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Dessert

Fruit Bannock

A soft dough bannock served with fruit, sugar, and optional cream.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Why it works: Butter and milk are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 81,283 recipes. Both carry (z)-4-heptenal, which smells biscuit, cream. The science ↓

Fruit Bannock

Ingredients

Directions

Make the dough

  1. Prepare the fruit while cooking dinner.

  2. In a bowl, mix the flour, baking powder, and salt.

  3. Add butter and enough cold milk to form a soft dough.

  4. Divide the dough into two portions.

Fry and serve

  1. Heat butter or drippings in two frying pans or on a large griddle.

  2. Place the dough cakes in the pans and cook over moderate heat.

  3. Cook for 8 to 10 minutes, turning until both sides are browned.

  4. Test doneness by piercing the thickest part with a straw; it should come out dry.

  5. Tear the bannock open with two forks and butter the inner sides.

  6. Top with fruit and plenty of sugar, then stack and serve immediately.

  7. Serve with cream or whipped cream, or simply with powdered sugar.

Recipe from a historical cookbook (Internet Archive).

Transcribed from a scanned cookbook and modernised for today's kitchens. Where the book gave no heat or time, or said "a moderate oven", the temperatures and times here may be modern equivalents rather than the book's own figures.

Explore the science

The flavor team

The pairs that carry this dish. Each one is judged two ways: how much their aromas overlap, and how often cooks already put them together.

  1. Butter + milktop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

  2. Butter + creamtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,516 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).

  3. Sugar + creamtop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together43,450 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).

  4. Flour + buttertop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Flour + milktop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together78,219 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

Flour and butter barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 124,287 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

All-purpose flour
Forms the structure of the dough once moistened and worked.
Baking powder
Releases gas in the dough, helping the bannock rise and turn light.
Butter
Adds fat for richness and tenderness, and browns in the pan.
Milk
Hydrates the flour so the dough holds together and becomes pliable.

The step that matters

Testing doneness with a straw. The thickest part must be fully cooked through, since browned outsides can hide a doughy center. A straw that comes out dry shows the starch has set and the interior is baked.

“What each ingredient does” and “The step that matters” were written by Claude from this recipe’s own method and reviewed in samples by CompKitchen.

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