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Makes 12 to 14

Choux pastry, or pâte à choux (pronounced pott-ah-SHOO), is a sticky dough used to make cream puffs and éclairs, among other baked or fried goods, such as beignets. “Choux” comes from the French word for “cabbage” and is so named because it was used in France to make little cakes that looked like cabbages.

Banana Fritters with Caramel Sauce

As far as we know, no one actually eats banana fritters in the Harry Potter books; it's just the password to get through the portrait of the Fat Lady to the Gryffindor common room. Maybe the Fat Lady liked 'em (see Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, Chapter 25).

The Romans used to make a type of fritter similar to funnel cakes; it's amazing how in some ways the food we eat has changed so little. Even this medieval recipe for fritters (spelled frytours) sounds familiar (except for the parsnips):“Take skyrwater [whatever that is] and pasternakes [parsnips] and apples and parboil them, make a batter of flour and eggs, cast thereto ale and saffron and salt, wet them in the batter and fry them in oil or in grease, do thereto almond milk and serve it forth.”

Caramel Sauce

½ cup granulated sugar

2 tablespoons water

½ cup heavy cream

1 tablespoon butter

½ teaspoon pure vanilla extract

Banana Fritters

½ cup all-purpose flour

1 teaspoon baking powder

Pinch salt

2 large eggs

2 tablespoons granulated sugar

2 tablespoons butter, melted and cooled

2 tablespoons whole milk

Oil for frying

3 ripe but firm bananas, sliced at an angle into ¼-inch slices

For the caramel sauce, in a small saucepan, cook the sugar and water over medium heat, stirring constantly, until the sugar dissolves and the mixture begins to bubble. Continue cooking over medium-high heat, stirring occasionally, until the mixture turns a deep amber color.

Remove the pan from the heat and add the cream and butter; the mixture will bubble up violently. Stir until it turns back to liquid; if hard lumps of the caramelized sugar remain, stir over low heat until they liquefy. Add the vanilla and stir to combine. Keep warm until ready to serve.

Whisk together the flour, baking powder, and salt in a large mixing bowl. In a separate bowl, whisk the eggs with the sugar until combined. Add the melted butter to the egg mixture and whisk until combined. Add the egg mixture to the flour mixture and whisk until smooth. Add the milk and whisk until smooth.

Fill a large skillet with enough oil to come ¼-inch up the sides. Heat the oil until it begins to shimmer. Using a fork, coat the banana slices in the batter, lift the slices out, and place them in the hot oil. Fry on both sides until golden brown, about 1 minute per side. Remove from the pan to a paper-towel-lined plate to drain. Repeat until all the banana slices are used up.

To serve, place 4 to 6 fritters on a dessert plate and drizzle with the warm caramel sauce. Serve immediately, as the fritters don't keep well and turn soggy quickly. Also, the bananas will turn black and be inedible.

Serves 6

You can skip the sauce or serve the fritters with a chocolate sauce instead: Heat ½ cup heavy cream and pour it over 4 ounces chopped bittersweet chocolate. Let it stand a few minutes and then stir until smooth. The sauce will stiffen as it cools; you can reheat it gently over a low flame or in a microwave.

Rice Pudding

The list of desserts served at Harry's first Hogwarts feast makes your mouth water. Among the many foods that suddenly appear on the table is rice pudding (see Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone, Chapter 7).

Rice pudding has traveled around, beginning as a dessert for the very rich in medieval times and ending up as the plain-Jane of desserts today. Rice pudding is good, but really isn't anything to make a fuss about. It's a nice ending to an ordinary weeknight dinner, but is not recommended as dessert for a formal affair.

½ cup white rice (short grain preferred, but long-grain also works)

4 cups whole milk

½ cup granulated