Bannocks at Carfax Close

Outlander Kitchen

I have always been curious about bannocks. They're mentioned quite often in the Outlander series, probably because they were a staple food of the time. But I don't recall ever seeing them offered in Scotland when I visited and I'd never thought to make them myself. I suspect they're something people make at home more than order at a restaurant.

These ones are very much like biscuits, but the oats make them hearty and they don't dry out nearly as quickly as a traditional southern biscuit. I enjoyed them a lot, and tried them with both sweet and savory toppings as well as just plain. I do look forward to trying the recipe that would be more historically accurate to the time when Outlander is set!

Captions

[00:00]: [Music]
[00:04]: hello and welcome to cooking the books
[00:06]: with heather today we're having kind of
[00:08]: a lazy day it was supposed to snow for
[00:11]: the third weekend in a row and it did
[00:13]: but just a little bit but we're gonna
[00:15]: stay at home so i'm in my jammies and
[00:16]: i'm going to be making bannex at carfax
[00:19]: clothes from the outlander kitchen
[00:21]: cookbook by theresa carl sanders um
[00:25]: i've always been interested to try these
[00:27]: uh bannocks i've never had them before
[00:29]: they're
[00:31]: these ones are a lot like american
[00:33]: biscuits from what i can tell
[00:36]: um
[00:37]: they're gonna be a little bit lighter i
[00:38]: think the
[00:40]: ones that they would have had in the
[00:41]: 1700s probably would be a little more
[00:43]: dense there is a version of those in
[00:46]: this book haven't made them yet but that
[00:47]: is on my to-do list
[00:49]: so we'll be able to
[00:52]: compare them i guess
[00:54]: um
[00:56]: but
[00:56]: so this is a more modernized recipe uh
[00:60]: so
[01:01]: the first thing i'm gonna do is grind
[01:03]: some
[01:04]: oats i have my oats already measured out
[01:06]: in here um i measured them before
[01:09]: instead of after i'm not sure if that's
[01:12]: correct or not there's no
[01:15]: i couldn't find any information about
[01:16]: whether she prefers you to grind them
[01:18]: and then measure or measure and then
[01:20]: grind but
[01:21]: it's easier for me
[01:23]: to just
[01:24]: measure them and then grind them because
[01:25]: then i don't have a little bit
[01:26]: potentially left over
[01:28]: that i may not use that i have to store
[01:31]: differently whatever so these are just
[01:33]: plain old-fashioned rolled oats and
[01:36]: we're going for a coarse grind
[01:38]: and she says like
[01:41]: i think three or four times for a coarse
[01:43]: grind but
[01:44]: i find uh
[01:46]: that's pulsing it three or four times i
[01:48]: find that uh
[01:50]: it takes me
[01:51]: more so we'll see it's gonna be loud
[01:54]: probably won't see it all but i'll tell
[01:55]: you how many pulses it took when we're
[01:57]: done
[02:04]: all right so this is after three and to
[02:07]: me it does not look very different and i
[02:09]: would not call this very ground at all
[02:12]: um when she says coarsely ground she
[02:14]: says there should be a few of the sort
[02:16]: of unground pieces in with the rest but
[02:18]: not completely flower like so
[02:22]: let's see
[02:33]: okay
[02:34]: so that's like 10 and i'm gonna call
[02:36]: this coarsely ground it is um
[02:39]: it definitely looks different and
[02:42]: hopefully you'll be able to see that
[02:43]: from here um it doesn't look entirely
[02:47]: like
[02:48]: oatmeal does before you grind it but it
[02:51]: looks
[02:52]: like there's some in there so we're
[02:54]: gonna go with that that was ten
[02:56]: i'm gonna take this off and move this
[02:58]: out of the way and get all my
[02:60]: ingredients
[03:01]: so
[03:02]: in this bowl i have my all-purpose flour
[03:05]: already measured and i'm just going to
[03:06]: dump my oats in here
[03:09]: so i can get rid of another thing off my
[03:11]: counter
[03:17]: so i've got the rest of my ingredients
[03:18]: here and i'm gonna need to get another
[03:20]: bowl whatever so um we're going to add
[03:24]: some baking powder that i've already
[03:26]: measured
[03:27]: here
[03:29]: we have a little bit of
[03:31]: just plain white granulated sugar
[03:34]: so it's going to be a little bit sweet
[03:36]: and some kosher salt
[03:38]: and we're going to mix this up up she
[03:40]: doesn't say to use a whisk but i like to
[03:43]: to whisk it because it sort of gets it
[03:45]: mixed up well and
[03:50]: it breaks up any lumps since i didn't
[03:51]: sift it
[03:55]: there we go
[03:58]: so now i need another bowl to stir these
[04:00]: together okay so then we've got some wet
[04:03]: ingredients this is just some yogurt
[04:06]: plain yogurt i could not find a regular
[04:10]: plain yogurt uh except in very large
[04:13]: amounts in my grocery store
[04:16]: um so this is a greek yogurt
[04:20]: i'm sure it's fine it might be a little
[04:22]: bit thicker so we'll we'll see we'll see
[04:24]: how it goes um
[04:27]: and some whole milk
[04:30]: and i'm just going to mix these together
[04:32]: i'm going to use my whisk because i
[04:33]: already had it out and why not
[04:36]: it's pretty good
[04:39]: the next thing we need to do is an
[04:41]: interesting technique
[04:42]: we're going to be grating in some butter
[04:46]: so let me go get that so i've put my
[04:49]: stick of butter in the freezer just so
[04:52]: that it maybe won't um
[04:57]: uh
[04:58]: melt on me so fast
[05:00]: uh just for a little while not any
[05:02]: great length of time and i've got more
[05:04]: than i need here
[05:06]: just to give me a little bit to hang on
[05:08]: to so i don't hurt myself
[05:11]: so i'm just going to sort of estimate
[05:14]: that i'm grating the amount
[05:16]: for the recipe in here
[05:22]: this i wanted uh you definitely want a
[05:25]: larger
[05:26]: uh great than
[05:29]: like not a microplane you don't want
[05:30]: that here
[05:35]: okay
[05:37]: i'm going to call that the amount the
[05:38]: recipe calls for
[05:41]: and now i'm going to try and get all of
[05:42]: this
[05:44]: off of here without melting it
[05:46]: and so now we're just going to sort of
[05:49]: mix this into our dry ingredients and
[05:53]: then we just add our wet ingredients
[05:55]: here
[05:56]: and stir it together
[05:59]: to make a slightly sticky dough
[06:04]: and she does say to stir this with a
[06:06]: wooden spoon so
[06:08]: [Music]
[06:11]: that should be okay
[06:12]: next we're going to actually put this
[06:14]: out
[06:15]: and
[06:16]: sort of roll it out pat it together so i
[06:18]: need to clean off my work surface and
[06:20]: put some flour down
[06:21]: okay so we're going to turn it out onto
[06:24]: our floured counter
[06:29]: and i'm going to try to sort of
[06:31]: push this together into one
[06:33]: one ball of dough
[06:35]: she says to sprinkle it with more flour
[06:37]: since i turned it over it's kind of okay
[06:39]: that way but i'm gonna put a little bit
[06:40]: more on the bottom says knead the dough
[06:43]: lightly five or six times working in
[06:45]: just enough additional flour so that the
[06:47]: dough is no longer sticky kind of
[06:50]: unusual for biscuits you usually try not
[06:52]: to work the dough very much
[06:55]: because you don't want you want them to
[06:57]: be light and flaky and now we're going
[06:59]: to
[07:00]: pat or roll i'm gonna go with padding i
[07:02]: don't really love to roll
[07:08]: into an eight by eight inch square about
[07:12]: half an inch thick
[07:14]: and now we're just going to cut into
[07:17]: 12 rectangles so that is
[07:22]: interesting
[07:23]: [Music]
[07:25]: for this i'm going to use my pizza
[07:26]: cutter
[07:28]: all
[07:29]: right
[07:31]: go in half
[07:33]: this way
[07:35]: and then in half
[07:37]: again
[07:39]: mine look much smaller than hers
[07:43]: but oh well and then
[07:45]: get this out of my way before i knock it
[07:47]: over
[07:50]: and then in
[07:52]: thirds
[08:04]: okay
[08:06]: i didn't do a great job with that but
[08:08]: they'll be fine
[08:10]: um
[08:11]: so we're gonna put these on our prepared
[08:12]: baking pan i'm gonna wash my hands a
[08:14]: little bit
[08:15]: before all this i put a sheet of
[08:17]: parchment paper on my baking pan and
[08:20]: we're going to uh
[08:23]: arrange them on the prepared baking pan
[08:25]: i assume
[08:26]: with
[08:27]: uh
[08:30]: space between them
[08:34]: we'll see how that works
[08:37]: all right so my oven is preheated to 400
[08:40]: degrees and it is uh it has a rack at
[08:43]: the upper middle position
[08:46]: and we're going to
[08:48]: bake them until they're just golden 12
[08:51]: to 15 minutes so
[08:54]: i'm going to bake these off and i will
[08:56]: let you know
[08:57]: how long it took when we're done and
[08:59]: i'll show you what they look like and
[09:01]: tell you what we think in just a minute
[09:04]: [Music]
[09:11]: on this episode of cooking the books
[09:12]: with heather you watched me make
[09:14]: bannex at carfax clothes um
[09:18]: from
[09:19]: teresa carl sanders outlander kitchen
[09:21]: cookbook
[09:22]: so these are
[09:24]: basically like a biscuit these are a
[09:26]: more modernized version of the bannocks
[09:28]: that you might
[09:30]: see them make in the
[09:32]: 1700s from the outlander
[09:35]: series of books
[09:38]: so they're a little bit lighter because
[09:39]: they do have a leavening agent and they
[09:42]: have
[09:44]: yogurt in them to also provide a little
[09:47]: tanginess and and react a little bit
[09:49]: with that leavening
[09:51]: and they were actually
[09:53]: really good they were um better than i
[09:56]: expected uh they
[09:59]: were a little
[10:01]: hardy i wouldn't say they were dense but
[10:04]: they just kind of felt
[10:06]: more substantial than a southern united
[10:09]: states biscuit does
[10:12]: and i think because of the oatmeal
[10:15]: they
[10:16]: lasted longer too so we had a few left
[10:19]: over and ate them over the course of the
[10:21]: next few days just seeing how they
[10:24]: held up and they definitely held up
[10:26]: better
[10:27]: than biscuits do so i can see why
[10:31]: something like this was sort of a
[10:33]: traveling food or something that they
[10:35]: would would take with them and be able
[10:37]: to to have
[10:39]: over a period of time
[10:41]: i think i maybe didn't pat them quite as
[10:44]: thin as she did so mine were maybe a
[10:46]: little smaller
[10:48]: um
[10:49]: than hers as far as
[10:52]: width and and um
[10:54]: anyway
[10:55]: as far as those directions are but kind
[10:57]: of were a little bit taller
[10:60]: they did
[11:01]: rise really well
[11:03]: and i did need a couple of extra minutes
[11:06]: for them to bake appropriately which
[11:09]: might have been because mine weren't
[11:10]: quite as thin as you know she says to
[11:13]: roll them out to roll or pat them out
[11:15]: too so
[11:17]: um i just patted them out so
[11:19]: um
[11:20]: yeah so we we really enjoyed them and i
[11:22]: would i would definitely make these
[11:23]: again there was nothing really difficult
[11:26]: difficult about the recipe
[11:29]: but you do need to have
[11:32]: a food processor or a grinder of some
[11:35]: sort
[11:35]: to
[11:37]: grind up the oats to make them a little
[11:39]: bit smaller not quite flour but you know
[11:42]: a coarser
[11:43]: meal
[11:44]: somewhere between flour
[11:46]: and oats so
[11:49]: that is a necessity for these i think i
[11:51]: don't think they would be quite the same
[11:52]: if you just put in whole oats
[11:56]: um
[11:57]: yeah
[11:58]: if you enjoyed watching me make this
[11:59]: please give me a thumbs up hit the
[12:01]: subscribe button and come back and watch
[12:03]: me make something else next week
[12:05]: [Music]