If you've read The Lord of the Rings, you'll remember lembas bread, the Elvish waybread that sustained Frodo and Sam on their journey. Whether their journey was be as hard as Jamie bikepacking from Canberra to Melbourne across the high country is arguable. The idea is that a small amount of this bread could keep elf and man going for an entire day.

A colleague from work who's into this mad kind of adventure texted us the recipe - and oof, there's a lot in there. Definitely an energy bar. I had to do a Hunt myself looking for amaranth flakes. I tried six supermarkets in the area and two health food shops - I'm beginning to suspect there's a worldwide shortage. In the end I bought quinoa flakes instead, which I think would make a good sub.

I made a few other changes too. I used coconut oil instead of canola oil, swapped the wheat germ for psyllium husk, and used dried cranberries instead of mixed fruit because that's what I had and I think cranberries agree with Jamie more than sultanas. I also used chopped roasted almonds, although I can't see why you couldn't use whatever nuts you happened to have in the cupboard.

Here's the mix all wet in the tray ready to go in the oven.

I also doubled the spices - below is the original amounts for the spices. I didn't have ginger so I added cardomom instead. It certainly tasted good in the bowl. I think you could sub out for other sweeteners like honey or agave too. This is a vegan recipe though.

Lembas Bread

As for himself, though weary and under a shadow of fear, he still had some strength left. The lembas had a virtue without which they would long ago have lain down to die. It did not satisfy desire, and at times Sam's mind was filled with the memories of food, and the longing for simple bread and meats. And yet this waybread of the Elves had a potency that increased as travellers relied on it alone... It fed the will, and it gave strength to endure... - Lord of the Rings, JRRT

Ingredients

• 3 cups wholemeal flour
• 1 cup quick oats
• 1 cup dried cranberries (or other dried fruit)
• 1 cup coconut oil (or other oil)
• ½ cup molasses
• ½ cup brown rice syrup
• ½ cup chopped roasted almonds (or other nuts)
• 2 tablespoons psyllium husk (or 1/4 cup bran)
• ½ cup quinoa flakes (or amaranth flakes)
• ½ cup desiccated coconut
• ½ cup shredded or flaked coconut
• ¼ cup brown sugar
• ½ cup mixed seeds (sunflower, hemp, chia, pepitas, sesame or variation)
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1½ teaspoons baking powder
• 1 teaspoon ground ginger
• 1 teaspoon cinnamon
• ½ teaspoon allspice
• 1½ cups water, with a little extra if needed

Method

1. Preheat the oven to 120°C fan-forced.
2. Mix all the dry ingredients together in a large bowl.
3. Warm the coconut oil if necessary and combine it with the molasses, brown rice syrup and water.
4. Mix the wet and dry ingredients together thoroughly.
5. Leave for about 10 minutes to allow the psyllium to absorb some of the liquid, adding a little more water if necessary.
6. Press firmly into a lined baking tray, about 2 cm thick.
7. Bake for approximately 90 minutes to 2 hours, checking towards the end.
8. Allow to cool completely before cutting into bars.

The original recipe's baking instructions were something along the lines of putting it in a slow oven for 'forever'. I figured it had to cook slow and end up very chewy. I settled on 120°C fan-forced and made sure I put it in during the middle of the day when the solar was generating plenty of power.

How much energy is in a piece of lembas bread?

The big question - how the fuck would I know, I've already spent far too much time doing this for Jamie's bikeride than necessary, so I went to Chatty, asking it do some rough calculations on the nutritional value of the recipe, particularly how much each serving might weigh and how many calories it would provide - Jamie's aiming for around 5 to 6,000 calories a day.

AI estimated the finished batch would weigh around 1.5–1.7 kg (I didn't weigh before going in oven, idiot) giving approximately 20–22 bars if cut into 75 g portions. Each of those would provide roughly 300–345 calories, or around 400–460 calories per 100 g. Not bad for something you can wrap up and stuff into a bike bag - and I plan to post some meals and bars to various points along the way.

It'll be interesting to see how they sustain him, particularly since he'll be doing a lot of climbing and pushing his bike uphill and through mountain streams.

I've also been dehydrating some meals because he hates the ones that are ready made, and they are very expensive too. I've done a dal and a veggie lentil bol - more on this later when I get around to it. Both will be with couscous with different flavours.

To be honest I really didnt want to get involved with this adventure but I suppose marriage drives these kind of bargains. I dont want him to die after all, so if I can make him an elvin bread to sustain him, I guess I'm playing my part.

With Love,