Miywasin Moment: The business of bannock

By JoLynn Parenteau on January 11, 2023.

Bannock doughnuts with raspberry buttercream frosting.--PHOTO BY JOLYNN PARENTEAU

A new year is before us. Much like a blank page, may we fill it with new experiences full of wonder, joy and successes to celebrate.

As a writer, I look forward to filling the Miywasin Moment’s blank pages with stories of exciting new people, places and events to come. In between, I’ll continue sharing Indigenous traditions, legends, languages and ways of knowing so we may deepen our collective understanding of the ancient and living history of our home here on Turtle Island (Native North America).

This year, I’m feeling drawn into the kitchen to try more Indigenous recipes. Today I’m baking bannock doughnuts, a modern Indigenous twist on coffee’s best friend.

Bannock, an unleavened bread, cooked over the fire has been a favourite of Indigenous and early settler families for generations. Modern bannock is most often oven-baked, pan- or deep-fried, and can be found in many sweet and savoury recipes today.

Fort McMurray-based catering business Ginger’s Bannock House has found the key to success in its bannock doughnuts. Each week, Metis founder and CEO Ginger Auger whips up the sweet treats for sale locally alongside soups, stews and charcuterie boards, but it’s her homemade doughnuts that are garnering accolades for her small business.

Varieties like classic glazed, cookies and cream supreme, blueberry jam, vanilla sprinkles and strawberry cream helped the entrepreneur collect the Fort McMurray Community Votes 2022 Best Donuts Award in September, followed by the Chamber of Commerce Business Award for an Indigenous-owned Business in October. At 43, Auger was named in Your McMurray Magazine’s Top 50 Under 50 Class of 2022.

“Her strength to change the narrative of what it means to be an Indigenous person is empowering,” wrote one of her 50 Under 50 nominators.

This Jan. 31, Ginger’s Bannock House will celebrate a decade in business. Filming a business pitch in February, Auger described developing her recipe over 30 years, with her passion for baking spanning three generations back to her grandmother.

“My passion was cooking bannock and other Indigenous cuisine and learning my culture. I want Indigenous people to succeed,” she says.

This New Year marked two years of sobriety for Auger. Focusing on growing her catering business has ensured her children have never experienced food insecurity, and is lifting up others on the ‘Red Road’ to recovery, with three employees now on staff who are in recovery from addictions themselves. Auger plans to expand her business to offer culinary training for others recovering from addictions and intergenerational trauma.

In August, the Ginger’s Bannock House logo received a redesign featuring a sage sprig, a traditional medicine signifying Auger’s healing journey and Cree syllabics that read ‘pe mitso,’ which means ‘come eat’.

While Auger’s recipe is a closely guarded secret, here is a simple small batch bannock recipe all the way from Inuvik’s Western Arctic Visitor Centre that I’ve adapted for doughnuts, which you can try at home:

INGREDIENTS:

2 cups flour

4 teaspoons of baking powder

1 teaspoon salt

2 tablespoons of sugar

1/3 cup of lard (writer’s note: or ½ cup of butter. Reduced fat in butter means using more to achieve the same results as lard).

1 egg

1 cup milk

Prep time: 10 mins

Cook time: 30 mins

Preheat oven to 350°C. In a medium mixing bowl, combine dry ingredients first.

Add lard or butter and mix well with the dry ingredients.

Add wet ingredients: Crack one egg and pour a cup of milk into the dry mixture. Mix until slightly sticky.

Roll into 3″ balls, then using a greased apple corer or overturned 1 oz. glass, cut out the middle to form the doughnut. Repeat for the remainder of the dough, using the cut out middles to make 1″ doughnut holes if desired.

Bake for 30 minutes or until doughnuts are golden brown and thoroughly cooked.

Top as desired: While warm, drizzle with butter and dust with powdered sugar or brown sugar and cinnamon, or serve with jam; or wait until doughnuts have cooled to drizzle with vanilla glaze and diced strawberries or chocolate glaze and cookie bits. I’m using fresh raspberries blended with ready-to-eat buttercream frosting.

“Pe mitso, come and eat,” I call to my husband, as the raspberry glaze sets. Boon aanii, I wish you a sweet year ahead, with new memories to savour.

JoLynn Parenteau is a Metis writer out of Miywasin Friendship Centre. Column feedback can be sent to jolynn.parenteau@gmail.com