The Unofficial Harry Potter Cookbook by Dinah Bucholz Page B

vanilla extract
    1 pound bittersweet chocolate, chopped
    2 cups chopped toasted pecans
Grease a rimmed baking sheet and line it with parchment paper, allowing the parchment paper to climb up two opposite ends. This will make it easy to remove the toffee from the pan after it cools. Place the sugar, golden syrup or corn syrup, butter, heavy cream, cream of tartar, salt, and soy lecithin in a medium saucepan and cook over medium-high heat, stirring constantly, until combined. Reduce the heat to medium-low. Wash down the sides of the pan with a pastry brush dipped in hot water to get rid of sugar crystals. Just a few crystals on the sides can cause the toffee to recrystallize.
Clip a candy thermometer to the saucepan. Continue cooking, stirring constantly, until the temperature reaches 300°F.
Remove the pan from the heat and quickly stir in the vanilla. Quickly pour the mixture into the prepared pan and spread evenly to the edges with a wooden spoon. You need to move fast because the candy hardens quickly. Cool completely in the pan.
Melt the chocolate in a microwave. Spread half the chocolate over the toffee, then sprinkle half the pecans evenly over the chocolate, patting it down with your hands to make sure it sticks. Refrigerate for 10 minutes to allow the chocolate to set.
When the chocolate is hard, tug a corner of the parchment paper to loosen the toffee, then carefully flip it over and peel off the parchment paper. Spread the remaining chocolate over the toffee and sprinkle the remaining pecans over the chocolate, patting them down with your hands. When the chocolate is set, break the toffee into irregular pieces.
    Makes about 2 pounds
Oversized Blueberry Muffins with Crunchy Tops
    Harry is too nervous to eat on the morning of his fateful hearing, but Mrs. Weasley offers him muffins among several food choices for breakfast in Grimmauld Place. In the end, it doesn't matter what Harry chooses because he can barely get it down (see Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix , Chapter 7).
    When chemical leaveners were discovered in America at the turn of the nineteenth century, muffins followed just as surely, with blueberry being one of the most popular. The Americans didn't keep the discovery to themselves, and so American muffins are enjoyed for breakfast in England as well.
    2 cups all-purpose flour
    2 teaspoons baking soda
    ¼ teaspoon salt
    2 large eggs, at room temperature
    1 cup granulated sugar
    1 stick (8 tablespoons) butter, melted
    Grated zest of 1 lemon
    1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
    1 cup sour cream, at room temperature
    1 pint blueberries, washed and well drained
    Turbinado sugar for sprinkling (Introduction)
Preheat the oven to 350°F. Grease and flour a 12-cup muffin pan. In a mixing bowl, whisk together the flour, baking soda, and salt. Set aside.
In a large mixing bowl, whisk the eggs until smooth. Whisk in the sugar and continue whisking until light and fluffy. Drizzle in the melted butter while whisking vigorously. Whisk in the lemon zest and vanilla. Fold in the flour mixture and sour cream alternately, beginning and ending with the flour. The batter will be very stiff. Fold in the blueberries.
Divide the batter among the muffin cups (the batter should reach the rim of each cup). Sprinkle the tops generously with turbinado sugar. Bake the muffins for 25 minutes, rotating the pan halfway through the baking time, until the tops are golden brown.
    Makes 12 muffins
    To make apple-cinnamon muffins, add 2 teaspoons ground cinnamon to the flour in Step 1. Omit the vanilla and lemon zest in Step 2, and substitute 1 cup diced apples for the blueberries. Bake as directed.
Mince Pies
    Mince pies are very Christmassy, and sure enough, Mrs. Weasley sends Harry some for Christmas along with other goodies (see Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban , Chapter 11).
    If you eat a mince pie every day of the twelve days of Christmas, preferably in a different house each time, you will have a happy year, according to an