Lembas Bread

Welcome to another Super Geek Saturday. Okay… I know that I am not posting this on a Saturday, but I did make this recipe on Saturday, so it counts. Today’s theme is The Lord of the Rings.

I have been obsessed with The Lord of the Rings ever since I was in elementary school. My family rented the VHS of The Fellowship of the Ring for our movie night when I was in fourth grade. I spent the next year or so fighting orcs in the apple orchard next to our house. My friends and I were also obsessed with anything that had to do with Orlando Bloom. (We even printed pictures of him in computer class and traded them like trading cards. Yeah…it is a good thing that I have done a lot of growing in the past seventeen years).

Throughout their journey, members of the Fellowship of the Ring, especially Frodo and Sam, ate a lot of lembas. Lembas, or “Waybread”, is a special elvish travel-food. I imagine that J.R.R. Tolkien based it off of hard tack, which is a biscuit made from flour and water. However, unlike bland hard tack, lembas is described as tasting sweet and pleasant. It is brown on the outside and cream-colored on the inside. The elves kept it fresh by wrapping it in leaves.

I have worked with this recipe a few times since my first attempt. The biggest thing I have learned is that I have the stomach of a hobbit. One bite of lembas is supposed to be filling, but Pippin ate four whole lembas’ in one sitting. All I have to say is: same, Pippin, same.

Recipe:

• 3 cups flour
• 1 TBSP baking powder
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 1/2 cup butter
• 1/3 cup honey
• 1 tsp cinnamon
• 1 TBSP orange zest
• 2/3 cup cream
• 1/2 tsp vanilla extract

Instructions:

1. Preheat the oven to 425 F.
2. In a mixing bowl, sift together baking powder, salt, and 2 1/2 cups of flour.
3. Add the butter and cut with a pastry cutter until the mixture becomes crumbly.
4. Add the honey and cinnamon to the bowl and mix thoroughly.
5. Add the cream and vanilla extract. Mix until a smooth dough forms. If needed, add the rest of the flour a little bit at a time until the dough reaches a good consistency.
6. On a lightly floured surface, roll out the dough to 1/2 inch thickness. Cut the dough into 3 inch squares.
7. With a butter knife, lightly crisscross each square from corner to corner. Take care not to cut them too deeply.
8. Place the squares onto a greased cookie sheet and bake for 10-12 minutes, or until the lembas becomes golden brown.