On the debut camper weekend, I attempted my next adventure – bannock bread. I want to do more cooking over the fire this year, in addition to grilling steaks and chicken, baked potatoes in foil and hobo pies. I bought some cast iron skillets and when I found a recipe for baking bread over the fire, I had to try it.
Bannock is a Scottish word for a type of quick bread, shaped into a round loaf and cooked on a griddle. Scones are the individual wedges cut from a bannock loaf. (OMG I can make SCONES over the fire?? Sign me UP!) There are different types of bannock, as I read about here.
To make things easier on the camping trip, I mixed up the dry ingredients and brought them with in a Gladware container. Really it was just flour, baking powder and salt.
Centuries ago they used lard or animal fat, but to keep it as real as possible, I used shortening instead of the butter that the recipe called for. I actually remembered to save some of the flour mixture to knead it on the counter with!
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Greased the cast iron with some shortening and pressed it into the skillet.
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Next time, I’ll build the fire first. Started the dough first and had to wait a good while until the coals were ready.
I used my grill for over the fire, but you can also set four good sized rocks in the coals and set the pan on the rocks.
15 minutes on each side was perfect! It puffed up as it baked, and was easily flippable with a spatula.
It had a soft, dense texture and like all baked goods, so much better warm. It wasn’t bad, but kind of bland. I’ll do it again and go the scone route! I shared it with our camping family and it got pretty good reviews!
