Bannock, noun: A flat bread, popular in Canada and the northern United States, often made of oatmeal, barley flour or corn meal.
We're all about cooking and eating outdoors this month, so we perked up when we saw this rustic bread being prepared on an episode of Bobby Flay's Grill It! It was, of course, baked right on the grill.
According to the British Columbia Ministry of Forests and Range, Bannock was a staple in the diets of nearly all of North America's first peoples. The European version was invented by the Scots and is made with oatmeal, while Aboriginal people prepared bannock with corn and nut meal, and flour made from ground plant bulbs.
Originally rolled in sand and cooked in a pit, or wrapped around a stick and toasted over an open flame, Bannock today is more commonly grilled, deep-fried, pan-fried or oven baked.
On Grill It!, Ontario's Rugged Dude Carson, a hunting and fishing enthusiast, said bannock is popular with campers because the dry ingredients (he used just flour, baking powder and salt) can be easily carried and mixed with water to form a quick dough. He added lots of fresh blueberries to his dough, brushed it with canola oil and put it directly on the grill. The finished bread looked crispy on the outside with lots of nice grill marks, but soft on the inside, flecked with juicy blueberries.
Have you ever made bannock?
More
- British Columbia Ministry of Forests and Range: Bannock Awareness
- Food Network: Grill It! with Bobby Flay, Recipes from Salmon: Rugged and Refined
- The Campfire! Bannock
Related: Recipe: Grilled Potato, Gorgonzola and Prosciutto Pizza
(Images: Flickr user Dano, licensed under Creative Commons, British Columbia Ministry of Forests and Range)
10 Low-Budget Pantry Items Everyone Should Have
Summer Recipe: Gluten-Free & Vegan Strawberry Shortcake
Good Food to Share 
The Big Book of Small, Cool Spaces 
Apartment Therapy Presents 
The Eight-Step Home Cure 
TW Salt Mill by Wil...
Small Cool Lessons: Discovering Small Space Design Ideas That Really Work
Marisa and Peter's Playfully Eclectic Home
I grew up in a small northern Ontario community, and for me the only way to make bannock is to wrap the dough around a stick and cook it over the fire. The stick adds flavour (namely, the flavour of charred stick - don't knock it til you try it). A good way to get kids to eat it is to fill the centre of the wrapped dough with some chocolate chips. Bannock-making demonstrations are also a really typical thing to see at maple syrup festivals, and pouring mapley goodness all over warm bannock is delicious.
Deep-fried bannock sounds like an abomination.
I'm with kittystockings, the stick is the way to go. I remember being in Brownies and getting a badge for bannock making! Is that just a Canadian thing?
@rhiana,
The badge in Brownies rings a bell, but I think you had to make more than just bannock. Or was that in Girl Guides? I'm all confused now. I needs me some fried dough.
The badge getting part is definitely a Canadian thing, but we make bannock at the cottage pretty regularly and its not an uncommon thing for friends of ours in the NE (NY)
Yup! You can do it on a stick too - here it is RAW on a stick.
The stick-cooking sounds awesome (otherwise, isn't it just any other flatbread?). Hmm, wonder if I could pull a chair up to my broiler and do the same thing?...
http://www.abreadaday.com
Yep, another Canadian here to say that we cooked bannock on a stick at Girl Guide camp. Fun and yummy.
Mmmm. Fresh bannock with maple syrup. That's classic and everyone should try it before they die. I'm prepared to make that statement.
I grew up in an area of Canada steeped in rich First Nations heritage, so bannock was for sale at every event with more popularity than mini-doughnuts (damnit, now I want mini-doughnuts). My husband and I actually found a flea market with a bannock stall recently and have been making frequent trips (because open fires are apparently a no-no in our apartment building).
It is one of those amazing basics that everyone who camps should know because it can be so versatile. I've grilled it on cast iron over a fire, on top of hot rocks in a fire, wrapped around a stick, filled them with fruit, melted cheese on them.....my stomach is grumbling.
I've never heard of it being deep-fried, but I suppose if you can deep-fry a chocolate bar...
I remember making the bannock for the Brownies badge and eating too much! I was sick to my stomach from it. So I hadn't tried it again till a couple of weeks ago when they used it as a bun for burgers at a street festival... SO delicious....
I have never seen this before but plan to try it. Reminds of Chapati though.
Deep-fried bannock sounds to me like a beignet. Mmm, beignets.
This sounds wonderful. Though... rolled in sand?! How does that not end up being nasty?
taqah, I think most cuisines have some kind of flatbread. Chapati, tortillas, crepes, pancakes.... Gah, now I'm hungry.
Oh, I've got a bannock badge! So does my sister and probably every girl we grew up with in Ontario. Seriously, this stuff is the best. I can't imagine making in my London kitchen, though- bannock should be wrapped around a stick and cooked over a fire at sundown, preferably while singing Girl Guide songs. To make it at home would feel like cheating!
I too seem to remember the Brownie badge being JUST about bannock. That can't be right, can it? It seems like a rather narrow skill. That being said, bannock is wonderful. We also used to wrap it around a hot dog and it would all cook simultaneously over the campfire.
Forget poutine and tourtiere! To me bannock is true Canadiana. Growing up on the West Coast, bannock was one of the first recipes I learned in early elementary school though unlike some of the other comments, I've only ever had it fried on cast iron. Yummy spread with jam but I may try it with butter and cinnamon sugar. Thanks for reminding me of this!