The Tumtum Tree

Lembas

By Jincey

• 6 T butter or margarine, slightly softened
• 2 cups self-rising flour
• 1 T granulated sugar
• 1/2 cup raisins (optional)
• 1 egg, well beaten
• 1/2 cup milk
• 4 T heavy cream
• Mallorn leaves

With a pastry blender of fork, cut margarine into the flour in a mixing bowl until the mixture resembles cornmeal. Do this rapidly so the butter does not melt. Add the sugar and if desired, 1/2 cup of raisins. In a small bowl, beat the egg and milk together until mixed. Reserve 1 TBSP of this mixture to brush the tops of the Lembas. Add the cream and egg mixture to the flour and mix just until combined into a stiff, soft dough. Knead three or four times on a lightly floured surface. Roll dough to a 3/4" thickness and cut with an oval or leaf shaped cookie cutter. Place on a lightly greased baking sheet, leaving 1" of space between Lembas. Brush the tops of the Lembas with the reserved egg-milk mixture. Bake for 12 -13 minutes in a preheated 400 degree oven.

For safe keeping, wrap each Lembas individually in a fresh, clean Mallorn leaf. If these leaves are unavailable in your area, store the Lembas in a tightly closed container. Makes about 1 1/2 dozen Lembas.

Celthala's Lembas

By Celthala
P.S. - My Family Loves it though they may be a little impartial. LOL

• 2 and 1/2 cups cake flour
• 1 cup of oatmeal flour (1 and a half cups of Oatmeal ran through the food processor for 5 mins or so will work)
• 1/2 cup of sorghum flour
• 1 cup sugar
• 1 T Vanilla sugar* (Freia Vaniljesukker)
• 3 T Honey or packed brown sugar (the honey gives it a better color)
• 1/2 tsp. Salt
• 4 T Cream cheese room temp.
• 1/2 cup butter room temp.
• 1 T Lemon juice
• 1/2 T Durkee vanilla butter & nut extract
• 6 T heavy cream
• (Optional yellow food coloring)

Put in a mixing bowl the three kinds of flour, the sugars and the salt, and mix together with a fork or an electric mixer on low until blended. Add the cream cheese and butter and cut in, either with a pastry cutter or a mixer on low, till the mixture forms small pellets (a little bit smaller than Rice). Add Lemon juice VB&N extract, and cream (yellow food coloring can be added for the full effect). Mix till it comes together and forms a ball. Cover in plastic wrap and chill for 30 mins to an hour.

After dough is chilled, separate in half and roll out on lightly floured surface. Cut using a round cutter, doughnut cutter or a cup of the like size, Removing all excess flour place on a cookie sheet about 1 1/2 inches apart. Bake at a preheated 350 degree oven for 15 mins or until golden brown around the edges. Allow to cool and serve. Makes about 2 dozen depending on cutter size.

* "I still haven't had time to make Lembas, but I have your recipe printed out. You might want to post the following in your Lembas recipe thread:

Vanilla Sugar is hard to find but easy to make - just buy a whole vanilla bean and put it in a jar with white sugar and let sit about a week or until flavor in sugar is strong enough. That's it! And it keeps for years."

Carnimiriel's Lothlorien Lembas

(a variation on Celthala's original recipe)
By Carnimiriel

• 1 cup all-purpose white flour
• 1 cup whole wheat pastry flour
• 1 cup whole oat flour
• 1 cup whole corn flour
• 1/2 tsp. salt
• 1 Tbsp. baking powder
• 2 Tbsp. honey
• 4 Tbsp. cream cheese room temp.
• 1/2 cup butter room temp. (1 stick)
• 1/2 cup pure maple syrup (birch syrup can be used as well)
• 1 Tbsp. rosewater
• 1/4 tsp. ground nutmeg
• 1/2 tsp. pure vanilla extract
• dash ground cloves
• 6 Tbsp. heavy cream

Put dry ingredients a mixing bowl and mix together with a fork until blended. Add the cream cheese and butter and cut in, either with a pastry cutter or a mixer on low, till the mixture forms small pellets (a little bit smaller than Rice). Add liquid ingredients and spices. Mix (electric mixer is best) till uniform and press together into a ball. Cover in plastic wrap and chill for 30 minutes to an hour.

After dough is chilled, separate in half and roll out to about 1/4-1/8 inch thick on lightly floured surface. Cut using a round cutter or a cup of the like size. Removing all excess flour place on a cookie sheet about 1/2 inch apart. Bake at a preheated 350 degree oven for 15 minutes or until golden brown around the edges.

Allow to cool and serve. Makes about 2 dozen depending on cutter size.

Leithelen's Lembas

By Leithelen

• 1 cup Butter at Room Temperature
• 1 ~ 1 1/2 cups White flour
• 1/2 cup Wheat flour
• 1/2 cup Oat flour
• 1/2 cup Honey
• 1/4 tsp Vanilla
• 1/2 Tbsp Very Finely Ground Hazelnut (1/2 Cup chopped hazelnuts in a tbsp ground)
• Cloves & Nutmeg to Taste

Preheat over to 300° F. Cream butter with Honey and Vanilla. Sift together Wheat Flour, Oat Flour, 1 cup of the White Flour, Cloves, Nutmeg, and Ground Hazelnut. Mix flour mixture into butter mixture.

(at this point, if the mixture is too liquid-y, gradually mix in the additional flour until it achieves the correct consistency... I think my problem is simply that it's so damn hot that butter at 'room temperature' isn't far enough from liquid!)

Cook for 20-30 minutes, or until nicely warm and the correct shade of golden brown.

(I, personally, also spread the tops with just a touch of honey before cooking to help with the correct colour)

"Lembas" Great with a cup of Entwash!

• 2 cups butter, softened (Margarine generally makes a flavorless recipe)
• 1 cup white sugar
• 4 cups all-purpose flour
• 2 teaspoons corn starch

Preheat oven to 325 degrees F (170 degrees C).

Cream softened butter thoroughly. Slowly add sugar.

Sift flour and corn starch before adding. Mix well. Form into flat, round cakes.

Bake until very light brown, usually about 20-25 minutes

Wrap in one layer of plastic wrap, then in colored tissue paper and imagine yourself in Lothlorien! Or give some to your Ringer friends!

Lembas

By Volwerk

• 3 tablespoons of butter
• 1 egg
• 8 tablespoons of sugar
• 1 satchel of vanilla sugar (not necessary)
• 12 tablespoons of flour
• 1 tea spoon cinnamon
• a bit of strong coffee

Preheat the oven at 175 degrees centigrade (350 F).

Mix all the ingredients in a bowl, but safe a little of the egg, and knead thoroughly into a ball (add butter or flour if necessary) Put the ball into the fridge, for an hour or so. Make a roll of it and cut slices of 1 cm thick. (if you want to make real big "Lembasses" roll it out onto a plate) Strike out the rest of the egg over the Lembas. (you might want to put some raisins on top of it) Bake the Lembas in the middle of the oven for 20 minutes, until it is light brown in color. Do not let them become any darker, because the taste will be bitter then.

Well, Lady Galadriel might not have baked them like this, if she baked any cookies at all, but it is tasteful and it gives you something to do.

Lembas

Lembas is an elven way bread and since the beginning of time the main ingredient of the elven traveling provisions. Now you too can learn how to make this delicious elven bread which will help you maintain your strength during your journeys in Cyberspace as well as in RL.......

Boil 1 small potato. Reserve 3/4 cup of the water. Mash potato and add 1 tbsp butter and 1 tbsp milk.

In large bowl, soften: 1 pkg yeast in: 1/3 cup sweetened condensed milk Stir in: 3/4 cup sugar 1/4 cup melted butter 3 eggs 1/2 tsp nutmeg 1 tsp lemon peel the mashed potato With wooden spoon, gradually add: 4 1/2 cups flour

Turn on cloth dusted with 1/2 cup of flour and knead until pliable. Let rise til doubled--about 45 minutes if room is warm. Longer if cool. Knead again 2 or 3 times. Put in bundt pan and let rise again.

Bake at 350 for 50 minutes.

Sacred Lembas

By B.W.

• 2 cups of flour
• 1 cup of honey (ONLY from a hive that was formed in a tree from Fangorn)
• Crushed pipe-weed, to taste (Hobbits seem to like lots of this, as do the dwarves)
• Water (preferably from Galadriel's mirror)

Sprinkle the flour into a silver cauldron while singing ancient Elf-tunes. Slowly stir in the honey and chant this incantation:

Lembas, formed in secret places
Only for the ones in need.
Nourish them, brightening their faces.
Give them undying will to go on.

Lembas, sweet cakes that sustained the famous Frodo,
And kept alive Samwise in haste,
Shalt thou be kept fresh forevermore,
Time will not destroy your taste.

In this cauldron bubble and froth,
No evil is within this broth,
Gone are the days when you are needed,
But may your scent remind us still
That Frodo Nine-fingers lives on,
And that his quest has brought us peace,
MAY HIS DAYS NEVER CEASE!

Make certain that the last words are shouted. Repeat until the mixture has thickened. Add enough water to make it soft enough to be scooped, sort of like the mud on the riverbanks of Lothlorien in midsummer after a good rainfall. Place hobbit-foot sized lumps of the lembas-batter onto a golden platter and bake them in a sacred fire until they just begin to turn the color of the platter. While still hot, wrap the Lembas in leaves and leave them to cool in the shade. Do not try this at home unless you are a wizard or an elf-maiden, the results will be, um, sticky. As aforesaid, these cakes will not spoil, and they are poisonous to Orcs. (The latter, by the way, came in handy often in the Third Age.)

Beorn's Honey Nut Cake

By Balin

• 1 1/2 cups of cottage cheese
• 1 1/2 tbsp sifted flour
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 1/4 cup sour cream
• 3 eggs, separated
• 3/4 cup of Beorn's famous honey
• 1 tbsp butter
• 1 tbsp lemon juice
• rind of 1 lemon, grated
• 3/4 cup of wheat germ, divided
• 1/2 chopped nuts

Butter a 9 inch square cake pan. Sprinkle the bottom of the pan with 2 tbsp of wheat germ and 1/2 cup of chopped nuts. Put 1 1/2 cups of cottage cheese through a strainer, discarding the liquid. Mix the strained cottage cheese with the sifted flour, salt, sour cream, well beaten egg yolks, honey, butter, lemon juice, grated lemon, and the balance of the wheat germ. Fold in 3 egg whites, stiffly beaten. Pour in the prepared pan and bake in a preheated 375 degree oven for 30 minutes. Let cool completely, before cutting into squares. Makes 16 individual nut cakes.