Professor Butter Beard and a Hobbit’s “Second Breakfast”
“Aragorn: Gentlemen, we do not stop till nightfall.
Pippin: What about breakfast?
Aragorn: You’ve already had it.
Pippin: We’ve had one, yes. What about second breakfast?
Merry: I don’t think he knows about second breakfast, Pip.
Pippin: What about Elevenses? Luncheon? Afternoon tea? Dinner? Supper? He knows about them, doesn’t he?
Merry: I wouldn’t count on it.”
- J.R.R. Tolkien, “The Lord of the Ring” Fellowship of the Rings”
Every Christmas season I succumb. The Hallmark Channel whispers relentlessly into my soul until I give in, make two bags of popcorn, walk Nellie so she is tired enough to crash on the sofa with me for four hours, adjust the pillows and finally travel to some snow-covered great-uncle’s cottage where true love always wins on Christmas Eve. I somewhat agree with my friend Rachel’s summation that “basically, Hallmark has made 437 Christmas movies using 17 actors, five locations and three different plots.” But this one got me! In “A Sweet Christmas Romance,” two genetically perfect humans compete in a baking competition to decide who will win the ownership of Mrs. Rose’s Bakery. The angelic Mrs. Rose, delightfully portrayed by Loretta Devine, offers final advice to the self-doubting Holly telling her she is missing the key ingredient in her baking – magic. One dash of fairy dust, and all is well and perfectly baked.
For me, the holidays will always be inspired by magic. I can trace it back to the Christmas Day when I was twelve. We had just returned from the annual DuBois family gathering and the sky was beginning to turn that sumptuous winter twilight lavender as we emptied out of the car and into our den still littered with fallen wrapping paper and bows. As my father plugged in the tree lights, he laughed and called me over. “I found one more, Pumpkin Head,” he exclaimed. I ripped open the paper to find a boxed paperback set of all five of J.R.R. Tolkien’s hobbit journeys. I ran to my bedroom and dove right in – not emerging again for another six hours (the time it took for me to complete “The Hobbit.” It has, since then, become an annual required reading to be completed before the new year bells chime.
Storytelling icon J.R.R. Tolkien was among those rare creators with semi-secret talents in a discipline other than their primary realm of fame. His original sketches for the first edition of “The Hobbit” may trigger delightful memories in the minds of curators and book collectors, but many of us didn’t realize that Tolkien, who self-illustrated many of his famous works, was as much an artist of pictures as he was of words. Early in his life, Tolkien, taught by his mother, made numerous sketches and paintings from life realistically depicting landscapes, buildings, trees, and flowers. In interviews, he admitted he was challenged when drawing the human figure, and his attempts have been described as “cartoonish,” as if “a different hand” was involved.
The first British edition of “The Hobbit” in 1937 was published with ten of his black-and-white drawings. In addition, it had as its frontispiece Tolkien's drawing “The Hill: Hobbiton-across-the-Water.” It delightfully depicts Bilbo Baggins's home village of Hobbiton in the Shire. The old mill, based on the mill at Sarehole, and a flowing river are in the foreground, an idealized English countryside in the middle distance, and The Hill and Bilbo's home Bag End (tunneled into The Hill) in the background. The American edition replaced the frontispiece with Tolkien's full-colour watercolor painting of the same scene which was then used in later editions in England as well. My well-worn fifty-year-old paperback draws me in with his magically charming “Bilbo comes to the Huts of the Elves” on its cover.
Wayne G. Hammond and Christina Scull, who edited “J.R.R. Tolkien: Artist and Illustrator” and who ventured to England to find the exact locations where each of Tolkien’s drawings was created, write in their introduction: “We have long felt that Tolkien’s art deserves to be as well-known as his writings. The two were closely linked, and in his paintings and drawings he displayed remarkable powers of invention that equaled his skill with words. His books have been read by countless thousands; most of his art, however, has been seen by only a very few.”
Fortunately, a wealth of Tolkien’s art survives, for the beloved author seems to have had “an archivist’s soul.” He kept nearly everything he drew, down to the scraps of paper filled with spontaneous doodles, and carefully tucked his most prized creations into special envelopes which he opened periodically to add captions and inscriptions years after the drawings were made.
Tolkien’s magic continues to inspire mine as well. I have long been a faithful believer in a hobbit’s deliciously firm eating schedule including “second breakfast.” Second breakfast, served between the sunrise meal and the Elevenses mid-morning snack, is usually a bit lighter than its predecessor. According to Pippin, it should include pastries, fruits, or toast with jams and jellies alongside a drop of ale, wine or mead. My Second Breakfast Scone covers almost all the essentials: ripe apples and cranberries, a lively bit of fresh carrot and ginger, toasted pecans and a sparking vanilla and orange icing. Come on over and join me. Just don’t forget to comb your beard, grab a jug of mead and bring a magical book to share.
Clockwise from top left: Tolkien’s “The Trolls,” “Bilbo comes to the Huts of the Elves,” “Front Gate,” and “The Mountain Path”
Hobbit “Second Breakfast” Scones
16 Large Scones
Ingredients:
3 cups all-purpose flour (plus ¼ cup more for dusting the rolling surface and shaping the scones)
4 Tbsp white sugar
2 Tbsp baking powder
½ tsp baking soda
1 tsp fine sea salt
2 tsp ground ginger
1 tsp Chinese five-spice
1 large Granny Smith apple, cored and cut into a small dice (no need to peel)
1 ½ cups fresh cranberries
1 large carrot, grated with a box grater or food processor
1 cup whole pecans, toasted and then coarsely chopped
1 large ripe orange (zest in the scones and juice in the icing)
9 Tbsp cold unsalted butter
1 ½ cups very cold buttermilk
Dusting of coarse cornmeal for the baking sheet
1 large egg – for the egg wash before baking
2 cups confectionary sugar (and a dash of fine sea salt)
2 tsp vanilla paste
1) Preheat the oven to 400 degrees.
2) Line a sheet pan with a piece of parchment paper and lightly dust with coarse cornmeal.
3) Toast the pecans, let cool and then coarsely chop.
4) Grate the carrot with the large side of box grater (or in your food processor).
5) Core and coarsely chop the apple.
6) Whisk together the dry ingredients (flour, sugar, baking powder and soda, salt and spices). Zest the orange and whisk the zest into the mixed dry ingredients.
7) With the same box grater, grate 9 Tbsp very cold butter directly onto the dry mix.
8) Cut in the butter with your fingers (or a pastry cutter) until only small pieces remain.
9) Make a well in the dry and pour in the cold buttermilk. Then fold in the apple, carrot, cranberries and pecans. Gather the dough together with your hands until all is moistened and forms a loose ball.
10) On a lightly floured surface, cut the dough into four equal portions and round each portion into a dome. Cut each of the four domes into four triangles – I use my bench scraper for this task. Place each of the sixteen triangles onto the prepared sheet pan. Whisk the one egg with one Tbsp water and then brush the tops of the scones with the egg wash.
11) Bake in the 400-degree oven for 13 minutes. Rotate the pan and bake for another 7-9 minutes until the scones feel firm and are golden brown. To increase the browning, turn your oven to broil for 2 additional minutes. (Be sure watch during this step!)
12) Remove the scones from the oven and let cool on a wire rack. While the scones are cooling, whisk the confectionary sugar (and a dash of fine sea salt) with the juice of ½ of the orange and 2 tsp of vanilla paste. Drizzle the icing over the scones when they are cool to the touch.
J.R.R. Tolkein, taken in the 1940’s
