Sunday 8 April 2018

Bannocks to You!




Whatever sustenance I consume on a camp I will always try and make sure that a bannock or two are on the menu. Versatile, basic and simple to cook...What's not to like?  Now I was sorting through some camping/ Scouting/ kitchen pictures and noticed a lot of different bannock shots (and some other breads too) so I thought I'd pull them together to form a sort of doughy how to. 



I think it's therapeutic making them once the fire is bedding down to embers and the coffee is ready, and by coffee I mean a Growers Cup coffee pouch (which you can seen next to the bannock mix). 

 

 

So let's start with the simplest of bannocks, the ash cake. the most basic recipe is flour, water and a little salt or sugar, I use self raising flour with a flour to liquid ratio of about 3:2. Mix the ingredients together until a dough like texture is reached and add a little more flour or liquid as needed and I usually form them to a depth of about 1.5 cms or so. The ash cake name comes from the flattened dough being placed on small established embers by the side of the fire. It almost goes without saying that you need to keep an eye on this so that it doesn't get overly charred. You can check any bannocks by tapping them to see if they sound hollow and firm.


My usual, but not exclusive preference however is for a sweet bannock and I use milk instead of water whenever possible. I find that a breakfast with one of these sweet and flavoured breads really sets me up for the day.

 

So if the ash cake is the most basic plain recipe, this bannock is arguably the most basic of fruit bannocks. This is made with self raising flour, milk, sultanas and vanilla sugar. Round a campfire I'd usually use plain sugar but as this was a breakfast at home I had access to the flavoured sugar.


This is pretty much the kitchen bannock from above but out and about. The only other addition is a tiny pinch of baking powder to plump them up a bit. Doing bannocks in my Primus non-stick cooking pan is a doddle.


This one is perhaps the most decadent that I've done outdoors. I used chopped up semi dried figs instead of sultanas and this large beast simply oozed sugary goo when cooked. 

 

 

Or is this the most decadent? The milk or water is subsituted for a shot of Guiness. This was made with leftover cake fruit so had peel, dried fruits and glacé cherries in. I made this mix up and then took it on a camp using my trusty vacuum sealer to transport it. This is obviously one that is for non-scouting use of course but fear not, it gives leaders the chance to experiment using various non-alcoholic   beverages. Try putting the ingredients in a small zip lock bag with coke and getting them to mix it by squidging it under their armpit!


So far I've detailed two ways to cook the bannocks, namely on fine coals and in a pan.  Another way that I cook them is in a  Zebra billy can insert propped up at an angle by the fireside. You can use a log but this one has been modded to take two sticks but more on that later.

 

I drilled two holes close together in the rim of the insert. Note that they are resilient and will take a while to drill, the drill tip I used eventually glowed orange. As you can see in the right hand side picture two sharpened sticks spread at an angle work perfectly.



This fairly basic one was for breakfast at home but is included at this point to suggest that a drizzle of some sort makes a bannock taste 'calorifically heightened'. Obviously I had access to my food cupboards to pour some homemade dandelion syrup on it but of course you can make a sachet with the afore mentioned vacuum sealer.


One ready made 'bannock mix' that I've recently discovered is the chilled tubes of croissant dough that can be purchased from supermarkets.


The dough can be cooked from the tube but it is a little sticky, each triangle can take a dessert spoon of self raising flour needed into it.


 This folded triangle has sultanas loaded into it. I placed a few dried fruits in the top corner and folded the apex (bottom right) up to the hypotenuse (the longest side) and squeezed the edge shut. More fruit was added to the top of the fold and then the final corner was slightly stretched to fit and both edges sealed and double checked.


The plain round bannock is done in a few minutes on a medium low light and is done when, like a standard bannock, it is puffed up and sounds hollow when tapped. The stuffed slice needs a little longer but has the advantage of being able to be balanced on all four sides to help cook it through.


They don't just have to be sweet of course. something like this Sweetcorn and Bacon bannock is almost a breakfast in itself.

 

The final cooking method I use is a cast iron pan. I dust the pan with flour to facilitate a smooth extraction of the bannock when cooked, it also helps protect the base from getting too brown. This is the sweetcorn and bacon bannock cooking.


You'll notice that the flour will go will go brown after the bannock is ready. Simply discard it and rinse out the pan.

 

Whilst on the savoury bread theme this is an Indian style bannock. Typically I mix things like cardamon seeds, cumin, turmeric and coriander into the flour mix to give it flavour and colour. The liquid part is actually natural yogurt in roughly the same ratio. 


And the result is an impressive Indian style unleavened bannock to have with a curry around the campfire. You can use plain or self raising for this depending if you want a flatter/  more puffed up affair.


Another Indian style bannock variation is to use  Chick pea and regular flour in a 50/50 mix.  Chick pea flour on it's own doesn't really work as it's strong tasting and makes a rather crumbly bread. Note the feathers in the background from a prepped Wood Pigeon.


As we are now on the mixing of flours you can use such bushcrafty additions as Acorn, Chestnut and Reedmace pollen flour. The savoury bannock mix shown is mixed with Reedmace pollen, again in a 50/ 50 mix. 


The Reedmace mix goes a darker yellow when it is formed up into a dough as shown above. Almost predictably they go a similar colour to any breads made with Chickpea flour when cooked.

Reemace pollen is collected in the spring by putting a plastic bag over the cigar shaped head and gently tapping. Care must be taken by water.

Acorns are full of tannin that needs leaching out. This is done to the chopped up Acorn meat with copious water changes until the water runs clear. To be honest it's a load of effort that yeilds a rather bland end product.

Sweet chestnut is a little easier. simply cook them in the oven (don't forget the cross in the shell) and when cool simply chop, dry and grind. I did nearly come a cropper on the trip to the Almost Wild Campsite in the Lee Valley. I took some chestnut flour to make a bannock and realised at the last minute it was finely sawn wood shavings for a fire lighting project! I settled for a banana laced bannock instead.


There are, of course many different variations of ingredients and cooking methods including Iron Age and Native American recipes that often include some less well known ingredients, fat and are often fried. These to my mind get away from the basic bannock bread but I've no doubt that I'll add them to this page in the future. The only other thing that is along the same lines that I enjoy are drop scones. I've also tried a wheat free drop scone with some success too.


These are made over a low heat with 100g of self raising flour, 30 ml sugar, 1 beaten egg and 150 ml of milk which will make about 3 of the bigger ones that are in the pan. You can tell when they are about ready to flip over when copious amounts of bubbles appear through the batter. As it's a pourable batter patterned scones can be made. Above I've done a Birch leaf, a Celtic triskelion swirl and a fougasse bread style patterns.


And this a perfect warming and filling camp breakfast for me with a cooked breakfast in my pan, straight off my folding trivet with a bombproof sweet sultana bannock for seconds and all washed down with tea or coffee.


Shot on location at my Scout group HQ, various camps and my kitchen.

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