JaxTal Adventure Club

2011-08-24T08:58:00.000-07:00

Due to the hot summer, JAC has been inactive. As fall approaches we soon will be hitting the trail again and will provide our reports.

Trail Stats- A list of backpacking adventures

2010-11-05T21:05:00.000-07:00

Trail Stats

A Collection of Bannock Recipes

2010-08-24T18:55:00.000-07:00

Collection of Bannock Recipes

Ingredients

2 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 cup blueberries or whatever you'd like - raisins, cranberries, dried fruits
Water
Oil, for frying or grilling

Directions

Mix the dry ingredients and berries, then slowly mix in enough water to make a stiff dough. Roll it out (unrugged) or form it with your hands (rugged) and then either fry it in a bit of oil, bake it or you can even "GRILL IT!". Brush the grill with oil. Grill it over medium heat, lid down for about 5 minutes per side, tops.

=====================================================================

Ingredients:
4 cups flour
4 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
4 tablespoons oil
1 1/2 cup water
Optional: brown sugar, cinnamon, raisins, honey, ...
Instructions:
Mix ingredients and add water until you have a doughy consistency - don't just dump all the water in.
Knead approximately 10 minutes.
Add sugar, honey, or raisins if you want it sweeter.
Grease and heat a frying pan. Form and press the dough into cakes.
Lay the bannock in the frying pan.
As the bannock cooks, move the cakes around so they don't stick.
When the bottom crust has formed and is browned, flip the cakes over.
Cooking takes about 12 minutes.
Sprinkle with honey or brown sugar and eat.
You can mix all the dry ingredients into one bag at home.

Instead of cooking in a frypan, you form a footlong roll of dough about an inch in diameter and wrap it around a stick. Cook this over an open fire.

==================================================================

Bannock Recipe

2 1/2 cups flour
6 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
2 tbsp sugar (optional)
1/3 cup lard
2 eggs, optional
1 cup water or more
Method

Combine first four ingredients. Add lard, rubbing it in to form fine crumbs. Combine egg with water (is using an egg), and add to the flour mixture. Stir to form a soft dough, and knead briefly.
If using a frying pan, grease the pan then dust with flour. Place about a quarter of the dough in the pan and heat. Bake until the bottom is lightly brown, then flip. Bake about 10 minutes on the opposite side. Bake remaining dough in similar fashion.
If baking in oven, pat down into greased pie plate. Bake in 400 degree oven for about twenty minutes, or until cooked in the middle.
=====================================================================

Ingredients

3 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon salt
2 tablespoons baking powder
1/4 cup butter, melted
1 1/2 cups water

Directions

Measure flour, salt, and baking powder into a large bowl. Stir to mix. Pour melted butter and water over flour mixture. Stir with fork to make a ball.
Turn dough out on a lightly floured surface, and knead gently about 10 times. Pat into a flat circle 3/4 to 1 inch thick.
Cook in a greased frying pan over medium heat, allowing about 15 minutes for each side. Use two lifters for easy turning. May also be baked on a greased baking sheet at 350 degrees F (175 degrees C) for 25 to 30 minutes.

=====================================================================

Bannock Recipe

4 cups flour
1 teaspoon salt
4 teaspoons baking powder
4 tablespoons oil
About 1 1/2 cups water

Mix ingredients and add water. Knead approximately 10 minutes by hand or 5 minutes in a mixer. You can add cinnamon and brown sugar to the dough or sprinkle it on after it's cooked. Pat the dough into very flat pancakes, less than a 1/4 inch thick. Add about a 1/4 inch of oil into a frying pan. Heat up and place dough into frying pan. Let bottom get golden brown and air bubbles form on top. Flip over and cooked the other side. Remove from pan and serve plain or sprinkle on a mixture of brown sugar and cinnamon.
Served plain you can eat them with stew, spaghetti, chili, etc.

=====================================================================

Survival Topics Bannock on a Green Stick

This is my favorite way to make bannock as it brings forth the image of mountainmen from a bygone era cooking over an open fire.
The following recipe provides enough bannock for one day. Stored in a waterproof bag, it is easy to carry a week or ten day supply.

1-cup whole wheat flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
¼ teaspoon salt
3 tablespoons butter
2 tablespoons milk powder

Mix all the ingredients well, making sure the butter is evenly distributed throughout. Sometimes I will melt the butter before adding it to the mixture. Then slowly add water while mixing until a dough ball is formed.
Make the bannock dough into a cigar shape and wrap it around a green stick. Try to keep the thickness of the dough about ½ inch.
Slowly roast the bannock over a hot fire, rotating occasionally until it turns a golden brown. You will hear the butter sizzling and your stomach rumble as the bannock cooks.
=====================================================================

Multi-flour Bannock Recipe

This combination of flours, spices, and dried fruit makes the bannock a delicious meal of itself and makes me hungry just thinking about it. It can be cooked over an open fire on a green stick or formed into a loaf and baked and makes a 3-day supply:

1 Cup Barley flour
1 Cup Wheat flour
1/2 Cup Rolled Oats
1 Cup White Sugar
1/2 to 1 Cup Raisins or other dried fruit
1 1/2 Cup Buttermilk
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 tbsp. Coarse Ground Salt
1 tbsp. Cinnamon
1 tbsp. Cloves
1 tbsp. Nutmeg
=====================================================================

Fried Bannock

If you like fried foods then you need to try fried Bannock.

4 cups flour
2 tbsp baking powder
2 tbsp sugar
1/2 cup milk
1/4 cup margarine/butter
2 eggs
1/4 tbsp salt
Mix all the ingredients so a dough ball is formed. Break off pieces and flatten into rounds about ½ inch thick. Fry to a golden brown in the oil of your choice.

Try Making Bannock

Bannock is a fulfilling meal that can be used to supplement natural foods foraged from your surroundings. When hiking in the wilderness I like to have enough pre-mixed bannock recipe for at least one meal each day.
Try out various combinations of bannock mixed with fruits, nuts and seeds, cheeses, meats, fish and a variety of spices. Wilderness meals containing bannock can satisfy even the most discriminating palate.
Bannock is easy to cook and is an excellent comfort food that will elevate your mood and fill your stomach. There is nothing quite like the sight and smell of fresh bannock cooking over an open fire at the end of a hard day surviving in the wilderness.
=====================================================================
The following is a simplified version of the bannock recipe that you can try at home. It is has been further adapted from the recipe that was used by my grandmother, Lady Ethel of Wales, and myself.

Bannock Recipe

1 Cup Barley flour
1 Cup Wheat flour
1/2 Cup Rolled Oats
1 Cup White Sugar
1/2 to 1 Cup Sultanas or White Raisins
1 1/2 Cup Buttermilk
2 tbsp. Baking Powder
2 tbsp. Baking Soda
1 tbsp. Coarse Ground Salt
1 tbsp. Allspice
1 tbsp. Cinnamon
1 tbsp. Cloves
1 tbsp. Nutmeg

Instructions

Gas Mark 400 Fahrenheit or 200 Celsius for 20-25 minutes.
Electric Oven 375 Fahrenheit or 190 Celsius for 40-45 minutes.

In a large bowl, sift both flours fine, add salt, baking powder and soda to sifter. Re-sift the mixture of flours, salt, and baking soda then add the spices and sift. Remove sifter and add the next set of ingredients by tossing in the rolled oats, sugar, and sultanas. Slowly add the buttermilk and mix by hand until mixture forms a ball. Next, turn the dough out onto a well-floured board. Knead, turn about 50 or 60 times, and re-flour as needed.

You will then need to decide the desired size of your loaf. You can turn this into a large loaf, or split it into two medium cakes. Separate the dough into small rounded balls and then flatten it into a small round flat cake about 3/4 inch thick. For medium or large sized loaves, score the top of each cake with a cross. Bake as directed above.

=====================================================================
Bannock Recipe
Ingredients:
• 4 cups flour
• 4 teaspoons baking powder
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 4 tablespoons oil
Directions:
1. Mix ingredients and add water until you have a doughy consistency. Knead approximately 10 minutes.
2. You can add cinnamon/brown sugar to make it taste a bit differently.
3. Grease and heat a frying pan. Form the dough into cakes (sort of like tortillas or pancakes) about 1/2
inch thick and dust lightly with flour.
4. Lay the bannock in the frying pan.
5. Wiggle the pan every so often to keep the bannock from sticking.
6. Once a bottom crust has formed and the dough has hardened enough to hold together, turn them.
7. Cooking takes 12-15 minutes.

Check out our website

2010-07-23T09:54:00.001-07:00

We have just posted a new entry at our website about our last adventure on the AT!!!

Stephen C. Foster State Park

2009-01-04T17:00:00.000-08:00

JaxTal Adventure Club's Stephen C. Foster State Park Camping Report

Okefenokee. A funny and strange sounding name to our ears. To the Timucuan Indians, who named it, it was the "Land of Trembling Earth", a place of lakes, peat bogs, marshes, expansive cypress trees and abundant wildlife, and most noted for being a home to that mysteriously ancient reptile, the alligator. The Okefenokee swamp is a national wildlife refuge created in 1936 that covers over 400,000 acres. The refuge land mass consist of varied terrain, ranging from dry upland forests of pines, saw palmettos and oaks to open wetlands, boggy grassy prairies, blacken flowing water and mossy hammocks.

Stephen C. Foster State Park is located inside the refuge on the westerly side of the swamp.

The main purpose of this trip was to test out some new tents, sleeping bags and pad and to enjoy the beautiful abundant nature and relax around a toasty campfire. We each departed to the park on Friday afternoon in rain showers from a passing cold front. Fortunately, once arriving at the park the rain stopped, allowing us unhindered camp setup, but under overcast skies with 60 degrees temperature. Entering the park, we were greeted with three hawks, and at least eight deer feeding on the fall foliage. The site of this wildlife whet our appetites to see more the park had to offer, but since the darkness was soon to fall, we would have to wait until the morning to go exploring the park.

The next morning was cold and nippy, requiring jackets and a regenerated glowing fire. After the typical oatmeal breakfast we practiced tying knots, gathered more firewood then proceed to hike the two trails in the park. The first one is pretty nondescript; a mowed swath in the flatlands while the other is more picturesque composed of a boardwalk in the more typical swamplands.

As night fall approached, we were slightly disappointed to sense that the temperature was not falling as much as we desired, even to the point that a few mosquitoes dared showed their proboscis.

As morning broke, we packed up, cleaned up the camp and heading home, with new found knowledge and skill.

JaxTal Adventure Club

2008-11-15T04:13:00.000-08:00

JaxTal Adventure Club is now operational! Our website is currently under development and can be found here.

Stay tuned for further postings.