The Unofficial Harry Potter Cookbook - Dinah Bucholz [28]
½ cup currants or dried sweetened cranberries
¼ cup chopped candied cherries, optional
Whole raw almonds for covering the cake
Preheat the oven to 300°F. Grease and flour a 9-inch cake pan that is at least 2 inches deep and set aside. Whisk together the flour, ground almonds, baking powder, and salt.
In a separate bowl, beat the butter and sugar with an electric mixer until light and fluffy, scraping down the sides of the bowl as needed, about 5 minutes. Add the eggs one at a time, beating after each until incorporated. Add the almond extract and beat until combined. Add the orange zest and juice and the marmalade and beat until combined. Add the apple juice and beat until combined. Stir in the flour mixture at the lowest speed until combined, scraping down the sides. Stir in the dark raisins, golden raisins, currants or cranberries, and candied cherries, if using.
Scrape the batter into the prepared pan and smooth the top with a rubber spatula. Place the whole almonds in concentric circles on top of the cake. Bake for 1 hour; then reduce the temperature to 275°F and bake for another hour or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.
Remove from the oven and cool completely in the pan. When completely cool, invert the cake onto a cardboard round and immediately reinvert the cake onto a serving platter or another cardboard round.
Makes 16 thick slices or 32 thin slices
Almond-Ginger-Peach Treacle Tart
Harry is having a nasty turn. It's no fun seeing into Voldemort's mind. About to be really sick, he gets up from the table abruptly. Kreacher, out of newfound concern for his master, offers him treacle tart (see Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Chapter 12).
Treacle is a byproduct of sugar refining, much like molasses. It's used mostly in England and has a delicious taste. If you can't find golden syrup (which is light treacle), you can use light molasses, dark corn syrup, or even pure maple syrup.
Tart Crust
1 cup all-purpose flour
½ cup finely ground almonds
¼ cup granulated sugar
¼ teaspoon salt
1 stick (8 tablespoons) cold butter or margarine, cut into pieces
1 large egg yolk
1 tablespoon heavy cream
1 teaspoon vanilla
Treacle Filling
1 large peach, thinly sliced
1 cup golden syrup or dark corn syrup
2 cups fresh bread crumbs (6 to 8 slices fresh bread processed to crumbs in a food processor)
½ cup chopped almonds
1 teaspoon ground ginger
1 egg beaten with 1 tablespoon water, for brushing the top
Combine the flour, ground almonds, sugar, and salt in a large mixing bowl. Using a pastry cutter, two knives, or your fingertips, cut the butter into the flour until the flour is completely coated with fat; in other words, no white powdery flour remains and the mixture resembles coarse yellow meal. Or pulse in a food processor 15 to 20 times until the mixture resembles coarse yellow meal, and then transfer it to a large mixing bowl.
Beat the egg yolk with the cream and vanilla and pour it into the flour-butter mixture. Toss with a spatula until the dough clumps together, then knead briefly. Form 1/3 of the dough into one disk and the remaining 2/3 of the dough into another. Wrap in plastic wrap and refrigerate at least 2 hours or up to 3 days.
Preheat the oven to 350°F. Remove the larger disk from the refrigerator and sprinkle both sides generously with flour. On a heavily flour-dusted work surface, roll out the dough to an 11-inch circle. Fit the dough into a 9-inch tart pan and press in the bottom and sides. This dough is very, very hard to work with, but it's also very forgiving, especially if you use margarine in place of the butter (sacrificing some flavor, but oh, well). You can gather it up, knead it, and reroll several times without its becoming tough. If it gets too soft, put it back in the fridge to firm up.
Lay the thinly sliced peaches on the bottom of the tart. Warm the golden syrup in the microwave or a small saucepan just until it's runny. Combine the golden syrup, bread crumbs, chopped almonds, and ginger in a mixing bowl and mix