Bread is super symbolic in the Hunger Games books. Panem, the name of the nation in the dystopian tales, means "bread" in Latin. It's short for "panem and circenses," or "bread and circuses." In order to keep the population of Rome appeased, the rulers would provide grain (bread) and games (circuses) to distract the citizens. Hmm. Sounds a little like the Hunger Games, right? That's no accident. Fans of the series know the importance of bread as well, from the baker's son Peeta, to a very needed gift that arrived right on time.
In honor of the movie (out March 23rd!) I decided to make some Hunger Games bread by stenciling the mockingjay symbol onto a loaf.
I printed out a mockingjay symbol that I found here and cut it out. I used both scissors and an x-acto knife. As you can see, you'll want to cut away the sections that aren't part of the symbol (that's pretty much the opposite of most stencils.)
I brushed a risen bread loaf ready to go in the oven with water, and then placed the cut stencil on top. I sifted flour on top of the loaf, covering the stencil completely. I then carefully lifted away the paper stencil leaving the loaf with the imprint.
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There's the loaf ready to go into the oven! I made a rye bread recipe (you can find out more about how I made the dough here) so that the finished loaf would be beautifully dark really showing off the design. The loaf baked at 425 for about 40 minutes.
Wow! It really turned out!
Now that's a loaf that Katniss and Peeta could really chew on! Are you as excited for the movie as we are?
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