#elven bread

https://www.facebook.com/ejheartsfionna/posts/2604393359629786

We’re almost there! Hobbit Day is tomorrow and I can’t wait to party!

As a last minute detail, @moodyladybug and I made mini Lembas for our dolls using clay. But not all in this blog is about the dolls and since we’re two Hobbit souls, we’ve decided to create a DIY that is just for us real flesh and bone people:

What else?

You’ll Need:

1 - For the Lembas:

Flour

Eggs

Butter

Lemon zest (which is grated lemon peel folks) and juice of half a lemon

Baking powder

Square cookie cutter or a good eye for cutting and a kitchen knife

1/4 cup of milk (at most)

Above: Ingredients for the Lembas. Photo by me

2 - For the jam:

400g of clean fresh strawberries

1tsp of sugar just to help it last longer. (Optional)

Above: Ingredients for the Jam, minus the sugar. Photo by me.

Making it happen:

1 - The Lembas:

Well, the lembas pastry is something in between a scone and a cookie. It’s kinda like shortbread. You’ll see what I mean.

First, mix the flour, the butter, the sugar and the baking powder in a big bowl. The butter should be solid. Use your hands and don’t be afraid to get dirty. When you finish mixing, the pastry will look like this:

Above: This is how the pastry should look like. Photo by me.

Once the pasrty looks flaky like this, add the milk - carefully not to wet the pastry too much - then the lemon zest and the lemon juice. Measure carefully. If you would like your lembas more lemony, make it more lemon juice than milk. If not, more milk than lemon juice. Then mix it all together again until the pastry gets lightly humid in a way that it gets easily out of your hands. If it gets too wet, you’ll have to correct it with more flour ok? Once the pastry is ready, roll it into a ball to put it on the fridge for 30 minutes. It should look like this:

Above: The pastry reasy for the fridge. Photo by me.

After 30 minutes, get it out of the fridge and roll it open until it’s about 1 inch thick. Then get your cookie cutter or your knife and cut the squares. Remove the cookies and place them on a cookie or pizza frame or on a cookie sheet. You don’t need to grease the cookie sheet. Get the pastry remains and repeat the process. This quantity of pastry should be enough for 10-12 Lembas, Once the squares are cut, mark the X with the knife. they should look like this:

Above: The Lembasssesss, preciousss. ready for the oven. Photo by me.

Bake them for 10-20 Minutes depending on your oven. Mine is slow and it took me 20 minutes to get the perfect golden color I wanted. While they bake, on to the jam!

2 - The Jam

Get your strawberries and cut them into small cubes. Put them in a pan and add the sugar if you intend to use sugar. We used one tablespoon just to help the jam last longer.

Above: The diced strawberries and the sugar. Lookit there’s a lil’ heart shape on it! Photo by me.

Once you have the strawberries and sugar in the pan, cook them with the lid on for 3 minutes at most, then open the lid and cook them stirring slowly for 5 more minutes. And that’s it! You’re all done!

Above: This is what the jam looks like when ready. Photo by me.

Put the jam on the fridge or let it cool naturallly while you wait for your lembas. Once the lembas is ready, get it out of the oven, out of the baking frame, arrange them as you like and enjoy your very own Elf meets Hobbit meal!