North

This is not your Grandma's bannock recipe

Whitehorse resident Collette Catto has been making bannock for a long time. She recently decided to get creative with it and start filling them with tasty ingredients.

Yukoner Collette Catto has been experimenting with stuffed bannock — and the results are delicious

'People like the bacon and cheese,' said Collette Catto, who's been getting creative with bannock. (Submitted by Collette Catto)

Collette Catto of Whitehorse loves to cook. She also likes to be creative.

She's been making bannock since she was a young girl, but she recently hit on something that's proving to be a mouth-watering hit — stuffed bannock.

"I make bannock with stuffed bacon and cheese. People like the bacon and cheese," she said.

Catto started off with her basic bannock recipe and then she had the idea.

"I started rolling it out and making it flat, so I added a bit more flour to make it pliable so that I could use it when I was making Indian tacos," Catto said.

'The people that have picked them up, they love it. They're like, 'where has this been? It's incredible,'' Catto said. (Submitted by Collette Catto)

"So then I started messing around with it one day, and started testing things out on my family to see if they liked it."

Bacon-and-cheese was one successful recipe, bannock-wrapped burgers was another.  

Cooking through a pandemic

Catto is originally from Haines Junction, Yukon. Her family moved to Whitehorse in September.

They noticed immediately the higher costs of living in the city and wanted to help those that were struggling during the COVID-19 pandemic.

She's been taking bannock orders online for people to pick up, and sometimes she delivers. Demand has been going up. 

Another of Catto's creations — a burger stuffed in bannock. (Submitted by Collette Catto)

"I usually sell to individuals, raise money and then just donate it to who needs it for some of their bills or to help pay their rent. You know, things like that," Catto said.

"It's a small world and we're all going through a lot of stuff, so we're just trying to help out where we can."

Catto says at peak times, she's been selling hundreds of pieces of bannock.

The most important meal of the day

Catto's most recent experiment was a breakfast-stuffed bannock. She says the feedback she has received already is encouraging.

"The people that have picked them up, they love it. They're like, 'where has this been? It's incredible,'" Catto said.

Catto has been showing and selling her creations online — and demand has been growing. (Submitted by Collette Catto)

Catto says she plans to continue experimenting with what she can put in a piece of bannock

"We were thinking chicken tacos. We were thinking maybe pizza. It's an endless supply of thoughts. We just enjoy cooking and it keeps me busy."