The Hobbit Inspired: Cram

Cram, Inspired by The Hobbit

Far over the Misty Mountains cold

To dungeons deep and caverns old

We must away ere break of day,

To find our long-forgotten gold

- Misty Mountains

 Tolkien described cram as a biscuity type of food that was suppose to sustain you for very long journeys.  It wasn't the tastiest of foods and it was described as chewy but the important thing was that cram was able to help sustain and energize you.  So much so that the dwarves took some with them on their journey to The Lonely Mountains.

“If you want to know what cram is, I can only say that I don’t know the recipe; but it is biscuitish, keeps good indefinitely, is supposed to be sustaining, and is certainly not entertaining, being in fact very uninteresting except as a chewing exercise.” - Tolkien 

Though cram was very similar to lembas from the elves, it was supposedly not has flavorful. What immediately came to my head was that these sounded like energy bars.  It's suppose to be jam packed with ingredients that would fill and sustain and grown man or in this case, a dwarf.  While these are quite flavorful, I felt it fit the guidelines of cram.  It's sustaining, chewy, and has a long shelf life. Enjoy!

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The Hobbit: Cram

by Feast of Starlight April-22-2015

A recipe for cram inspired by Tolkien's The Hobbit

Ingredients

• 150g butter, softened
• 100g brown sugar, packed
• 1/4 cup honey
• 2 eggs
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 1 cup all purpose flour
• 1/3 cup whole wheat flour
• 150g mixed nuts, chopped
• 40g cranberries
• 1/3 cup rolled oats

Instructions

1. Preheat oven to 350F2. In a mixer, paddle your softened butter until smooth.3. Add your brown sugar and honey. Paddle until combined.4. Add one egg at a time, make sure to scrape the bowl. Add your vanilla extract. 5. Add your flour in three additions. Make sure to scrape the bowl in between. 6. Add your nuts, cranberries, and oats.7. Scoop into cookies. I used a 1/4 cup to scale out each cookie. 8. Place the cookie onto a baking sheet with parchment and shape into biscuit shape. 9. Refrigerate for 30 minutes. 10. Bake the cookies for approximately 15 minutes and let cool on rack.

Details

Prep time: 15 mins Cook time: 15 mins Total time: 30 mins Yield: 12