Butterbeer is a household favorite. At least once per year (usually at the beginning of the school year, before Halloween) our weekly movie night turns into a Harry Potter marathon spanning 8 weeks and full of fun fanciful treats the most desired of which is this amazing stuff. I actually make it every week for 8 weeks and it really never gets old. Usually when the run is up there’s a lot of “can we watch them all again?” at least, from the kids. Dad on the other hand wants to move onto something with superheros and shoot-em-ups and the Butterbeer and Pumpkin Pasties and other assorted pies/goodies get put back into the book to be taken out for the next round. But today, today I am unveiling the secret to all of you, my friends!
Start out with a big cup of brown sugar. I don’t know about you but pretty much anywhere I can sneak in brown sugar instead of white, I do. It’s made from molasses, did you know that?? Something about it’s nutty, earthy flavor just calls to me. And it’s absolutely perfect for sweetening just about anything in my opinion. It adds the right amount of grounding to this drink that it absolutely needs. Without it, I think it would float away on a buttery, creamy cloud and we’d never get to enjoy it!
Add 2 Tbsp of water, it doesn’t seem like a lot but it’s just enough to turn it into a liquid and that’s what we want in our sauce, right?
See, with just a little bit of water it spreads out nice and evenly
Don’t forget to stir it occasionally, that brown sugar doesn’t need much attention but we don’t want it to get all stuck to the bottom of the pan
While it’s heating up, measure out the salt
And the apple cider vinegar
And the cream, separately
Make sure your candy thermometer is in there, propped up on the side. I love those pretty glass tube ones. If you don’t already have one you know Amazon has your back and for less than $6 of course! You can just watch the mixture if you don’t have one and once it starts boiling a bit wait about a minute then turn the burner off. If you do have one, when it hits 240 degrees stop the heat!
Add the apple cider vinegar and salt, mix it up
Heavy cream, more mixing
And the butter. This is why we leave it on the burner, otherwise there really isn’t enough heat to melt that butter. You can watch it and if you think it’s too hot, take it off of the burner. Otherwise I leave it on to melt the butter and stir it up while it’s going.
When it’s all melted you have a beautiful carmelly looking syrup! I pour it into a mason jar to cool, so it doesn’t solidify in the bottom of the pan. It gets pretty sticky when it cools off! You’ll most likely need a spatula to get every last drop of sauce
This is, LITERALLY the secret sauce. You can either take it and drizzle it all over ice cream, whip it up into whipped cream (we kinda do this for the next part too, it’s amazing), dip cookies in it, make cookies WITH it, whatever you like. OR you can grab some cream soda and 1/2 Cup heavy cream and make the actual Butterbeer. Or, you could do a little of both! This is enough to make 8 glasses of butterbeer so if you only want a couple and don’t want to save any (it keeps in the fridge for 2 weeks!) you can go absolutely crazy with it. I’d love to hear what you cook up if you do. For those of you in it for the long haul, wait until the sauce is room temperature (or if you make it ahead of time, let it warm back up to room temperature from the fridge) and let’s make us some beer!
So you’ve decided to go all in, AWESOME! Start out by taking 3-4 TBSP of the sauce and plop it into the bottom of whatever glasses you choose, we have two different sets of mugs (one round one square, Mr Mom couldn’t decide between the two) and we use those because they look pretty. Mason jars, mugs, or regular cups work just fine too! This is the second half of a batch I’m working with here, that’s why there’s so little left; we used the other half last week, then I came back to finish up this post. Mmmmm
Take the rest (or the rest of half if you’re working on the first half) and put it in a nice big bowl with 1/2 cup heavy cream. If you want to be nicer to yourself you can use an electric mixer with the whipping attachment, because what we’re basically doing is a very light whipped cream.
There it is! Whew my arms are TIRED.
Pour the Cream soda into each of the mugs/cups stirring as you go, it will foam up pretty well all on it’s own but stir it to get it REALLY foamy and mixed up, the flavor is better of course too. You only want to fill up the glass until it’s about 3/4 of the way full, as baristas would say, leave room for the cream. And foam!
Action shot! Stir stir stir I use my long iced tea spoons for leverage!
Pour on the cream mixture, I caught it just as it’s dripping out of the bowl, I thought it looked pretty neat like that
Stir some more, you can see the ones on the left are a lot lighter than the ones on the right, those are the ones with the cream added
And VU-AL-A! Done! drink them while they’re icy cold, it shouldn’t be a problem they usually disappear pretty fast around here. They have a creamy butterscotchy flavor that reminds me of… absolutely nothing else I’ve ever tasted. Maybe a cross between butterscotch and salted caramel, but carbonated and creamy. YUM!

Butterbeer
Ingredients
- 1 Cup Brown Sugar
- 2 Tbsp Water
- 4 Tbsp Butter
- 1/2 Tsp Salt
- 1 Tsp Apple Cider Vinegar
- 1/4 Cup Heavy Cream
- 1/2 Cup Heavy Cream topping
- A 2 Liter of cream soda
Instructions
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In a pan or saucier combine brown sugar with 2 Tbsp water.
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Bring to a boil over medium heat with a candy thermometer until it reaches 240 degrees, stirring occasionally. (If you don't have a candy thermometer when it comes to a gentle boil wait about a minute then turn it off.)
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Leave the pan on the burner and add Butter, salt, vinegar and 1/4 cup Heavy Cream. Stir until smooth and cool to room temperature before using
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In each glass add 3-4 Tbsp sauce and pour in cream soda while stirring, it should foam up quite a bit
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In a large bowl or mixer whip the 1/2 cup heavy cream and 2 Tbsp sauce to make creamy topping, add to glass and mix. Enjoy!
Let me know what you think! They’re perfect for Halloween, or just to sit down and watch a Harry Potter movie. I’d love to hear from you in the comments below!