Elevensies: How to Make Lembas

I based my Lembas on this writer's idea here, of a nice basic scone wrapped up in some sort of mock mallorn leaf. I really didn't want to cut out all those foam sheets and hand-paint every leaf, so I printed out his template, asked Matt Martin to paint it, and used the magic of color photocopying to simplify the job. Because, really.


Elevensies Menu
scones wrapped up as Lembas (recipe below)
Wensleydale cheese with cranberries, from the co-op's fantastic selection of snooty cheeses.


Lembas Scones
(basically on this recipe here)

2 cups all-purpose flour

1 teaspoon cream of tartar

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

1 pinch salt

1/4 cup butter

1/8 cup white sugar

1/2 cup milk

2 tablespoons milk

 

Preheat oven to 425 degrees F (220 degrees C). Line a baking sheet with parchment paper.

 

Sift the flour, cream of tartar, baking soda and salt into a bowl.

 

Rub in the butter until the mixture resembles fine breadcrumbs. Stir in the sugar and enough milk to mix to a soft dough.

 

Turn onto a floured surface, knead lightly and roll out to a 3/4-inch thickness. Cut into 2-inch rounds and place on the prepared baking sheet. Brush with milk to glaze.

 

Bake at 425 degrees F (220 degrees C) for 10 minutes then cool on a wire rack. Serve with butter or clotted cream and jam.

 

 

 

Now, it's worth pointing out here that this is what the recipe tells us to do. It's not at all what we actually did because, while Matt Martin's daughter and high school friend were tackling the Lembas, Matt Martin's college friend and I were trying to get the steel-cut oatmeal going, because what we all really agreed we felt like doing was a nice game of Trivial Pursuit.

But, there was chaos in the kitchen trying to find the cream of tartar, then Matt's daughter threw all the milk in before they got the butter worked in, and all of this in a bowl that was really too small for the job.

Eventually I went in bare-handed and kneaded that puppy into submission. I got a cookie sheet, squooshed it out into rectanguloids, and slapped them bastards in the oven hoping for the best.

Really, they turned out quite tasty!