegar to each glass and again, mix it up.
4. Now use some food colourings to get your Cream Soda looking the right colour. If you can find the right brown then excellent, but if not: a drop of red, yellow, and blue in each will do nicely.
5. Now for the froth: whisk up all the cream for about 30seconds-1minute.
6. Add the amount of sugar you want, and a few drops of Vanilla, and Butter Extract.
7. Whisk for another 30seconds and until it resembles Beer froth, rather than Squirty Cream.
8. Divide this up amongst all the glasses.
9. Enjoy!

Butterbeer served at the WB Studio Tour London: The Making of Harry Potter.
This is what you should be aiming for.