I open the parachute and find a small loaf of bread. It’s not the fine white Capitol stuff. It’s made of dark ration grain and shaped in a crescent. Sprinkled with seeds. I flashback to Peeta’s lesson on the various district breads in the Training Center. This bread came from District 11. I cautiously lift the still warm loaf. What must it have cost the people of District 11 who can’t even feed themselves? How many would’ve had to do without to scrape up a coin to put in the collection for this one loaf? It had been meant for Rue, surely. But instead of pulling the gift when she died, they’d authorized Haymitch to give it to me. As a thank-you? Or because, like me, they don’t like to let debts go unpaid? For whatever reason, this is a first. A district gift to a tribute who’s not your own.
…
Tonight, all I can do is strap myself in and take tiny bites of the bread. It’s good. It tastes of home.
Food plays a huge part in The Hunger Games
I should note that it’s a heck of a lot cheaper to buy poppy seeds
I started wondering how Peeta would know how to bake breads from all the districts and eventually decided that the Mellark bakery probably has to know how to make them all for victory tours, so that they can provide bread from the winning district when they get to District 12.
I adapted a recipe I found here, adding in 1 tbsp of poppy seeds and doubling the honey because I thought it wasn’t enough sweetness. Boy was I right. This bread tastes incredibly plain. That being said, I guess it makes it more realistic that way. I can’t imagine the people of District 11 having a lot of honey or sugar around to make their bread taste awesome. But if you want to make it look like District 11 bread and still taste good, it’s probably a good idea to add a half a cup of sugar to the dough.
Here’s what the bread looks like on the inside. I’d made one batch according to the recipe, cutting it into 16 wedges, but these were way too small. My second batch was cut into 8 wedges and these made a lot more sense, so that’s what I photographed. I also did not butter them, as butter was probably too great a luxury in Panem. Let me know what you think! Should I bake them again, but with the seeds on the outside or do these look fine as-is?
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I think I’d try molasses.
Hmm, never tried it before! I’ll have to make the supermarket rounds to find it!
I think that you should make District 4 bread, the kind with the seaweed in it.
I’ve been looking it up, no recipes so far! :O
Try adding some salt to the recipe, if it tastes plain, it would probably benefit from salt. Taste the dough when you are kneading it.
The book says “sprinkled with seeds” that sounds to me like the seeds are on the outside, like some bagels have seeds on the outside.
But it’s your interpretation, awesome that you even tried! Would love to see the District 4 recipe…
Yeah it says “dotted with seeds” in the first reference, then “sprinkled with seeds” in the second and I went off the first description before looking at the second one.
“Dotted with seeds” sounds like the seeds are on the inside (at least to me). If the seeds were on top, I think it would have been described as “topped with seeds,” or something like that. Now if it was “sprinkled with seeds” like the above comment mentions, then I would think they would be on the outside.
Either way, it’s definitely open to interpretation and I think they look fantastic just the way they are. Really, they look great! This was one of the most memorable items of food from the book, and I’m so glad you brought it to life! I can’t wait to make these!
Thanks Penelope! Don’t forget to add sugar! I don’t know who I’m going to get to eat these, hahaha!
haha, slice them, grill them with a little butter, the make them into sandwiches with some mustard, greens, roast beef or turkey. I bet they’d taste fine that way!
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My mom and i tried it, its OK
Haha, you’re being nice! I couldn’t eat them! I guess I have Capitol taste buds. 🙂
Well, i said they were ok, and they are not too hard to eat, although we had my little brother try it first, he must have district 12 taste buds (or he was REALLY nice) because he ate 3.
I imagined District 11 bread to be similar to Welsh Herb Bread, but crescent shaped. http://stevishabitat.wordpress.com/2011/03/04/welsh-clay-pot-bread/
can you do the apple tart the one were peeta talks abut how they make it in the bakery and that they only get to eat it if its gone really really stale . . . sounds yummy not the stale part
Is this bread supposed to be sweet or salty?
You should try this recipe for seaweed bread, for the bread from District 4! I haven’t tried it myself, but apparently it’s phenomenal 🙂
http://companyinmykitchen.blogspot.com/2009/05/seaweed-bread.html
I make them with the sugar and they were kinda gross.You should make district 4 bread,that would probably be really good.
I think you should also make the cookies that peeta made when president snow comes to talk to katniss.the one’s with the flowers on them.
Hmm, I dunno! It’s probably because they’re whole wheat. Most recipes I found online were for half whole wheat half white, but it had to be all ww for a district bread imo.
These look like they could be really delicious.
I cautiously lift the still warm loaf. This bread tastes incredibly plain. Taste the dough when you are kneading it.Ive watched the hunger games trailer at http://youtu.be/Xua6rA6VHFM
I’m definitely going to try this recipe! Although I’m going to sprinkle the seeds on top of the bread when I make it.
Whenever I am on your website, I’m getting HUNGRY. Yeah… life is hard. 😀
But… well done!
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Noticed that the recipe didn’t have salt listed. That’ll cause the ‘very plain’ taste. The first few times I made bread, I forgot the salt and it tasted, frankly, bland as hell. A little salt does WONDERS. Never leave it out or you’ll have icky bread.
I’d love it if you made district three bread
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wow i would love to make that sometime. i really want some district 4 bread
The recipe calls for 2 cups of flour, but then the directions add up to 2 1/3 cups. Which is it? Also, is the sugar added in step 1 or 2?
I didn’t have honey or poppy seeds so I substituted with maple syrup and sesame seeds and they were amazing!