Your best Bannock recipe?

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Llwyd

Forager
Jan 6, 2013
243
2
Eastern Canada
Lloyd's Bannock

2 parts multigrain flour.
2 parts powdered skim milk.
1 part demerrera sugar.
Lot of raisins.
Some baking powder.
Add small amounts of water and mix until dough like.
Heat olive oil and mash into pan.
Tilt the frying pan on a rock or stick so that the dough is facing the coals in the fire testing occasionally for consistency.
The bottom may scorch a bit, but will still be tasty.
Cook until done.

canoe-canada-east-archive182.jpg


I use a few other recipes too but this is the most popular with people.

Also there are a bunch of Canadian Recipes on this site from BC.

http://www.for.gov.bc.ca/rsi/fnb/fnb.htm

The Fort Garry recipe is pretty good too and even works pretty good in the oven.

Bannock Recipe

Ingredients

3 cups of flour
1½ tsp baking powder
½ tsp salt
¼ cup of fat (shortening or butter)
1¼ cups of warm water

Steps

Mix all dry ingredients together
Make a hole in the middle and add fat
Pour water on top of the fat
Blend mixture together with your hands
Divide the dough into two balls
Flatten each ball into 1cm thickness
Punch holes in both with a fork
Cook in well-greased frying pan for 20 minutes
 
Sep 8, 2012
239
2
west sussex
the suet idea is making a lot of sense to me, idealy I want to pre mix and bag it up ready to go,
I think this one is trial and error and practice, I will crack it tho, and when I do you guys
will be the first too know :)
 

santaman2000

M.A.B (Mad About Bushcraft)
Jan 15, 2011
16,909
1,114
67
Florida
the suet idea is making a lot of sense to me, idealy I want to pre mix and bag it up ready to go,
I think this one is trial and error and practice, I will crack it tho, and when I do you guys
will be the first too know :)

You might try a premade mix lik Bisquick.

As BR said, it's not likely the problem is with your recipe, you just need practice cooking over fire. I might suggest practicing at home on the cooker. When you get it right, put you hand over the burner to see how close you can get and hold it there for a slow count of "1-2-3" Then you'll be able to do the same test over a fire to check that the heat level is right (just hold it at the same distance over the fire and for the same slow count as you did over the cooker's burner)
 
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jacko1066

Native
May 22, 2011
1,689
0
march, cambs
Its absolutely needs some fat or oil - butter, olive oil - suet if you are packing dry ingredients. Flour, milk powder, baking soda salt and fat. Add sugar or syrup and dried fruit for sweet, nuts and seeds, herbs, garlic etc. for savoury. Beat in an egg for pancakes.


bannock by British Red, on Flickr

Never thought of adding suet!!
Great idea!! Does it make much difference to the taste?

I assumed there was enough fat in it with the full fat milk powder and cooking it in olive oil!!

Is it just vegetable suet you use? Beef suet and sweet cinniman sounds a bit odd lol
 

British Red

M.A.B (Mad About Bushcraft)
Dec 30, 2005
26,709
1,947
Mercia
I use what I have to hand to be honest - but veg suet is fine. I think of it like the fat in a basic bread dough - not really detectable in the finished product. I only got to using suet because I wanted a "dry" fat that sits happily in my pack for days.

ETA

One think to do with the suet / flour / milk powder / baking soda is pulse it in a blender to ensure a fine powder and perfect mix.
 
Last edited:

Huon

Native
May 12, 2004
1,327
1
Spain
Never thought of adding suet!!
Great idea!! Does it make much difference to the taste?

I assumed there was enough fat in it with the full fat milk powder and cooking it in olive oil!!

Is it just vegetable suet you use? Beef suet and sweet cinniman sounds a bit odd lol

Traditional suet puddings are made with animal suet (mostly beef) and many of them are sweet.
 

John Fenna

Lifetime Member & Maker
Oct 7, 2006
23,106
2,833
66
Pembrokeshire
3 cups self raising flour
3 cups wholemeal plain flour
1 cup dried skim milk
1 cup veg suet
1/4 cup baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon sugar
2 tablespoons powdered egg

This makes quite a "cakey" bannock and I often add dried fruit.
For a more savoury bannock I cut out the egg and add dried onion, dried tomato, cheese, herbs etc as the mood takes me.
The best bannock I have made has been in a Dutch oven with the mix in a foil tray supported on a trivet inside the dutchy.
 

jacko1066

Native
May 22, 2011
1,689
0
march, cambs
3 cups self raising flour
3 cups wholemeal plain flour
1 cup dried skim milk
1 cup veg suet
1/4 cup baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon sugar
2 tablespoons powdered egg

This makes quite a "cakey" bannock and I often add dried fruit.
For a more savoury bannock I cut out the egg and add dried onion, dried tomato, cheese, herbs etc as the mood takes me.
The best bannock I have made has been in a Dutch oven with the mix in a foil tray supported on a trivet inside the dutchy.

Dont suppose you have a link to the powdered egg do you John?
 
As BR said you must have fat, a suet is the easiest to transport.

The basic recipe I use is what americans call 'Biscuit'
One part self raising white flour
One part wholemeal flour
One part milk
third of a part Suet (in the shops its called Atora: they make vegi and proper suet)
One teaspoon baking soda

Then
Replace the milk with dried milk for ease of transportation
Replace wholemeal with white floor makes it more like scones + dried fruit
Just a touch of wholemeal makes it more like the american breafast biscuit
Replace wheat floor with corn meal/maize and add an egg to make the 'corn pone' Tom and Huck ate
Replace half the wheat flour with oatmeal and pinhead oatmeal to make Soda Bread

The only drawback is that, being crumbly in nature, it doesn't make very good sandwiches
SBW
 

British Red

M.A.B (Mad About Bushcraft)
Dec 30, 2005
26,709
1,947
Mercia
Dont suppose you have a link to the powdered egg do you John?

These guys sell all manner of freeze dried and shelf stable - tinned butter, tinned cheese and yes, whole freeze dried egg

http://shop.conserva.de/en/27-powdered-whole-eggs

10 euro shipping so its worth getting a few people together or buying a few items. Its actually pretty fair shipping from Germany for any sized order
 

santaman2000

M.A.B (Mad About Bushcraft)
Jan 15, 2011
16,909
1,114
67
Florida
As BR said you must have fat, a suet is the easiest to transport.

The basic recipe I use is what americans call 'Biscuit'
One part self raising white flour
One part wholemeal flour
One part milk
third of a part Suet (in the shops its called Atora: they make vegi and proper suet)
One teaspoon baking soda

Then
Replace the milk with dried milk for ease of transportation
Replace wholemeal with white floor makes it more like scones + dried fruit
Just a touch of wholemeal makes it more like the american breafast biscuit
Replace wheat floor with corn meal/maize and add an egg to make the 'corn pone' Tom and Huck ate
Replace half the wheat flour with oatmeal and pinhead oatmeal to make Soda Bread

The only drawback is that, being crumbly in nature, it doesn't make very good sandwiches
SBW

No you're right. Our biscuits don't make good sandwiches. At least not full sized sandwiches. BUT! We normally bake them to a size that's about 2 inches in diameter (or possibly 2 & 1/2) by an in ch tall. At that side they're fine (great actually) for splitting and sandwiching egg or breakfast meats between the halves. Or splitting and filling with butter and jama/preserves.

Most of the convenience stores (Corner shops) have breakast biscuit sandwiches 1n the deli section now near the hot coffee.
 

Home Guard

Forager
Dec 13, 2010
229
0
North Walsham, Nelson's County.
I've just made a Bannock with self-raising flour, a little sugar, sultanas and milk. The milk still made a good dough.

It's in the oven at the moment, but I've floured my billy can, and it's cooking in that. I've never baked in a billy, shall try it on a fire next week.

I'll keep you updated. :)
 

jacko1066

Native
May 22, 2011
1,689
0
march, cambs
I've just made a Bannock with self-raising flour, a little sugar, sultanas and milk. The milk still made a good dough.

It's in the oven at the moment, but I've floured my billy can, and it's cooking in that. I've never baked in a billy, shall try it on a fire next week.

I'll keep you updated. :)

How did the bannock turn out mate?
 
No you're right. Our biscuits don't make good sandwiches. At least not full sized sandwiches. BUT! We normally bake them to a size that's about 2 inches in diameter (or possibly 2 & 1/2) by an in ch tall. At that side they're fine (great actually) for splitting and sandwiching egg or breakfast meats between the halves. Or splitting and filling with butter and jama/preserves.

Most of the convenience stores (Corner shops) have breakast biscuit sandwiches 1n the deli section now near the hot coffee.

I've also seen them served fried, but perhaps its better not to lead BCUKers into temptation
SBW
 

Home Guard

Forager
Dec 13, 2010
229
0
North Walsham, Nelson's County.
How did the bannock turn out mate?

Not bad at all. :) I've done three since then to try out different mixtures etc. Add enough milk so that the dough is softer than normal bread dough. I then tryed it in a billy over some heat instead of in the oven. Aslong as the pan is well floured it's easy to flip, turn the whole thing upside down and catch the bannock in the lid. ;)

This morning I made a simple bannock/bread using the milk and self-raising flour, I added a little salt, chopped garlic, coriander and half a red onion to the dry ingredients and then added milk.

Good luck, it's easier than you think. I've also found that if you mix it in your billy, its also floured. (less washing up)
 

calgarychef

Forager
May 19, 2011
168
1
woking
Bannock.... I worked on an Indian reserve for a couple of years and I'm a professional chef. I'd suggest that if you did a placement in a Michelin star restaurant and can't make bannock...you might benefit by finding another job. Quick breads ie the ones that use baking powder for leavening are pretty easy. They include, bannock (native/Scottish), scones, biscuits (American style), pancakes, Irish soda bread etc. they are all variations on the same thing.


so the recipe is just like Ray says.

One cup of flour
1/4 cup milk powder
a couple tsp of baking powder

If you don't want milk then don't use it.
if you are going to bake it add some fat-butter, suet, bear lard (yum!), not liquid fat. Crumble the that by mixing between your hands with the flour, until it looks like coarse corn meal.

If you plan on cooking it on a stick over the fire leave out the fat as the dough will be too soft and drip off the stick, most aggravating.


I won't bother explaining the mixing too much as it takes a bit of practice and I already mentioned it in a thread a year or so ago. Don't mix it in a plastic bag. Mix it in a bowl or add a bit of water to a depression and stir it with a finger or fork until it forms a ball. Then knead it back and forth in the flour so that it picks up more flour and turns into a dough rather than a batter.


Then fry it or wrap it round a stick before toasting over a fire and enjoy. If its raw in the middle you used too much heat, cooked the outside but not the middle, again this ain't rocket science it just takes patience. If you want to bake it look at recipes for soda bread and you'll get the idea.

Self rising flour will work but regular flour is what's used, just learn to work with it and all will be well! Whole grain flour sounds healthy and it is but it makes poor Bannock, makes poor dumplings, makes poor pancakes....quick breads don't like to be made with whole grain flour.
 
Last edited by a moderator:
Sep 8, 2012
239
2
west sussex
Bannock.... I worked on an Indian reserve for a couple of years and I'm a professional chef. I'd suggest that if you did a placement in a Michelin star restaurant and can't make bannock...you might benefit by finding another job.[/QUOTE
yeah I find cooking over a constantly fluctuating camp fire slightly different than a state of the art cooker, an art in its self.
only thing I do is meat and fry ups maybe the odd pancake.
gave up the cheffing years ago, worked in the industry after college for a year then realised it was crap (as you do when your 20)
where did you study? never know its a small world might of had same tutors?
 

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