Stick Bread Bannock
Four dry ingredients, a splash of water, and a stick. Fresh bread at a fire with no oven.
- calories
- 320
- weight
- 3 oz
- cal / oz
- 107
- protein
- 7 g
- serves
- 6, scales
- prep
- 15 min
- cook
- 12 min
- total time
- 27 min
- water
- 90 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.
- Dinner
- Breakfast
- Snack
- Campfire coals
- Grill grate
- Car camping
- Basecamp
- Backpacking
- Canoe / raft
- Vegetarian
- Dairy free
- Nut free
- One pot
- Pre-mix at home
- Shelf stable
- Basic
Ingredients
| All-purpose flour | 4 cups | |
|---|---|---|
| Baking powder | 4 tsp | double-acting, keep it dry |
| Salt | 1 tsp | |
| Oil | 4 tbsp | olive or canola, in a leakproof bottle |
| Water | about 1 1/2 cups | added a little at a time |
| Brown sugar, cinnamon, raisins, or honey | to taste | optional |
Method
- Build a fire and let it burn down. You want coals and low flame, not a bonfire.
- Dump the dry mix into a pot or a heavy freezer bag. Add the oil, then pour water in a few tablespoons at a time, stirring as you go, until it pulls together into a stiff dough. Stop before it turns sticky.
- Knead about ten minutes, in the bag or on a clean pot lid. It should go from shaggy to smooth.
- Work in sugar, raisins, or a spoon of honey now if you want it sweet.
- For pan bread: grease a frying pan, set it over the coals, press the dough into flat cakes, and lay them in. Nudge them every minute or so so they do not weld to the pan. Flip once the underside is browned and firm, about six minutes a side.
- For stick bread: roll a rope of dough a finger thick and a foot long, wind it up a peeled green stick, and turn it slowly over coals until it sounds hollow and slides off.
- Break one open before you call it done. Raw dough in the middle is the usual failure.
Bannock is a flour-and-leavening bread that needs no oven, no proofing, and no dairy, which is why it has survived on fires for a couple of centuries. Baking powder does its lifting on contact with water and again with heat, so the clock starts when you pour. Mix it, cook it, eat it.
The water goes in slowly for a reason. Flour absorption swings with humidity and how packed the bag got, and a dough that turns sticky cannot be wound around a stick or flipped in a pan without tearing. Kneading is what turns it from crumbs into something that holds together over a fire. The oil is not optional either: it keeps the crust from going to leather and gets the calorie count up to where a slice is worth carrying.
Packing
Combine flour, baking powder, and salt at home in one bag and squeeze the air out. Oil rides in its own bottle inside a second bag. Sugar and raisins go in a small bag of their own so you can decide sweet or savory at camp.
Variations
- Swap a quarter of the flour for cornmeal for a coarser crumb and a firmer crust.
- Add a tablespoon of powdered milk to the dry mix for browning and a little more protein.
- Savory version: garlic powder, dried herbs, and a shake of parmesan powder instead of sugar.
https://www.boyscouttrail.com/content/recipe/bannock-1819.asp