Saturday 31 March 2012

Butterbeer! (a butterscotch sauce recipe for hot chocolate, latte, and butterbeer!)

A while back I was tweeting with Kristy about Starbucks releasing Hunger Games coffee- and somehow I got around to wondering why the heck they don't serve butterbeer! I decided that I needed to spend some time playing around in the kitchen to make up my own version of a butterbeer recipe.

I don't really like the idea of a cold butterbeer; I'm not a huge fan of cold drinks aside from water (and the odd alcoholic beverage :p) anyway, so I wanted to create a hot chocolate or latte recipe! After some 'research' I realised that you need to start with a base of butterscotch sauce, then add coffee (if you want) and warm, spiced, milk- delicious!

I found this awesome butterscotch recipe at smittenkitchen; it is really simple and tastes AMAZING!


You will need:

60g of butter (how you can measure butter in cups I do not know...)
1/2 cup of light or dark brown sugar (I used light)
1/2 cup double cream
1/2 teaspoon of salt (the smittenkitchen recipe called for 'flakey salt' but I just used regular table salt)
1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract





1) Melt the butter in a saucepan over a gentle heat.




2) Add the cream, sugar and salt then mix thoroughly. Heat it until it's just boiling- then keep it at a gentle boil for around 5 minutes (stirring occasionally)




3) Take it off the heat and allow to cool for a minute (if the mixture is too hot the vanilla extract will boil too = not good for flavour!)  then add the vanilla extract and stir, stir, stir and it will start to thicken up :)

4) Taste it, and see if you want to add more salt or vanilla. I really enjoy the combination of sweet and salty flavours, so I added a little more salt. (sorry that I forgot to picture the finished butterscotch sauce.... fail!)


To make your actual drink you need to take some milk (for hot chocolate you want a cup per drink, and about 1/2 a cup per latte) place it in a saucepan, then add nutmeg and cinnamon (the amount you add depends on taste, my sister and I love cinnamon and nutmeg so we added quite a lot!) and gently heat for a while to allow the flavours to combine- do not let it boil! You can also add a little butter if you wish, but I think it's sweet enough without.




Once the milk is warmed, add about a (heaped) teaspoon of butterscotch sauce per drink (again, depending on taste) stir it around, then pour it into your cup- I also topped mine with squirty cream, and OMG it tastes so good!




I've also tried the same method as a butterscotch/butterbeer latte (just put an espresso into a cup and top it off with some butterscotchy, spiced milk), and it was totally yummy (but again, failed to take a picture, sorry!)

Now I can't guarantee this recipe produced anything 'authentically' butterbeer flavoured, but it's darn yummy anyway! And if you wanted to I'm sure you could probably use the same butterscotch sauce to make cold butterbeer by adding in cream soda or ginger beer.

The butterscotch sauce should last a couple of weeks in the fridge (though it's so yummy I don't think it will remain uneaten for very long!)


As always, let me know if you decide to make this, enjoy your butterbeer! :)

                                                                                
            

                                                                                                          xGretalRabbitx

6 comments:

  1. Replies
    1. Thank you, I think you'd like it!
      xGretalRabbitx

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  2. Oh! Looks awesome, I'll definitely have to give this a try eventually!

    Also, randomly, though he might have been influenced if he saw me tweeting to you, my boyfriend decided we needed to try a butterbeer recipe tomorrow night at my birthday party! It sounds like what I thought butterbeer would be from the books (not the cold stuff from the theme park), and I'm pretty excited! If it's good, I'll link you the recipe we used! =)

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Glad you like it :) Happy early/belated birthday! Ooh enjoy, let me know how the recipe goes, I'd love to have it if it turns out well!
      xGretalRabbitx

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  3. Replies
    1. Yeah apparently they released some 'special blends' or something in the US- I'm not sure what they were though (if only they were released in the UK too!) :)
      xGretalRabbitx

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