Bannock bread

[jeepcachr]

Bannock is a quick bread, similar to a baking powder biscuit.

Ingredients:
* 4 cups flour
* 8 tsp. baking powder
* 1/4 cup lard or shortening
* 1 Tbsp. white sugar
* 1 tsp. salt
* 3 cups cold water (approx.)

Instructions:
1. Mix together first 5 ingredients until crumbly. Add about 3 cups cold water and mix until it is not sticky.
2. Wrap on clean, green stick and cook over coals until golden brown.
3. Where open fires are prohibited, cook in frying pan until golden brown and turn. Cook until done.


I'm looking to take this along on my next hike. Can I mix the shortening in at home or should I keep it separate and mix it on the trail? I don't see a problem with combining the rest (not the water) of the ingredients ahead of time.

[daddytwosticks]

I did this like 25 years ago, back in the dark ages. I think I just took bisquick dry. Added water at camp and baked over the coals.....outstanding! :)

[jeepcachr]

I did this like 25 years ago, back in the dark ages. I think I just took bisquick dry. Added water at camp and baked over the coals.....outstanding! :)
Wow, who knew bisquick was so easy? I'm going to try that, forget bringing lard. In 5 minutes of searching I found all kinds of simple bisquick recipes.

[Hikes in Rain]

Used to do that back when I was a kid. Still do it. That way, I won't grow up. And the bannock is outstanding. You can also bake it on a hot flat rock, on sycamore leaves, or just in the ashes, which is what happens when it falls off the stick.

[daddytwosticks]

It was really good, dripping in butter...:)

[10-K]

It was really good, dripping in butter...:)


Most anything is good dripping in butter. :)

[JAK]

You can also make bannock using oatmeal, or barley flour.
In some places, the large round is called a bannock, a wedge of bannock is called a scone.
An oatcake might be considered a personal sized bannock.

[Farr Away]

Yes, you can mix the shortening or lard into the dry ingredients at home.

I mix up my own bisquick/biscuit mix and have it sitting in my pantry for a month or so. Sometimes longer.

-FA

[LaurieAnn]

Here is my bannock recipe from A Fork in the Trail.

Basic Bannock Bread

Makes 4 servings

Many believe that bannock bread originated with Native cultures, but it was the Scottish who brought this bread to North America. Traditionally, bannock is baked on a stick, but it also cooks well in a frying pan. This recipe was taught to me by my dear friend Bill

1 cup all purpose flour
1 tablespoon baking powder
1/8 teaspoon salt
1–2 tablespoons vegetable oil

At Home
Mix the dry ingredients, and pour them in a ziplock freezer bag. Add the oil to the other vegetable oil that you are taking on your trip.

At Camp
Add enough cold water to the bannock mix to make sticky dough. Cook the dough in a frying pan. When the bottom is golden, flip the bannock to cook the top.

If your pan is smaller than 9 inches in diameter, divide the dough in half and cook half at a time. You want the bannock to be about 1/2 inch thick before cooking. Allow to cool. Wrap any leftovers in parchment paper, and store them in a ziplock freezer bag.

Tips
Bannock is good to dip in soups or stews and also makes great sandwiches. Add a tablespoon of sugar and dried fruit to the dry ingredients for a sweet bannock. Add roasted garlic powder to some butter and use the bannock as a base for garlic bread.

[300winmag]

Bring along a liter of oil and after you bake the bannock, put beer batter all over it & plunge it in the boiling oil. Then put the batter on your trail bars, marshmallows, chocolate bars, etc. and fry it all, just like at the Texas State Fair, y'all. :D

Of course in a year of that stuff y'all need a triple bypass - maybe quadruple.

Just sayin'...

[LaurieAnn]

Bring along a liter of oil and after you bake the bannock, put beer batter all over it & plunge it in the boiling oil. Then put the batter on your trail bars, marshmallows, chocolate bars, etc. and fry it all, just like at the Texas State Fair, y'all. :D

Of course in a year of that stuff y'all need a triple bypass - maybe quadruple.

Just sayin'...

Ya... you wouldn't want to eat bannock every day but once in awhile on a trip won't kill you. In a very busy year in the backcountry we might have it 3 times in all. I also make chapati and take a variety of wraps and such.

Deep fried chocolate bar... yikes. Do people seriously eat that? My friend was telling my about a big battered and fried onion thing he had down in the south... it was like a big flower. Y'all know how to deep fry things that's for sure.

[JAK]

As long as its real food, what you burn off is good for you. What you don't, ain't.

[LaurieAnn]

Speaking of bannock... my friend Kirk kicks it up a knotch or three...

Candied Apple Bannock (http://www.wildernesscooking.com/blog/?p=60)

[sarbar]

Bring along a liter of oil and after you bake the bannock, put beer batter all over it & plunge it in the boiling oil. Then put the batter on your trail bars, marshmallows, chocolate bars, etc. and fry it all, just like at the Texas State Fair, y'all. :D

Of course in a year of that stuff y'all need a triple bypass - maybe quadruple.

Just sayin'...

A thru could eat that but a section hiker might want not to :D

[Mrs Baggins]

Ya... you wouldn't want to eat bannock every day but once in awhile on a trip won't kill you. In a very busy year in the backcountry we might have it 3 times in all. I also make chapati and take a variety of wraps and such.

Deep fried chocolate bar... yikes. Do people seriously eat that? My friend was telling my about a big battered and fried onion thing he had down in the south... it was like a big flower. Y'all know how to deep fry things that's for sure.

The fried onion is called an onion blossom or, in the Outback Steakhouse chain, a "bloomin' onion." They're delicious. As for the fried candy bars, that's done in Scotland as well as here. A very nice restaurant in Denver CO serves a deep fried candy bar for dessert (or at least it used to several years ago).

http://www.seriouseats.com/2009/06/scotland-deep-fried-mars-bars-candy-frying-uk.html

[LaurieAnn]

I mentioned the deep friend chocolate bars to my cousin Elaine (she's in Stirling) and she said that it is very good. Usually Mars apparently (from what she says and the link you posted) - the Mars from Scotland and England are so much better than what we get here too.

The deep fried onion scares me... I don't want to know how much fat is in either of those things... lol.

[Old Hiker]

I mentioned the deep friend chocolate bars to my cousin Elaine (she's in Stirling) and she said that it is very good. Usually Mars apparently (from what she says and the link you posted) - the Mars from Scotland and England are so much better than what we get here too.

The deep fried onion scares me... I don't want to know how much fat is in either of those things... lol.

The lastest thing is deep fried butter - yes, BUTTER!! They roll a wad of butter into a crust-like covering and fry it up. I'd like to try ONE, I think. It looked like a Naw'lins beignet, but butter filled.

Don't forget the Krispy Kreme donut hamburger!

[Forever North]

Here is my bannock recipe from A Fork in the Trail.

Basic Bannock Bread

Makes 4 servings

Many believe that bannock bread originated with Native cultures, but it was the Scottish who brought this bread to North America. Traditionally, bannock is baked on a stick, but it also cooks well in a frying pan. This recipe was taught to me by my dear friend Bill

1 cup all purpose flour
1 tablespoon baking powder
1/8 teaspoon salt
1–2 tablespoons vegetable oil

At Home
Mix the dry ingredients, and pour them in a ziplock freezer bag. Add the oil to the other vegetable oil that you are taking on your trip.

At Camp
Add enough cold water to the bannock mix to make sticky dough. Cook the dough in a frying pan. When the bottom is golden, flip the bannock to cook the top.

If your pan is smaller than 9 inches in diameter, divide the dough in half and cook half at a time. You want the bannock to be about 1/2 inch thick before cooking. Allow to cool. Wrap any leftovers in parchment paper, and store them in a ziplock freezer bag.

Tips
Bannock is good to dip in soups or stews and also makes great sandwiches. Add a tablespoon of sugar and dried fruit to the dry ingredients for a sweet bannock. Add roasted garlic powder to some butter and use the bannock as a base for garlic bread.


My mother called this Poor Mans Bread. It's something they made a lot of while they were growing up. It's a lot like yours however you only need 2 and a half tsp baking power per cup of flour then add water and fry it. Yes it's a little doughey made like this but also try it with sour milk instead of water. It'll come in handy when your low on funds and hungry. It will stay good in the frig or a few day in the back country. Just a little bit of chicken and Poor Mans Bread has gotten me through some tight spots in my past. Leave it to mom to give me something I am still useing after 25 or 30 years.

[LaurieAnn]

Forever North... I love the anecdote. Our "poor man's bread" was the Baking Powder Biscuit. Mom made them a lot when Dad was in the hospital and money was tight.

[mkmangold]

Here is my bannock recipe from A Fork in the Trail.

Basic Bannock Bread

Makes 4 servings

Many believe that bannock bread originated with Native cultures, but it was the Scottish who brought this bread to North America. Traditionally, bannock is baked on a stick, but it also cooks well in a frying pan. This recipe was taught to me by my dear friend Bill.

Thanks for this.
I'm curious as to what the pre-Columbian natives used for flour.

[LaurieAnn]

Thanks for this.
I'm curious as to what the pre-Columbian natives used for flour.

I would imagine whatever grain they had. There is local evidence that the Iroquois and Mohawk near where I live used corn (maize), although I don't know if that was pre-Columbus. The Incas used quinoa and amaranth I believe.

[Hikes in Rain]

Also, you can pound acorns into a rather bitter flour. White oak is supposed to be less tanic than red, and soaking helps remove some of it.

[JAK]

I just read about acorn pancakes in re-reading "My Side Of The Mountain."
He added a little wood ash to take out some of the bite.

Yes, corn was grown in temperate regions of Canada in pre-contact. Most Eastern tribes in Canada and the United States grew the three sisters, Corn, Squash, Beans. Some more than others. Wild rice was grown in wet central regions, as it is today, but these areas were once more exptensive. Breads and cakes can also be made from starchy parts of non-cultivated wild plants, such as inner bark of trees, nuts of trees, roots of certain plants, roots and stalks and seedheads of cat-tails. That sort of thing.

I think the term 'bannock' is generally used by Northern Tribes and the Inuit. I am not sure if any of these tribes had much in the way of traditional breads or cakes. Too far North for nuts, perhaps with the exception of pine nuts. Inner bark perhaps. Some roots maybe. Not sure how far North plants like Cat-Tails grow. The term 'bannock' comes from Scotland, originating in Gaelic, and spread to North America through Northern explorers and the fur trade. Oatmeal, and later wheat flour, and perhaps some rye flour, would have been used by explorers and fur-traders primarily as provisions, but also as a trade good when surplus was available.

I don't think the term bannock was used much below the Canadian Shield.
At least not originally. They would have used their own words for bread, and perhaps later exchanged such words to and from the French, and perhaps the American Settlers. it would be interesting if the Scots-Irish of Appalachia also brought the word bannock with them. There might have been other Gaelic and Scots-Irish and English words for bread, and those brought over and used rather than bannock. Oatcakes and scones, for example. Even so, the natives of the Appalachia would have had many different words for bread, as there were many different tribes and langages and dialects, and many different sources of food for breads and cakes, both cultivated and gathered.

[Black Wolf]

Thanks for this.
I'm curious as to what the pre-Columbian natives used for flour.

http://www.nativerecipes.com/7.html

this might answer your question...and on top of that there's some ..food for thought..{pun intended}..on a few great trail recipe ideas ..

[Hikes in Rain]

Nice site, Black Wolf. You know, I have some blue corn in the pantry.....

[Black Wolf]

Nice site, Black Wolf. You know, I have some blue corn in the pantry.....

I didn't know that...lol...what else is the pantry......thanks...some great ideas there...

[Hikes in Rain]

Well, I also have some Asazi and Bollito beans. Sounds like a native meal in the making! We could wash it down with home brew beer, too.

[weary]

Yes, you can mix the shortening or lard into the dry ingredients at home.

I mix up my own bisquick/biscuit mix and have it sitting in my pantry for a month or so. Sometimes longer.

-FA
If you have an electric mixer with a wire whip attachment it's simpler -- and cheaper -- than opening a box of bisquick. For storage that is longer than a month it's best to keep the mixture in the refrigerator or the freezer in a plastic bag. The whip breaks the shortening into little pieces, just as bisquick does.

I like to use butter as the shortening. It gives a bit of extra flavor. Either let the butter soften a bit, or just shave the butter into the mix before using the whip.

[Rocket Jones]

I like to use butter as the shortening. It gives a bit of extra flavor. Either let the butter soften a bit, or just shave the butter into the mix before using the whip.

Throw a stick of butter into the freezer for 20 minutes, then use a cheese grater to shred it into the mix.

[weary]

Throw a stick of butter into the freezer for 20 minutes, then use a cheese grater to shred it into the mix.
Yep. That's what I do!

[Hikes in Rain]

Now, that's a great idea!