Bannock bread - light and delicious bread over the campfire

It's easy to bake over a campfire, and Bannock is especially easy to handle

You don’t need a big survival exam to bake over a campfire. The most important thing is simply to try it out and find your own method. Once you get the hang of it, you’ll be "the best campfire buddy in the world" and impossible to top!

You can mix a dough using the following basic recipe. If you want it a bit coarser, which I like, just reduce the wheat flour and add some rye flour or oats.

4 cups wheat flour
1/2 cup raisins, cranberries, nuts, or whatever else you want to add as "extra color"
4 teaspoons baking powder
2 cups water
2 teaspoons sugar
1 teaspoon salt
1/4 cup olive oil. This gives a crispy crust and a nice crumb.
(psst!...you can spice up the mix with a little cinnamon or cardamom)

Preparation at home

In nature, there are plenty of bacteria, and they will of course be killed by the fire, but there’s no reason to give, for example, soil bacteria too good conditions. That’s why you prepare your bannock mix at home and bring it in some bags. And there’s a special reason for having several bags... you’ll get that later.

Mix all the dry ingredients in one bag
...flour, cranberries, raisins, nuts, baking powder, sugar, and salt. This is the dry mix, and it’s fine to have plenty of it. If you bring too much, it doesn’t matter, because if you’re with others, it’s really nice to be the one who shares some homemade treats. It’s good manners to share, and it usually spreads :)

Pour the mix into a bag and tie it closed, then put 2, 3, or 4 more bags around it, only loosely tying the outermost one.

Olive oil in a bottle, but not the original bottle – that stays home

I like to bring the oil in an old ½-liter water bottle (one of those from the supermarket for a couple of bucks). I’ve squashed it flat and filled it with a little oil. It takes up almost no space and can be thrown away when you get home. Maybe you have another way to bring oil?

The trick with the many bags

When you’re ready to make your bannock mix, take out the innermost bag and pour the amount you need into one of the other bags. Pack away the rest. Now you just need to add some oil and water to the mix. Then knead vigorously until you have a good dough. Knead by massaging the bag, so you avoid dirty fingers inside the bag. You don’t need to tie the bag if the opening is facing up. As a rule, I usually make a mix thick enough that it doesn’t flow, but moist enough that it’s not as firm as regular roll or bread dough.

How to prevent bannock bread from sticking

Between the innermost and outer bags, make sure to have some sheets of baking paper. Just fold them well and bring several pieces. Try lining your pot or pan with the baking paper and don’t worry if it folds. It’s a square sheet you’re trying to fit into something round, so it will fold! Then squeeze the dough mix out of your bag and into your baking form. Ideally, you bake your bannock bread in something with a lid, because you’ll need to be able to turn and rotate what’s acting as your oven.

How long should bannock bake?

Hmmm, well... you’re baking by guesswork with many variables! The moisture in your mix, the flour you use, the heat of the fire, the size of the fire, the weather temperature, how often you turn the pot, and so on. You have to experiment. Expect 30-60 minutes or maybe more. You can carve a thin stick (bark removed) and stick it in to see if wet dough sticks to it. It’s a time-consuming process, and you should regularly turn the pot to distribute the heat evenly. The bigger the bread, the longer it takes to bake!

Shortcut to faster bread

If you use a pan, you can reduce the baking time quite a bit. Again, you need to turn the bread as soon as the crust is firm enough. Below, I baked it on a Trangia stove with a Teflon pan... without baking paper.

Enjoy! :)