Introduction: Puking Pastilles

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Puking Pastilles, originally appearing in the Harry Potter books as an invention of the Weasley twins, were meant to induce vomiting in order to avoid unpleasant obligations like sitting in class.  Eat the orange half of these double-sided candies and you'll experience a strange queasy feeling due to the unfortunate combination of anise (black licorice flavor), garlic, and sugar.  Once you have felt the impacts of this gut twisting flavor, calm your tummy with the delightfully minty purple half.

Stock your own Skiving Snackbox using these, heat-inducing Fever Fudge, and some bloody good Nosebleed Nougat.

Step 1: Supplies

Parchment paper
Cream cheese, room temperature - 2 oz (measure by weight or use 1/4 of an 8oz box)
Powdered Sugar - 1 lb (you will only need about half of the bag but you may need extra to get the texture right)
Food Color powders, pastes, or gels in yellow, red, and blue
garlic powder - 1/8 teas
anise extract* (this tastes like black licorice) - 1/8 teas
peppermint or other mint extract* - 1/4 teas

*You can use flavor oils traditionally used in candy making but you'll want to taste test to determine the right amount.

Step 2: Coloring and Flavoring

Place about 1oz cream cheese into each of two containers.  You can warm this up for 10 seconds or so in the microwave but it should be ok if you started with room temperature cream cheese.

In one container, add yellow and red food coloring.  In that same container, add your garlic and anise.  Stir until the color is uniform.  The color of the final product will be a slightly faded version of what it looks like now.  Adjust the color by adding more food coloring, if desired.

In the second container, add red and blue food coloring along with the peppermint extract.  Stir until a uniform color is achieved.  Adjust the color as before.

Step 3: Mixing

To each container, add 1 cup powdered sugar and mix until the powdered sugar is incorporated and the color is uniform.  You will probably need more powdered sugar.  The amount of powdered sugar you'll need depends a lot on the amount of moisture you've introduced with the flavors and colors.  So check the consistency.  You want this stuff to be quite a bit thicker than peanut butter.  It should come together, losing a lot of its stickiness, and just short of being crumbly.  If it is not quite like this, continue to add powdered sugar until the consistency is correct.

Step 4: Finishing

Cut two pieces of parchment paper about 6 inches wide.  Gather one of the colors of dough into a ball.  Working on the parchment paper and dusting with powdered sugar as necessary, stretch it out into a long thick rope.  Repeat with the other color on its own piece of parchment, making it about the same size as the first.  Press each rope down to flatten somewhat. 

Brush the top of one of these ropes with a light layer of water and then lay the other rope on top of it.  Press together.  Roll the double thick rope in parchment paper, giving it a round shape as you go.  Place on a tray and put it in the freezer for a few minutes to harden it for slicing.

Slice the candy into uniformly thick pieces.  I flattened mine somewhat to get the look I wanted.  Lay these piece on a rack to dry.  They could take up to several days to harden properly.  Before drying, these can also be pushed into candy molds or the disks can be cut with tiny cookie cutters.

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