A primer on our favourite quick bread.
Whether bannock is baked in an oven, browned on a twig held over a campfire, or fried in a cast-iron pan, it’s a food tied to collective memory. The flat quick bread is now served in acclaimed modern restaurants, but has been a staple of Aboriginal cuisine in British Columbia (and around the country) since it was first made using ingredients like ground roots and berries.
Gold-rush fortune seekers used milled flour and ate it under starry Cariboo skies. Settlers with European roots prepared a generations-old Scottish variety using oatmeal, rye, or barley. While different cultures and families follow their own recipes, the basic bannock ingredients are flour, liquid, fat, salt, and baking soda or powder. This version comes from Andrea Thomas of the Secwepemc (Shuswap Nation), who lives in the Sugarcane community southeast of Williams Lake.
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Thomas, who grew up in Kamloops, first helped bake the bread at age three. She has turned out countless batches since, even winning a bannockmaking contest run by a local radio station. One of the keys to success is not overworking the dough, she advises, adding: “Everyone I know makes it.”
Her recipe is part ofSpicing up the Cariboo: Characters, Cultures, and Cuisines of the Cariboo Chilcotinpublished by Caitlin Press, 2013.
Bannock (Fry bread)
Makes 12 medium-sized fry breads
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720 mL (3 cups) flour (any type)
10 mL (2 tsp) baking powder
Dash of salt
15 mL (3 tsp) sugar or syrup (optional)
475 mL (2 cups) water
Lard or oil (2 mm / 1/16 inch deep in
frying pan)
Mix dry ingredients together. Add waterand mix into a ball. Flour hands andscoop a small ball large enough for onebannock. Pinch into a flat circle about 4
mm (1/8 inch) thick.
Heat lard or oil in frying pan onmedium heat. Fry each bannock untilbrown on both sides. It will rise and beabout 4 cm (11/2 inches) thick when done.
Enjoy with stews or as a sandwich.Store in a plastic bag or closed container.Will keep two to three days at roomtemperature or five days in the fridge.
