A Trip to Diagon Alley with #BookClubCookbookCC

Welcome back to Book Club Cookbook CC where a dozen of us are cooking for one full year (and maybe longer if we can convince Camilla) from the Book Club Cookbook by Judy Gelman and Vicki Levy Krupp.

This month we were assigned to cook something from Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone by our host, Erin of  The Spiffy Cookie.  The Cookbook featured a treacle tart inspired by the fact that it is Harry's favorite dessert.  I did not choose to make this although Erin's tart turned out lovely.

I have read the book.  Actually I have read the whole series.  I have watched the movie and to refresh my memory for this event I listened to the book. If you haven't read this book yet, please do yourself a favor and pick it up.  Better yet, if you have youngsters in your life, share it with them.  They will love it and you will love spending some great time with them exploring the world of good vs evil.

I was glad that I refreshed my memory because I was thinking of making butter beer but it does not appear until a later book in the series.  There is no shortage of food inspiration in this book though.  

My first inclination was to make chocolate frogs.  I was going to package them with a trading card featuring Professor Dumbledore since that was one of the first magical foods that Harry had.

The thing was that just last month I made chocolate witch suckers for our Food n Flix club that was featuring Hocus Pocus for Halloween.  I thought another chocolate molded food would be redundant. That is because I am not as clever as my friend, Amy of Amy's Cooking Adventures who didn't make molded frogs but these adorable chocolate frogs made from pretzels and cookies.

I finally decided to make chocolate raspberry ice cream with nuts which is found in chapter 5 when Hagrid is seen outside the window holding ice cream for Harry while he is meeting Malfoy for the first time.

My adventures making this ice cream were nearly as confusing and mixed up as Harry's Adventures at Hogwarts.  I  adapted a recipe I found from Nestle for Raspberry Dark Chocolate Ice Cream with Brownie Chunks.  This recipe called for Raspberry Liqueur.  I didn't have any but I did have some Raspberry Vodka...so I used that...of course, I churned and churned and churned but alcohol doesn't freeze so I had very cold pudding LOL.  But I poured it into a container and put it in the freezer anyway to see what would happen.  Then when I was out the next day I thought that I would make another batch and turn the batch in the freezer into pudding by rewarming it and adding cornstarch.  I bought more cream, chocolate and raspberries came home, pulled out the container and found perfect ice cream inside.  Now I have to figure out what to make with the raspberries I bought LOL.

This is a deliciously decadent ice cream....deep dark chocolate flavored with raspberry puree and filled with slivered almonds. No wonder Harry and Hagrid became such great friends!!

No Churn Dark Chocolate Raspberry Almond Ice Cream

adapted from Nestle

6 oz. raspberries

2 T. sugar

1 T. raspberry vodka

1 1/2 c. heavy cream

6 T. cocoa powder

1 c. sugar

pinch of salt

1 (10 oz) pkg 60% cacao bittersweet chocolate morsels

1 1/2 c. 2% milk

1 t. vanilla

1 T. raspberry vodka

6 oz. raspberries

2 T. sugar

1 T. raspberry vodka

1/2 c. slivered almonds

Place the raspberries, 2 T. sugar and 1 T. vodka in food processor and puree until smooth.  Pass through a fine mesh sieve to remove seeds.  Place puree in the refrigerator.

Place the heavy cream, cocoa powder, sugar and salt into a medium sauce pan over med high heat. Bring to a boil while whisking to dissolve cocoa and sugar.

Put the bittersweet chocolate morsels into a large bowl.  Pour the boiling cocoa mixture over the morsels and let sit for 5 minutes.  Whisk until smooth (it will be like a ganache).  Add the milk, vanilla and second T. of vodka. Whisk to combine (it will be like a loose pudding).  Stir in the raspberry puree and refrigerate overnight.

The next day, stir in the almonds and pour the mixture into a freezer safe container.  Freeze for 24-48 hrs before serving.  Print Recipe