Bere Bannocks

After my two attempts at making beer bread with my stash of beremeal, I thought it time to try something more traditional. When I picked up the flour, it came with a bunch of recipes, so I picked out one of the ones for bannocks, and went with that.
The recipe calls for the bannocks to be baked on a girdle, or griddle. I remember my gran having one of these. This is not the same as the ridged grill pan which is more normally meant by a griddle. A girdle is large, heavy, round or square, and completely flat. However, not having one of these, I substituted a non-stick frying pan. It seemed to work.

Recipe:
70 grams bere meal
70 grams self-raising flour
1 level teaspoon bicarbonate of soda
1 rounded teaspoon cream of tartar
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 tablespoon vegetable oil
Water, approximately 150ml

Mix the beremeal, flour, bicarbonate of soda, cream of tartar and salt in a large bowl.
Lightly oil the griddle or frying pan and place over a lowish heat. You want it to be hot by the time the dough is ready to be baked.
Make a well in the middle and add the oil.
Gradually add enough water to make into a soft dough - you may need less or more depending on your flour.
Turn onto a floured surface and shape into a round, approximately 3/4 inch thick.
Place on the griddle and bake for between 5 and 10 minutes a side over a medium heat.

Beer Bere Bread

When I was in Orkney on holiday this summer, I finally managed to pay a visit to Barony Mills. This is the only remaining working water mill in Orkney. The grain ground at this mill is a very old variety of barley, called bere. It's usually used to make bannocks - there'll usually be one in the breadbasket in Orcadian restaurants.
Anyway, while at the mill I picked up the recipe leaflet and a bag of beremeal. The leaflet contains recipes for everything from the traditional bannocks (multiple variations) to beremeal chapatis. However, I never really got round to trying anything.
Until I came across a recipe for beer bread on Farmgirl Fare. Now, bere also used to be used to brew ale, so what could be more appropriate? I believe there are some beers still being brewed from bere (one for sure on Shetland, and one possibly on Orkney), but being unable to get hold of any, I had to make do with what I could get get. On my partner's recommendation, I used Hoegaarden.
So how did the bread turn out? Well, not too bad, but I'm not entirely happy with it. I think it'll take a few more tries before I come up with something I'm happy with. But I've got most of a bag of bere left to play with.

Recipe:
Although it didn't turn out quite right for me, I'll still include the recipe I used this time.

250 grams plain white flour
120 grams beremeal
50 grams white bread flour
1 tablespoon sugar
1 tablespoon baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
330 ml beer
30 ml water

Preheat the oven to 190C.
Combine the dry ingredients in a large bowl.
Slowly stir in the beer and water, and mix until just combined.
Spread the dough in a 1 pound (8 inch by 4 inch) loaf pan.
Bake for around 60 minutes.