Lembas Bread

Well, I have risen (or descended, depending on your point of view), to a new level of nerdiness by baking “elven lembas bread.” This baking event was spurred on by a discussion with students in which they told me that 4 or 5 dried sweet potato slices were enough to satisfy a man for a full day of work in the garden. It sounded so much like the description of lembas bread in the Lord of the Rings that I shared the story with my family and my fellow nerdy brother-in-law sent me several recipes for lembas bread so I could make it myself. So here you have it. Elven lembas bread:
2 1/2 c. flour
1 Tbs. baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
8 Tbs cold butter (1 stick)
1/3 c. brown sugar
1 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp honey
2/3 cup of milk
1/2 tsp vanilla
(I added 1/4 cup of candied orange peel - I think that's what it is, but it is from the supermarket and wasn't labeled - in half of the dough for myself since Anthony isn't a fan of fruit)


1) Preheat oven to 425F
2) Mix the flour, baking powder and salt
3) Cut in the butter until the mixture resembles cornmeal
4) Add the sugar and cinnamon, then the milk and vanilla
5) Knead it into dough, then roll it out to ½ inch thickness
6) Cut the dough into leaf shapes or into squares if you prefer
7) Bake for about 12 minutes
8) Wrap it in a mallorn leaf like this:

I also made the coconut cake again, this time with a bit of saffron in it. I intended to put in a tiny bit to make it colorful and give a little flavor, but I accidentally put in a good teaspoon (my hand slipped). It actually ended up tasting quite good – the saffron was very obvious.