Harry Potter is undoubtfully a marker of our generation and what it means to have grown up in the ‘90s and 2000s. We’re not the “Baby Boomers,” we’re the “Harry Potter Generation;” and, hey, I’m okay with that. Few other books or series have been the complete phenomenon that is Harry Potter, spurring books, movies, and a theme park — not to mention Robert Pattinson’s career (well, I mean, nothing’s perfect). Rowling’s work has created a magical world that people can take refuge in, allowing readers to lose themselves in the corridors of Hogwarts and helping millions find a love for reading. I’m proud to say that I’m a member of the Harry Potter Generation and that these books were there as I was growing up — I bet the Boomers are feeling a little jealous right now, don’t you?

I still remember reading The Sorcerer’s Stone for the first time in elementary school. I was amazed by the world that seemed so real. But what really got my attention was the food. After wishing more than anything that I could fly or have a wand, it was the Hogwarts’ feasts that I most wanted in my life. Rows of seemingly endless dishes and desserts was (and still is) a dream of mine. I could just imagine myself being at the holiday meals — pretty much a Thanksgiving dinner on steroids. So needless to say, I deemed it necessary to recreate a little bit of this magic by making what I consider to be the quintessential Harry Potter recipe: treacle tart.

While I didn’t officially know what was in treacle tart until last night, I always considered it synonymous with the books. So fun fact for all of you who don’t what’s in it: it’s actually a tart filled with a “golden syrup,” a molasses-like liquid and breadcrumbs, which gives it a chewy texture similar to pecan pie. Who would’ve guessed? Not me; I honestly thought it was chocolate. Nonetheless, I decided to make this traditional English dessert to celebrate the final movies in the Harry Potter series, hoping I can steal a little bit of the House Elves magic.

Ingredients:

Tart Crust
2 ½ cups all-purpose flour
1 cup powdered sugar
½ teaspoon salt
2 sticks butter
2 large egg yolks
½ heavy cream
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Filling
1 cup light molasses
2 ¼ cups fresh breadcrumbs
Zest and juice of 1 lemon
1 egg

1. To begin, combine the flour, sugar, and salt. Break the 2 sticks of butter into chunks and scatter over the mixture, combining until none of the white powder is visible.

2. Now, beat the two egg yolks with the cream and vanilla extract. Add this to the flour-butter combination, mixing until the dough forms a cohesive ball — if it’s too dry, add a tablespoon of cream. Take the dough, divide it into two equal portions, and form them into disks. Wrap these in plastic wrap and chill for a minimum of 3 days.

3. While the dough is finishing its chill, start on the filling. In a pot, warm in the molasses until it starts to get runny. Now, combine the heated syrup, breadcrumbs, lemon zest, and lemon juice, mixing well.

4. Preheat your oven to 400F and take the dough out of the refrigerator.  Flour your counter (or table) well and roll out one of your disks into an 11-inch circle. Now, fold into quarters, brushing off excess flour, and unfold it in a 9-inch tart pan. Carefully, press the dough into all the crevices of the fluted sides. To finish, trim the excess dough so that it’s even with the rim of the pan.

5. Roll out your second disk until it’s roughly 1/8 inch thick. Cut the dough into strips to eventually top the tart.

6. Pour the filling into the dough-lined tart pan, smoothing out the top with a spoon or spatula. To create a lattice top, lay half of your dough strips in one direction and the other half perpendicularly. Trim the overhang. Brush the top with a beaten egg to ensure a golden and delicious crust.

7. Finally, bake for 10 minutes, then turn down the oven to 375F and bake another 25 minutes, or until the crust is browned and the filling starts to puff up in the center.

8. Enjoy! I suggest serving with vanilla ice cream and freshly whipped cream.

The tart was delicious and definitely very Harry Potter-y. So, what I suggest is that everyone takes a break from homework and studying, put on Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire (a random, yet perfect choice), make this dessert, and transport yourself to a magical world.

Note: The recipe was taken from The Unofficial Harry Potter Cookbook.

“For me, it began as a love story,” translates Mbala, our professor on our GIEU (Global Intercultural Experience for Undergraduates) trip to Gabon.  Madame Rachiwa, an elderly Gabonese woman who is roughly 70, sat perched on a tree stub.  She held a large stalk of sugar cane in one hand as her other rested on a table of freshly harvested cacao and hand-processed coco as she began telling us her story.

Cacao, a native fruit to Gabon, is abundant within the country.  It is an oval-like yellow fruit that brings pleasure to millions worldwide in the form of chocolate.  I had never tried the actual fruit myself before visiting her plantation, and to my surprise it was remarkably refreshing and strikingly similar to mangosteen, a tropical fruit primarily found in Asia.  The flesh of the fruit is white and hangs tightly around an oval pit, where each piece is small and the cluster of pieces together is what makes up the fruit as a whole.  The fruit is broken apart into the individual pieces and left out to dry so only the pits remain.  From there, the pits are ground up and transformed into coco powder.  Once the pits are ground into this powder, a variety of different processes can be employed to make items such as chocolate bars, hot coco powder, coco butter, and more.  It is just the fruit that is needed first, then everything else, well, that comes later.

Madame Rachiwa grew up in a house stocked full of European imported chocolate.  She sat there smiling as she began explaining how she used to have such a sweet tooth she would often opt to spend her only money on chocolate instead of on staple foods, I mean, how many of us wouldn’t?  But the irony, she explained, was that as she ran around her garden with a chocolate bar in one hand, she and her siblings would throw the cacao fruits in her yard at one another not knowing that the sweets she ate so voraciously actually came from the fruits growing in her backyard. Eventually her parents explained to her that the two were one in the same, and that’s when she had her “ah-hah” moment.  Essentially, it was the moment that came to influence her whole future.

Madame Rachiwa has two plantations outside the town of Lambarene.  Our group went to visit her first business venture: a cacao plantation where she also grows star fruit, papaya, cassava, and pineapple.  The property is small in comparison to any industrialized farm; however, she is trying to process her own chocolate for distribution on site.  There are approximately five sheds used for drying the fruits, while the remainder of the process occurs in her kitchen.  The lack of financial support, employees, and machinery is stopping her from turning her plantation into a full-fledged business.  So what exactly is missing here? Well, this is why it is a bittersweet love story – the Gabonese government does not invest in local agriculture. 

Madame Rachiwa is not the only local trying to increase the scale of her work.  In fact, she is among many who work and strive to produce local agriculture for the Gabonese people.  However many farmers have already invested everything they have to make the business into what it is today and are now at a standstill because they can’t expand their farms enough to increase distribution and turn a profit.  The lack of government investment in local agriculture negatively affects the people in two ways – everything is imported and therefore far more expensive then it needs to be, and two, local farmers are losing money by simply trying to keep their farms afloat.  In a country where the climate permits everything to grow, these people have everything to gain if someone just gave them a helping hand.

As I sat there listening to her story and drinking the hot chocolate that was made fresh from her cacao, I realized that what she wanted most was simply to get her story out there.  So, for all and any of you interested in helping Madame Rachiwa spread her story or in directly contacting her with any ideas, I encourage you to take the initiative and spread the word.