My Mother, She'd Bake Thee A Bannock

We have been reading "The Door In The Wall" in which John-go-in-the-Wynd keeps telling Robin that if he were to visit his mother she'd bake thee a bannock.  Wondering what all the fuss was about over this bannock we decided to make a loaf. 

Bannock 

2 cups whole wheat flour
1 cup white flour
1 tsp. salt
1 1/4 tsp. soda
2 Tbsp. butter at room temperature
1 1/4 cup buttermilk

Combine the dry ingredients and work the butter in until the mixture resembles moist bread crumbs.  Add buttermilk and mix until moist and sticky, this can take a few minutes.  Keep kneading until it is no longer sticky adding flour if needed.  Turn into a 8x8 greased pan.  Cover the pan, use foil if you don't have a cover.  Preheat oven to 425 degrees and bake for 30 minutes.  Reduce heat to 325 degrees and bake for another 15 minutes.  The bannock is done when wooden toothpick comes out clean and dry.  Remove from oven and cool on cooling rack.  Do not cut the bannock before it is cold.

I was surprised at how brown the bannock got for being bake with a cover on it.

Even more so, I was surprised that the crust was flaky.

Trying to be traditional to the times, we broke the bread with our hands assuming they wouldn't have carried a knife with them if they took this with for their lunch.  The inside has the texture of a dense cake or a muffin. 

We all thought this was absolutely wonderful and Spark enjoyed his with some honey.  I would definitely go over the path beyond the river, across yon field, and through the forest, then fording the stream and up another field, through another wood, and just there this side of the church in the village of Tripheath to a tiny bit of a house on the heath where his mother lives with her cat to have her bake thee a bannock.