Campfire scones
You can’t beat the smell of bread baking over an open fire. This traditional Cree Bannock recipe is delicious either sweet or savoury, and is a great activity to get the kids involved.
According to Ray Mears, bannock – a traditional Scottish bread – is a “perennial favourite of the outdoorsman", being rich in energy and very simple to make.
Each country has its own way of preparing bannock. In Australia, it’s baked directly on hot embers, while in the far North, it’s fried in a pan. In North America, Indigenous communities adopted bannock after fur traders brought it over. To keep pots and pans available for other uses, the Cree often cooked their bannock on sticks over an open flame — this is the method Ray Mears prefers, which we love to try with the kids in the garden on a summer's evening.
The taste and texture of this bannock reminds us of scones, and we enjoy it either sweet or savoury – serving it with jam, clotted cream and strawberries for an afternoon tea treat, or we add grated cheese and chopped chives to the dough instead of dried fruit. We’ve even used wild garlic in spring.
How to make campfire scones
Ingredients
4 x handfuls of flour
2 x handfuls of milk powder
4 x teaspoons of baking powder
Sugar (to taste)
Water
1 x handful of mixed fruit (or grated cheese and chopped chives/wild garlic for a savoury alternative)
Method
1. Sift the flour, milk powder, baking powder into a large bowl, then add the sugar.
2. Make a well in the mixture and gradually add water. Stir until it binds into a stiff consistency.
3. Fold the mixed fruit into the mixture. Take care not to force too much air from the dough. Form the dough into balls.
4. Find some thick willow branches then scrape them down to the bare wood, then sharpen both ends.
5. Thoroughly heat the stick over the fire until scorching.
6. While the stick is still hot, skewer the balls onto it, one after the other.
7. Push the dough balls together.
8. Push the other end of the stick into the ground over the firepit and lean it towards the embers, until the correct cooking temperature is achieved. As a rule of thumb, the bread should be placed at a height above the fire at which you can hold your hand for no more than five seconds.
9. Turn the stick regularly during the early stages of cooking, to ensure the bread cooks unevenly. Continue to rotate the stick until the bread is golden brown all over. As a final check, insert a clean stick into the bread, just as you would with a skewer at home. If it comes out clean, the bread is cooked.
10. Carefully remove the stick from the ground and peel away the bread. Serve while still warm with butter and any other fillings of your choice. Jam, hazelnut spread, cheese – go nuts!
Recipe adapted from the Ray Mears blog.
Ebba, our retreat in the Welsh Borders has an outdoor firepit for guests to cook their own wild food under the stars. Find out more about Ebba: the-nant.co.uk/ebba