Canoe Camp Bannock
Flour, fat, and a hot pan. The bread that made it worth carrying a frypan.
- calories
- 640
- weight
- 5.3 oz
- cal / oz
- 121
- protein
- 16 g
- serves
- 2, scales
- prep
- 5 min
- cook
- 15 min
- total time
- 20 min
- water
- 200 ml cold
- cost
- $
Calorie and protein figures are my own estimates, good enough for planning a food bag and not meant as precise nutrition data.
- Breakfast
- Dinner
- Snack
- Campfire coals
- Canister stove
- Canoe / raft
- Car camping
- Basecamp
- Backpacking
- Vegetarian
- Nut free
- Real dishes
- Pre-mix at home
- Shelf stable
- Basic
Ingredients
| All-purpose flour | 2 cups | |
|---|---|---|
| Baking powder | 2 tsp | double-acting, keep it dry |
| Salt | 3/4 tsp | |
| Powdered whole milk | 3 tbsp | optional, but it browns better |
| Sugar | 1 tbsp | |
| Oil or shortening | 2 tbsp | plus a little more for the pan |
Method
- Put the dry mix in a bag or bowl. Add the oil and about 200 ml of cold water, a splash at a time.
- Stir until it comes together, then knead it in the bag for thirty seconds. It should be tacky, not sticky. Wet dough steams; dry dough cracks.
- Press it into a disc a little under an inch thick and let it sit five minutes while the pan heats.
- Grease a pan and cook over low, steady heat. A bed of coals raked flat is better than flames.
- Give it eight minutes covered, then flip and cook another six or seven. It is done when it sounds hollow and a twig comes out clean.
Bannock is the reason a folding-handle frypan keeps earning its place in the pack. Everything in it is shelf-stable and cheap, it needs no yeast and no rise, and the whole thing is flour plus fat plus heat. The baking powder does the lifting the moment water hits it, which is why you mix it last and get it in the pan soon after.
Heat control is the entire skill. Too hot and you get a black crust over raw dough; the fix is coals rather than flame, or a low simmer setting and a lid to trap heat on top. Powdered milk is not required, but the sugars in it are what give the crust color, and the fat you knead in is what keeps it from going to hardtack overnight.
Packing
Mix flour, baking powder, salt, milk powder, and sugar at home and seal it in one bag. Oil rides in a dropper bottle. At camp you are adding two things, not five.
Variations
- Wrap the dough around a peeled green stick and cook it over coals if you left the pan home.
- A handful of raisins or dried blueberries in the dry mix makes it breakfast.
- Swap the milk powder for grated hard cheese and a shake of dried herbs for a dinner bread.
https://www.canoetripping.net/threads/pots-and-pans-and-cookery-stuff.1068