Bannock - scottish
Yield: 6 Servings
Ingredients:
- 1 c Whole wheat flour
- 1/2 c All purpose flour
- 1/2 c Rolled oats
- 2 tb Sugar granulated
- 2 ts Baking powder
- 1/2 ts -Salt
- 2 tb Butter melted
- 1/3 c Raisins; optional
- 3/4 c -Water; approx
Instructions:
Bannock, a simple type of scone was cooked in pioneer days over open
fires. Variations in flours and the additional of dried or fresh
fruit make this bread the simple choice of Canadian campers even
today. Oven baking has become an acceptable alternative to the cast
iron frypan. McKelvie's restaurant in Halifax serves an oatmeal
version similar to this one. For plain bannock, omit rolled oats and
increase the all purpose flour to 1 cup.... One of the earliest quick
breads, bannock was as simple as flour, salt, a bit of fat (often
bacon grease) and water. In gold rush days, dough was mixed right in
the prospector's flour bag and cooked in a frypan over an open fire.
Indians wrapped a similar dough around sticks driven into the ground
beside their camp fire, baking it along with freshly caught fish.
Today's native _Fried Bread_ is like bannock and cooked in a skillet.
Newfoundlander's _Damper Dogs_ are small rounds of dough cooked on
the stove's dampers while _Toutons_ are similar bits of dough deep
fried. At a promotional luncheon for the 1992 Inuit Circumpolar
Conference, Eskimo Doughnuts, deep fried rings of bannock dough, were
served. It is said that Inuit children prefer these doughnuts" to sweet cookies. Red River settlers from Scotland made a frugal bannock with lots of flour little sugar and drippings or lard. Now this same bread plays a prominent part in Winnipeg's own Folklorama Festival. At Expo '86 in Vancouver buffalo on bannock buns was a popular item at the North West Territories ' restaurant. In many regions of Canada whole wheat flour or wheat germ replaces part of the flour and cranberries or blueberries are sometimes added. A Saskatchewan firm markets a bannock mix and recipe books from coast to coast upgrade bannock with butter oatmeal raisins cornmeal and dried fruit." Stir together flours oats sugar baking powder and salt. Add melted butter raisins (if using) and water adding more water if needed to make sticky dough. With floured hands pat into greased pie plate. Bake in 400F oven for 20 to 25 minutes or until browned and tester comes out clean. Cut into wedges. SERVES:6 VARIATIONS: In place of raisins add chopped dried apricots or fresh berries.(Blueberries are terrific if one is camping in northern Ontario in August.) SOURCE: "The First Decade" chapter in _A Century of Canadian Home Cooking_
