The Barley Bannock

I've wanted to find barley flour and bake with it for awhile now. While barley was rarely used in baking bread it was handy to have in times of a failed or poor wheat harvest. Bannock is an old English word of Celtic origins and was probably the first word used to describe bread from about the 5th century A.D. Its a flat, unleavened (well, not sure if baking powder counts...) bread cooked on a griddle (or a 'girdle' in Scotland...) and was cooked on a flat baking stone over hot coals. The barley was slightly and pleasantly intense, though next time I'll use no whole wheat flour and all barley. This is partly why I've fallen in love with bread making, finding and trying to reproduce some of mankind's oldest experiments with food.

It went nicely with this porter as well!