The Origins Of Lembas Bread
Let us nerd out a little bit for our Lembas Bread or Waybread Recipe. If you are looking for this recipe you are either a huge fan of the author J.R.R. Tolkien and in particular his Lord of the Rings trilogy or you want to make a delicious breakfast type bread that can even be made gluten-free.
To bring you up to speed on the origin of Lembas Bread, it is what the elves carried on long journeys. The thin brown and delicious loaves were gently wrapped in leaves and placed in your pack for your trek ahead.
A good descriptive quote about the bread from one of the books in the trilogy, The Fellowship of the Ring is, “Eat little at a time, and only at need. For these things are given to serve you when all else fails. The cakes will keep sweet for many many days if they are unbroken and left in their leaf-wrappings, as we have brought them. One will keep a traveler on his feet for a day of long labor, even if he be one of the tall men of Minas Tirith”.
The bread is described as being appetizing, brown on the outside and creamy white in the center that is a bit crisp, almost wafer-like. Others in the book refer to it as cake, which means it is probably sweet.
Not much is known about the exact ingredients of the bread from the books. Since this bread derives from “Middle Earth”, I took some cues from bread that date back to the dark ages in Ireland and included very basic ingredients as you would find before too much industrialization and migration took over the world. Ingredients that may have been available and are easy enough for the modern man to attain are; butter, whole grain flours, honey, eggs, salt, nuts, and citrus.
Get your nerd on and wrap these little cakes in leaves that you have made, tie them with string, and go on a barefoot journey. For some more items that travel well, unrefrigerated see this recipe for Yema Candy and Aussie Bites. Or brew some Apple Wine or Plum Wine to enjoy with your local Hobbits.
Ingredients
- 2 eggs
- 1 cup honey
- 1 small tangerine, zest, and juice
- 1 cup almond meal
- 1 cup kamut flour, oat flour, or more almond meal
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- ¼ cup butter, cold
- ½ cup butter, melted
- 1 tablespoon water
Instructions
- Since elves didn’t have a food processor, let’s mix this by hand in a large bowl.
- Grease a sheet tray or baking sheet about 9x11 inches, with a little of the melted butter.
- Heat an oven to 375F.
- Place the flour, meal, soda, tangerine zest, and salt in the bowl and stir.
- Cut the cold butter into the meal with your hands or a pastry cutter until the butter is the size of peas.
- In a small bowl whisk together the eggs, juice, and water.
- Drizzle the honey and egg mixture into the meal and stir.
- Press the bread into a ball then press the dough onto the greased tray while pushing as close to edges as possible while making a nice rectangular shape.
- With a sharp knife score and cut the bread into portions, you can also cut a simple design or x into the portions as well.
- Brush the bread with melted butter liberally.
- Bake the bread for 10 minutes, they should be deep golden in color and fully cooked.
- Cool on a rack or paper bag to absorb the oils.