Keeper ...

Fire Bread (continued):

necessary for this bread to sit, however, as it contains no yeast and will not rise.

To cook the breads, heat a dry skillet or a flat stone in your hearth.  Dust its surface with flour.  The flour will brown; that is okay.  I would not recommend using your best, shiny pot for this recipe, however, as it may stain it permanently.

Flatten the dough balls in your floured hands shaping them into small, think cakes.  One at a time, brown them in the skillet.  Each cake will need to be browned for a minute or two on each side, until brown blisters are raised.  Then, holding the bread carefully by the edgeds in your fingers, wave the bread over a flame or other heat source.  If you do not possess the hearty fingers of a dwarf, tongs or forks can be used here.  Flip the bread over repeatedly to prevent it from blackening or catching fire.

If heated evenly, the bread will puff into a sphere, as the moisture inside becomes steam.  As soon as your cake has become a ball, it is done.  Set it on a plate to cool for a short while, and keep that first one warm by setting the next one on top of it, and the next one, and so on.

Serve Hearth-Bread with wet dishes of any variety ~ in proper dwarven fashion, the breads can be used in place of spoons.  For breafast, drizzle the breads with honey, or coat with butter and eat with eggs or meats.  For dessert, butter the Hearth-Bread and coat with a mixture of sugar and cinnamon, and eat with dried fruits.

A variant of this bread can be made with the addition of oil.  Some of the water can be replaced with oil, and instead of flour, the dough balls and pan can be oiled to prevent sticking.

One last warning: do be sure to avoid the temptation to bite into the first successful Hearth-Bread you make!  It is steam that makes these puff-up.  Once you have burned your mouth with that hotter-than-boiling water, it will be days before you can taste anything properly.

Oooohh! Nummy Yumminess!

Here's another. Scald a cup and a half of milk. Let cool to bathwater-warm, and add a couple spoonfuls of dry yeast, a spoonful of sugar, and a cup of white flour.  Stir until it's smooth.  Let it sit somewhere warm so it can rise for a bit.  On the side, cream ¾ cups of sugar into a stick of butter.  Nibble the results.

When the gooey mass has about doubled in volume, drop in three eggs, some salt, the creamed tasty stuff, stir~stir~stir, and then add some more flour and keep adding until you have a wholly stubborn yellow dough.

Oh, I recommend mixing dough with only one hand, so the other is clean for reaching into the flour-bag, answering the palentir, and chasing the little dwarves away when they try to nibble.

Put a damp warm cloth over the dough, and let it rise for a bit somewhere warm.

Meanwhile, in a bowl combine a cup or two of brown sugar, stir in cinnamon, allspice, nutmeg, and whatever other wonderful spices you like.  And some salt.  And set out a half-stick of butter or more to warm up.

An hour or three later, wrangle/smush/beat/curse the dough into as flat a rectangle as you can.  Or a roundish lump will do.

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