{ Profiteroles with Butterbeer Sauce }

Do you know what yesterday was? Well, it was Ron Weasley's 36th Birthday! In honor of him, I decided to whip up a treat. What could be more fitting of Ron than for me to post it a day late?

Ron is one of my favorite characters. I mean, I have a LOT of favorites, but Ron ranks right up there in the top, top. He's probably my 2nd favorite right after Luna. The thing I love about Ron is how fabulously flawed he is. Jo can really write her some fantastic true to life people. Ron is a good friend, but he's also very jealous, he's a slacker, but he can do amazing things when he puts his mind to it, Ron needs attention, Ron pouts, Ron is caring, Ron is a good son, Ron can be a brat. I love him.

Rupert Grint is perfection as Ron.

My favorite movie is quite controversial: Half Blood Prince. HBP is famously panned as being the least accurate movie. I can't help that I love it. It has great humor, it's a lot of fun but with very serious moments, and I enjoy it tremendously. My favorite scene in all the Potter movies is this one- starring, you guessed it- Ron.

He eats a box full of candy with a very strong love potion in them. I love the way Rupert Grint plays this scene. I've seen it 100 times, but I still laugh every time.

In HBP Hermione, Harry, Neville, and Ginny are all invited to go to the Slug Club dinner party with Professor Slughorn. Ron is not invited. Not only is Ron not invited, Slughorn can never even get his name right. At the party, Slughorn serves a lovely dessert: Profiteroles.

Since my buddy Ron didn't get to have any- and let's be honest, he'd of loved to, I made him some for his birthday. Mine have a Butterbeer sauce. I win, Slughorn. I win.

Profiterole is just a fancy name for your basic cream puff. They are made from a Pâte à Choux pastry. I know that sound intimidating, but Pâte à Choux is easy. SO easy. Fancy names are scary, but this stuff is easy peasy.

You can fill your profiteroles with a variety of things like your basic whipped cream, a pastry cream, custard, ice cream etc. You can even fill them with jam. For these, I filled them with vanilla pudding. Yes, from a box mix.  You can make your own if you'd like though!

The Butterbeer sauce is also very easy to make. You basically just cook and stir. Anyone can do that, right?

When you are finished you will have a most impressive looking dessert that really wasn't hard at all! Your friends and family don't need to know that (cue the 80's Rice Krispy Treat commercial).

Happy Birthday, Ron! Have a profiterole tower or two!

Tina

See all my Harry Potter posts here, including crafts, recipes, travel tips for the Wizarding World of Harry Potter, and two massive parties.

Profiteroles with Butterbeer Sauce

by Tina @ Sugar Bean Bakers

1 recipe Pâte à Choux- prepared and baked as instructed here

2 boxes Instant Vanilla Pudding prepared as stated on boxes, cooled and thickened

1 recipe Butterbeer Sauce (below)

After your cream puff pastry has fully cooled, use a spare icing tip (or a knife) and carefully poke a hole in the bottom of each puff.

Using a pastry bag fitting with an injector tip and filled with your pudding, inject each puff with pudding until full.

Drizzle with slightly warm Butterbeer Sauce and serve. Great with vanilla ice cream or whipped cream.

Fill only puffs you intend to eat at that time. Save the rest of the shells in an airtight container. They will keep for a few days. You can re-crisp these if they become soft by baking for about 5 minutes on 350 F. 

Butterbeer Sauce

by Tina @ Sugar Bean Bakers

1/4 cup (1/2 stick) butter

1 cup packed brown sugar

1/4 cup milk

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

3 tablespoons light corn syrup

In a small sauce pan, melt butter over medium heat. Add in milk, brown sugar and corn syrup. Cook until thickened, but do not allow to boil. Remove from heat, add vanilla. Allow to cool until warm. Serve warm. Store in refrigerator for  up to one week.

{Chocolate Calzones}

 Two days ago my keyboard just decided that it had had enough. It was going on strike. It worked the night before, but when I woke up...The jig is up, Mufasa, I'm outtie.

Weird thing is, it was a new keyboard. Like, a month old. *I'm looking at you HP*. I had had it over a year, it came with my computer, but I just kept using my old one, until I got a new desk. Don't ask why, but for some reason, new computer doesn't = new keyboard. New desk, however, totally = new keyboard. Don't ask.

I just plugged the new guy in. Look, I'm not even correcting my mistakes if I make them, because sometimes keyboards are , like, way different for some unknown, companies are tryinta drive us crazy, reason. So, yeah, mistakes... they stay. We'll call this an organic post. Unaltered, man, unaltered.

So, my old new keyboard decided that it would only capitalize the letters it wanted to. And just the punctuation it felt like. There was no rhyme or reason. At first I thought it was just the bottom row of keys, but no, my T wouldn't work either. (Oh! lookit! A capital T! I haven't seen one of those in 2 days!). The biggest problem though? (HELLO QUESTION MARK! I'VE MISSED YOU, MY FRIEND). The lack of a question mark. I started sending emails and Facebook posts where I would say something like "Do you know what time that starts question mark", "Have you see that yet question mark", "Do you know what I mean question mark".

In case you've ever doubted this fact, question marks are important and ? is much easier than typing 'question mark' every time you ask something.

True. Fact.

Last week, I made Pie Pops for the Bean to take in to Math Class for Pi Day. Last year I made apple. This year I decided to make cherry, but at the last second, I also decided to make chocolate. Those were such a hit that it inspired this SUPER EASY recipe.

It's also one that the Bean declared "Stupid good".

And. Easy. Did I say easy? Cause. Easy.

Oh, and these aren't really calzones at all, they are made of pie crust, not pizza crust, I just called them that because of the shape :)

Pie Crust. Chocolate chips. Egg Whites. Sugar.

That's it.

And if you want a glaze, you'll only need a few more ingredients!

Butter. Powdered Sugar. Water. Vanilla. Cocoa Powder.

Cut out crust, add chips, fold, bake.

Yuh-hummmy.

The dip puts these lil guys OVER THE TOP!!!!!

These have become a new quick treat for the Bean. 

And you know what? I'm not even fond of pie crust, but... I like these!!

I wouldn't eat them without the dip though, they are a bit too dry for my liking.

Stupid good.

Tina

Did I make it through this post typo free??

* * *

Chocolate Calzones

by Tina @ Sugar Bean Bakers

For the Calzones:

Pie Crust

Chocolate Chips

Sugar

For the dip:

1 cup powdered sugar

4 Tablespoons butter, melted

1 Tablespoon hot water

1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

For chocolate dip:

add 1-2 tablespoons of cocoa powder

Preheat oven to 375F

Line a baking sheet with parchment or a silicon mat or grease cookie sheet

Roll out your pie crust (refrigerated is fine!). Using a standard sized biscuit cutter, cut out circles of dough. Add a scant teaspoon of chocolate chips (or white chocolate chips, or add some caramel bits, or nuts, etc!), moisten the rim of the crust, and fold over. Press to seal. Brush with egg whites and dust with granulated sugar.

Bake for 12-15 minutes or until golden.

Serve warm!

As they are baking, whip up your dip.

In a medium sized bowl, mix together the butter and powdered sugar. Add in your water. Whisk until glossy. Stir in vanilla.

If making a chocolate glaze, add 1-2 Tablespoons of cocoa to taste. Whisk well.

Yields: 9*

This is what I got from 1 refrigerated pie crust, I cut 18 circles to make 9 calzones.

I didn't reroll the crust after cutting, if you did that you could certainly get a few more.