recipe: butterbeer.

i love a good harry potter moment, movie or film.  i would love to spend a day or two at harry potter world, but that's a little far away and a lot more money than i'm inclined to shell out at the moment.  so instead, i headed to google and found myself a recipe for butterbeer!

this was simple and sweet (literally. really sweet.) and you best believe i will be making it again soon.  a few notes:
(1) clarified butter doesn't exactly mix with chilled soda, but once you add the foam on top you really won't notice. i wasn't able to find imitation butter flavor at any regular stores, but ghee is readily available (at least at trader joe's), so i went that route. real food ingredients ftw?
(2) this stuff is best very chilled. as in, i would chill the "foam" for 20-30 minutes before serving next time. possibly even in the freezer.
(3) small portions are best. this stuff is seriously rich, so consider splitting the portions. if you do this, the extra "foam" goes really well with strawberry pie.

butterbeer ingredients:
6 12 oz bottles chilled cream soda
3 tsp imitation butter flavor, or 2 tbsp clarified butter (ghee)

"foam" ingredients:
2 cups heavy cream
6 tbsp sugar
2 tsp vanilla extract
1 1/2 tsp imitation butter, or 3 tsp clarified butter (ghee)

directions:
in a large bowl, whip the heavy cream on medium high speed for 3-4 minutes until it starts to thicken.  add the sugar and continue whipping until soft peaks begin to form, another 3-4 minutes (or as needed).  stir in the vanilla and imitation/clarified butter, then whip for another 30 seconds or so, until soft peaks form.  let set out 6 large glasses. place 1 tsp clarified butter (or 1/2 tsp imitation butter) in each class. pour the sodas into each glass, over the butter.
spoon a generous portion of foam on top of each glass, then mix gently. if you aren't going for the "look", you can spoon the foam into the bottom of the glass before pouring in the cream soda. serve immediately.