Tag Archives: bread

Hot Pie’s Direwolf Scones

Again, Hot Pie brings us another tasty recipe from the HBO series!

In season three, he bakes and gives to Arya a small loaf of bread that looks like a direwolf:

Well, sort of.

But as soon as I saw this episode, I knew I would have to try my hand at making some of my own.

I first tried making this with ordinary bread dough (a variation on the cookbook oatbread), but it not only didn’t retain those nice crisp edges, but ended up looking like gross lumpy Jabba-wolves. So I opted instead for a scone recipe, which worked way better.

Recipe for Direwolf Scones

Ingredients:

  • 2 cups flour
  • 1/4 cups sugar
  • 1 Tbs. baking powder
  • 1/2 tsp. salt
  • 1 cup cream or milk, or more as needed
  • dried currants, for eyes

Combine all dry ingredients, and then gradually add in the milk while stirring. If you need a bit more milk, add it until you have one cohesive and soft dough. Press the dough out on your work surface to a thickness of around 3/4″ thick. Using a sharp paring knife, cut out a rough wolf shape. Don’t worry if it’s a little ugly: Hot Pie’s was rustic as well!

Cut extra strips for additional legs and press them onto the main wolf shape, or leave them with just two legs. Cut a criss-cross shape for teeth and press a currant into the dough for an eye. If you like, texture the tops with the tines of a fork.

Bake in a preheated oven at 350F for 10-12 minutes, or until the tops are a nice golden brown.

Direwolf Scones

In the head version, I snipped the edges of the head to make it look like tufts of fur, and used slivered almonds for the teeth. Rawr!

And for extra kicks, here I am making these wolves on MTV Geek’s “Cooking with Thrones” episode 3 recap!

Grisel’s Finger Foods

“Grisel reappeared before he could say more, balancing a large platter. She set it down between them. There were apples and pears and pomegranates, some sad-looking grapes, a huge blood orange. The old woman had brought a round of bread as well, and a crock of butter. Petyr cut a pomegranate in two with his dagger, offering half to Sansa.” -A Storm of Swords

Seaweed Bread and Fruits

Grisel’s Finger Foods

Our Thoughts:

I wasn’t sure at first if this meal warranted a post. Although the array of fruit sounds good, simple bread, butter, and fruit don’t generally stand out as memorable. But then I started to wonder what sort of bread one might find on the Fingers. The unnamed keep that serves as the paltry holdfast for House Baelish overlooks the Narrow Sea, so I though, Why not try a seaweed bread? Along with some homemade butter, of course.

I had my doubts initially, but was surprised by the bread! It has a nice texture, crumbly yet relatively dense. The seaweed is hardly noticeable, and if I didn’t know it was there, wouldn’t guess. In fact, next time, I might even add more. There is a very subtle salty sea flavor that compliments the more rustic flours. With a little homemade butter and a sprinkling of sea salt, it’s downright delicious. It’s also a good way to get a little more green veg in one’s daily diet, even when living in a meager hovel on The Fingers.

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Bread with Spent Grains

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Spent Grain Bread

Thoughts:

I played around a bit and came up with this great, simple recipe for bread with spent grain. As with most recipes, it’s a starting point. Feel free to innovate and add other seeds, grains, flours, oats, sugars, etc. to make it your own. Just be sure to share your results! I certainly plan to keep trying new variations on it.

The resulting bread from this recipe is hearty in the extreme. The spent grains give each bite a little crunch, which is wonderful. It makes for a great toast, and even small sandwiches. I was partial to the very un-Westerosi PB&J, myself. :)

For the recipe, head on over to the brew blog, Game of Brews!

Pan-fried Garlic Bread – Vlad Taltos series

“We went back into his little kitchen, and I sat on a stool at the tiny counter while he made the one thing I’ve never been able to get to come out right: It is an Eastern bread, only slightly raised, and pan-fried in a very light olive oil. I think the trick is getting the oil at exactly the right temperature, and judging when to turn the bread, which is just before it shows any obvious signs of needing to turn; the dough was pretty straightforward, unless Noish-pa was hiding something, which would be unlike him. In any case, I’ve never been able to get it right, which I regretted anew as soon as the first one hit the oil and released its aroma.”

–Dragon, by Steven Brust

Noish-Pa’s pan-fried Garlic Bread

Thoughts:

The bread is described as “a large, raised square of light brown dough”, and Vlad enjoys eating it, alternating bites of bread with bites of garlic. Since biting into a raw clove of garlic doesn’t appeal to most of us, I opted for the joy that is roasted garlic. And, just to give it a bit of that Eastern pizzazz, I sprinkled a bit of zaatar (a middle eastern spice) over the top of it. 

Pure culinary bliss. Even if you aren’t enjoying your last home-cooked food before marching off with an army, this bread is wonderful.  Roasted garlic, if you’ve never had the fortune of encountering it, has all those wonderful garlic flavors and aroma combined with a sweetness from the roasting process. 

I sometimes eat it with a fork, straight from the bulb.

Spread out on a piece of this flatbread, with some spice and salt sprinkled over top, the roasted garlic is delicious. The bread is so soft, fluffy, beautifully seasoned, I’d happily have this for/with lunch several times a week.


Recipe for Pan-fried Garlic Bread

Ingredients:

  • 1 1/2 cups warm water
  • 1 teaspoon instant yeast
  • 1/2 tablespoon kosher salt
  • 3 1/2 cups bread flour
  • 2 Tbs. honey
  • several tablespoons olive oil
  • Flour for dusting dough
  • Roasted Garlic (see below)
  • zaatar spice, or other of your choice- seasoned salt works well

Make the dough first: combine the water, yeast, flour, honey, and salt. You may need to add a little water or flour to get the dough just right. The consistency should be very gooey and sticky. Transfer the dough to a large clean bowl, greased with a little olive oil, and allow to rise for several hours, or overnight.

Heat about a teaspoon of olive oil in a large frying pan over medium-high heat. 

Tear off a piece of the risen dough, and toss it with flour to diminish the stickiness. At this point, you can either roll out the piece of dough, or flatten it with your fingers, like a tiny pizza. Either way, the dough should be no more than 1/4″ thick, and not larger than the bottom of the pan.

Carefully place the dough in the frying pan, and shake the pan back and forth to make sure the dough is covered with oil, and not sticking. Let this fry for around 30 seconds, or until it only gives slightly when you squeeze the sides with a pair of tongs, and before it starts to bubble up. Flip over; the dough should be a light brown color.

Let the second side cook for around the same amount of time: This part of the recipe is more art than science, but both sides should be a light brown, and the inside should be cooked through, but still soft. Remove to a plate covered with paper towels to drain off excess oil. 

Spread a clove of roasted garlic on each piece of cooked flatbread, and sprinkle with spices and/or salt to taste. Serve while still warm.

Roasted Garlic Recipe

Ingredients:

  • 1 bulb of garlic
  • a bit of olive oil
  • tin foil

Chop off the papery skin on top of the garlic bulb, so that you can see the individual cloves (see great photos here). Drizzle some olive oil in the top, and wrap the whole bulb in tin foil. Roast in a 400 degree oven for around 30-40 minutes, or until the cloves feel soft.  Allow the garlic to cool enough that you don’t burn yourself before handling.

You can peel the leftover roasted cloves, place them in a jar, and cover with olive oil. Stored in the fridge, they last several months (or more), and are ready at your beck and call. What’s more, the olive oil gradually becomes infused with the garlic flavor. Win!

Umma's Olive Bread

  Olive Loaf

Thoughts:

This is another easy bread recipe, and in fact, perhaps the easiest yet on the blog, as it takes no kneading. 

That’s right, no kneading.

The resulting olive bread is very soft and airy, and the density of the olives is such that it’s difficult to find a single bite without a bit of olive in it. The classic combination of olives and savory herbs works well in this bread, the rosemary complementing the olives nicely. 

A wonderful way of enjoying the bread is dipped in a mixture of olive oil and your favorite combination of salt, black pepper, herbs, red pepper flakes, parmesan cheese, and anything else you like.

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Crusty, fresh-baked Bread

“The Great Hall of Winterfell was hazy with smoke and heavy with the smell of roasted meat and fresh-baked bread.”
-A Game of Thrones

Easy Crusty Fresh Bread Recipe

Thoughts:
This was one of my first attempts at making country-style fresh bread, and have to say that it was a smashing success.  The crusts are crusty, the insides soft and gobbleable.  This is the ideal bread accompaniment to soups, stews, or a large pot of honey.

Get the recipe!