Fig Jam and Lime Cordial

‘So it is,’ they answered. ‘But we call it lembas or waybread …. One will keep a traveller on his feet for a day of long labour, even if he be one of the tall Men of Minas Tirith.’

J.R.R. Tolkien, The Lord of the Rings

My breads don’t often fail, but this time I’d been impatient – I hadn’t let my starter reactivate properly prior to mixing up the dough.  Regardless of how brilliant the flour is, an inactive sourdough leaven can’t produce  great bread.  The mixed grain rolls I’d intended for school lunches came out like heavy lumps of clay.  Pete, unwilling to waste food, patiently chewed his way through half a roll and announced that whilst it was dense, it was also extremely filling and satisfying – akin to Elvish bread.   He and Maude declared that I’d created lembas and that half a roll would have been sufficient to sustain an Elven warrior through a day of battle.  It’s just a shame I don’t have any Elven warriors to feed it to – not sure what I’m going to do with the other eight hockey pucks…

. . . . .

Averse to failure, I had to make more grain bread straight away.  I was much happier with this batch, which was made with a ripe starter and given lots of time to prove overnight.  Lesson learnt – patience leads to better bread!