Lembas Bread

[cougars_catnip]

The dough smells awesome and when it bakes, it makes your house smell amazing. The taste is subtle and the texture is very much right in between a cookie and a southern biscuit. The closest approximation to anything else would be a tea cake. This recipe is great for fans of Lord of the Rings.


Elven Way Bread / Lembas Bread

Ingredients

2 1/2 cups of flour
1 tablespoon of baking powder
1/4 teaspoon of salt
8 tablespoons of cold butter (1 stick)
1/2 cup of brown sugar
1 teaspoon of cinnamon
1 tbsp maple syrup/honey
2/3 cup of milk/heavy cream (or more, if necessary)
1/2 teaspoon of vanilla

Directions

1) Preheat oven to 220 degrees Celcius / 425 degrees Fahrenheit.
2) Mix the flour, baking powder and salt into a large bowl.
3) Add the butter and mix with a fork or a pastry cutter until the mixture resembles fine granules.
4) Add the sugar and cinnamon, and mix them thoroughly into the mixture.
5) Add the milk/cream, honey/syrup and vanilla and stir them in with a fork until a nice, thick dough forms.
6) Roll the dough out about 1/2 in thickness.
7) Cut out 3-inch squares and transfer the dough to a cookie sheet.
8) Criss-cross (DO NOT cut all the way) each square from corner-to-corner with a knife.
9) Bake for about 12 minutes or more (depending on the thickness of the bread) until it is set and lightly golden.

makes about 10-12 pieces of Lembas

Add ins: white chocolate chips, dried cherries and almonds; hazelnuts with a dark chocolate -orange glaze drizzle; Dried pineapple, macadamia nuts and coconut with a white chocolate drizzle.

Comments

[acelightning]

Ooh, that sounds delicious! (But what do you do with the syrup? BTW, I might use Lyle's Golden Syrup, which is very very British, and JRRT would have known what it was.)

I have a recipe my son and his wife call "lembas bread", not because it's sweet and elvish-tasting, but because it's extremely filling and nutritious, and a small piece of it will take you a long way. (It's too tasty to be "cram", though.) It's a yeast bread with whole-wheat flour, toasted cracked wheat, and peanut butter. I should probably dig up the recipe and post it here...

[weaverbird]

Sounds tasty!