St. Michael and All Angels Bannock Recipe

History

Michaelmas is a one of the Church’s holy days that is extremely rich in traditions from all around the world. From goose to ginger to blackberries to bannock, this holiday has an especially large amount of culinary dishes associated with it. Today we’re highlighting and combining two of them for your eating pleasure: bannock served with blackberry jam!

The Bannock

Though less well-known than the St. Michael goose feast that became popular in the British Isles, the bannock is also a well-established Michaelmas tradition that originates from Scotland. “Bannock” is the Scottish term for an unleavened morsel, a dish that came to be connected with this feast as its celebratory cake.

It is often made up of equal parts barley, rye, and oats (many flour variations exist, and we opted for an accessible oats and all-purpose flour combination) along with milk. The pastry is then slathered with a creamy egg, cream, and butter mixture before cooking on the stovetop. The Scotts even had a special stone for cooking the bannock, much like our pizza stones.

Blackberries

Second, blackberries come from a legend about St. Michael the Archangel. The legend might be a little “out there” for some, but in good fun we wanted to include a nod to it in our post. Plus, if you include a side of blackberry jam with your bannock you’ll find that the two pair perfectly!

If you will recall from our post on St. Michael and All Angels, this feast commemorates all of God’s angels, especially the triumph of St. Michael over the dragon in Revelation. Scripture tells us that St. Michael cast Satan out from heaven. But legend then tells us that Satan descended to earth and fell into a blackberry bush, which he then cursed. For that reason, blackberries are enjoyed on this feast day, but not after, since the curse was said to be the reason why blackberries are no longer good to eat after September 29th, which falls roughly at the end of their season.

St. Michael and All Angels Bannock

We hope you enjoy this freshly baked bannock and jam paired with a hot cup of coffee. We have just a couple of helpful tips for you if you decide to try it!

First, be forewarned: the texture of the bannock is, by nature, dense. Traditionally, it is thought that no leavening agent was used to make this kind of bread. We added baking powder, which should provide at least a little bit of rise. Nevertheless, we would recommend enjoying this treat on Michaelmas itself and not to let it sit for more than one day in order to prevent it from getting too hard.

Second, to prevent the bannock from breaking, we suggest forming the disk so that it is smaller than the size of your skillet. You might consider splitting this recipe into two bannocks if you wish. This will allow you to drop the bread into the pan more easily without risking it breaking. Flipping it over will also become easier if you leave yourself working space between the edge of the bannock and the side of the pan.

Recipe

Ingredients

2 cups oats

2 cups all-purpose flour

1 tablespoon baking powder

¼ teaspoon salt

¼ cup butter

¼ cup honey

½ cup milk

Egg Wash Mixture

1 egg

¼ cup cream

4 ounces butter

Instructions

1. Preheat the oven to 350°F. Preheat a lightly greased cast iron skillet on the stove on medium-low heat.
2. Using a food processor, blitz the oats until they become a fine flour. In a bowl, combine oat flour, all-purpose flour, baking powder, and salt.
3. Cut in the butter and then add the honey and milk. (Mix the honey into the milk before adding to the dry ingredients.)
4. Form into a ball and then press down into a disk.
5. Combine the egg wash ingredients (egg, butter, and cream) and slather one side of the bannock. Lay that side face-down on the skillet and cook for about 1 minute. Meanwhile, slather the other side with the mixture.
6. Continue flipping and slathering until the cream mixture is used up or until the bannock is browned enough on each side. Then, place the skillet in the oven to bake through. This might take another 10-30 minutes depending on how thick the bannock is.
7. Remove from oven and cut into wedges and enjoy with butter and blackberry jam.