Bannock, Campfire (Pan or Stick)

The trail bannock: flour, baking powder, salt and fat mixed at home, water added at the fire, then cooked in a pan held over the heat or wound around a green stick.

Untested: not yet made in this kitchen. It is here for the Flatbreads pages and is adapted from the source named in the Notes.

Ingredients

• 1 cup all-purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• ¼ teaspoon salt
• 3 tablespoons margarine or butter
• 2 tablespoons skim milk powder (optional)
• ⅓ cup cold water, about (enough for a firm dough)
• 1 teaspoon oil or butter, to grease the pan

Directions

1. At home, sift the flour, baking powder, salt and milk powder together and cut in the margarine or butter until the mix looks like coarse meal. It can be sealed in a zip-lock bag at this point to carry into the field.
2. At the fire, grease a frying pan and warm it. Working quickly, stir in enough cold water to make a firm dough.

In a pan

3. Pat the dough into cakes about ½ inch thick and dust them lightly with flour. Lay them in the warm pan and hold it over the heat, rotating it a little. Turn them once a bottom crust has formed and the dough holds together. Cooking takes 12 to 15 minutes.

On a stick

4. Use a little less water for a stiffer dough and roll it into a long ribbon no wider than 1 inch. Wind it around a preheated green hardwood stick and hold it about 8 inches above the fire, turning now and then, until the bannock is cooked through.

Notes

Source Adapted from “Basic Bannock Recipe (Fried or Stick-cooked)” in Bannock Awareness, a recipe booklet compiled by Michael D. Blackstock and published by the British Columbia Ministry of Forests and Range for Aboriginal Awareness Day (reprinted 2013; the booklet says “Original Print 2001”, while the Canadian Encyclopedia dates it to June 2000). The booklet gives the water only as “enough COLD water to make a firm dough”; the ⅓ cup here is an estimate. It does not give a yield.

Fire The booklet’s campfire advice: dry, seasoned wood; a site on rock or mineral soil at least 8 feet from brush; a bucket of water beside it; and coals raked high at the back and low at the front for high, medium and low heat. Use a green hardwood stick from a tree that is not toxic, and check local fire restrictions before lighting one.

The bread The booklet notes that First Nations bannock was once made from corn and nut meal and flour from ground plant bulbs, and that some groups wound the dough around a green hardwood stick and toasted it over an open fire; wheat flour and cast-iron pans came later. The word is from Gaelic bannach. The Inuvialuit call it muqpauraq. The Flatbreads Americas page (/breads/flatbreads/the-americas/) covers bannock and frybread; the collection’s Oat Bannock (Skillet) is the Scottish oat version.

The photo The photograph shows bannock dough being wound onto a cooking stick.