Jocasta’S “Auld Country” Scottish Bannocks

Step 1

Grind the oats to meal by pulsing them 4 or 5 times in a blender, food processor, or clean coffee grinder. Repeat with the barley. (The meals will have some coarser bits to them but should be relatively fine). Set aside ¼ cup of the ground oats for working the dough. (I used my food processor to make my flour, and it worked pretty well)

Step 2

Mix the remainder of the 2 freshly ground flours together with the salt. Cut the butter in with a pastry blender or 2 forks until the mixture resembles coarse sand. A few pea-sized lumps of butter are okay. (I found this method interesting because this implies that a bannock is basically an unleavened oat flour biscuit, just using room-temperature rather than chilled butter)

Step 3

Stir in the milk — you should have a very wet dough, but not soupy (add a little more milk if the dough is too dry). Cover the bowl with a clean tea towel and set aside for 15 minutes to allow the grains to absorb the milk.(Here is where I think I went wrong…my dough was wet but probably not wet enough. A picture of what the dough should look like would have been helpful)

Step 4

Preheat a cast-iron pan over medium-low heat for 5 minutes.

Step 5

Turn the dough out onto the counter dusted heavily with the remaining ground oats. Dust the dough with more oat flour and knead it gently 5 or 6 times. Then, being careful not to overwork the dough, gently pat into a round disc about ½” thick. (My dough was already crumbly & hard to hold together…I should have added more milk)

Step 6

Dust each side lightly with oat flour, mark a cross into one side of the bannock with the handle of a wooden spoon, then carefully transfer it to the dry cast iron pan. Cook until golden, about 15 minutes. Flip and cook until golden on the second side, about 10-15 minutes. (I think my stove was too hot at first as I burnt the first side after about 8 minutes. Flipping it over also proved to be a challenge as the bannock started to break. Overall, I cooked the bannock for about 12 minutes total.)

Step 7

Cool on a rack for 5 minutes before cutting into 8 wedges. (Uhm…how do you cut a blob-shape into 8 wedges?)