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Making Bannock

Making Bannock 1
Fried Bannock

"Bannock is made when you knead it until it gets soft and gets put together. You keep adding flour till when it's not sticky and it stays together. Then you put it in the oven for half an hour or an hour. You eat it with cheese or anything. Even jam and peanut butter, it is just like regular bread! When you take it out it looks like it has flour on it but it makes it taste better. It is important to me because that's what the people in the olden days used to eat. I like it because I spend time with my family and it is something I have from the past that can not be taken away and we'll have it for generations and generations."

Lianna - Grade 4 student

Making Bannock 2
Students learn how to make bannock from Anita Crowshoe

Bannock on a Stick - Recipe

Bannock was introduced when traders brought flour, salt, lard and baking powder. These ingredients were mixed together and often cooked in kettles, which were also brought by the traders.

6 cups all-purpose flour.
½ cup flour (keep separate)
7 tbsps baking powder
1tsp salt
4 cups water
1 willow stick – 3 feet long and peeled at the tip

(The amount of flour varies depending on the stickiness of the dough and the amount of water may also vary, depending on personal preference)

Mix dry ingredients together in a dry bowl. Make a hollow in the center. Add water in the hollow and stir until the ingredients are mixed (overmixing will cause the dough to be become hard and tough). Knead dough lightly. Sprinkle flour on sticky spots. Knead lightly again until all spots are covered with flour.

Pinch off a piece of dough about the size of a soft ball. Stretch it out to about one foot in length. Place the peeled part of the stick in the middle of dough lengthwise. Then pinch the dough together with the dough in the middle of the wrap. Cook over fire until bannock is golden brown. The stick should be kept just above the flames.

Make sure the middle of the dough is cooked. Remove from fire. Let cool slightly before eating. Bannock can be eaten either hot or cold.

Average cooking time: 10 – 20 minutes depending on the fire.

Indian Village. (2003). Calgary Exhibition & Stampede.
Retrieved March 4, 2006. from:
http://www.indianvillage.ca/pages/village_recipes.asp
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