Baking No-Oven Bread Onboard ?

[Teknav]

Wouldn't be easier to just stop at one of the french islands in the Caribbean and pick up some "baguettes"? Take your pick! Will it be St. Martin, St. Barths, Guadeloupe or Martinique? (Taking cover...nothing beats the smell and the taste of home/boat made bread...am hungry, already!) :-)

[Azul]

The frying pan bread idea (which I have never tried) reminded me of a naan (Asian leavened flatbread) kick that I got on. This bread (naan means bread so naan bread is redundant) is great with rice, curry dishes, Thai food etc. It is a little harder to make and requires milk, egg and butter but it could easily be cooked on a hot pan or grill (in most areas of the world they still cook it on a hot rock.) I like it brushed with olive oil and seasoned with Mrs. Dash herb/garlic seasoning. If you have a reefer, you can put the dough (in little balls) in a ziploc for a week and make fresh bread simply by rolling out the dough ball.

Naan Recipe - Allrecipes.com

I've decided to try the big boiling pot (thankfully I have tons of storage) I use for oysters etc on land as an oven on the burner until I get a grill or proper oven. Maybe I can use it for storage when I'm not using it, well until oyster season comes which is around the corner then I will be using it every day (like the Jimmy Buffett song- oysters and beer every day of the year ha.)

[nigel1]

Originally Posted by Azul

The frying pan bread idea (which I have never tried) reminded me of a naan (Asian leavened flatbread) kick that I got on. This bread (naan means bread so naan bread is redundant) is great with rice, curry dishes, Thai food etc. It is a little harder to make and requires milk, egg and butter but it could easily be cooked on a hot pan or grill (in most areas of the world they still cook it on a hot rock.) I like it brushed with olive oil and seasoned with Mrs. Dash herb/garlic seasoning. If you have a reefer, you can put the dough (in little balls) in a ziploc for a week and make fresh bread simply by rolling out the dough ball.

Naan Recipe - Allrecipes.com

I've decided to try the big boiling pot (thankfully I have tons of storage) I use for oysters etc on land as an oven on the burner until I get a grill or proper oven. Maybe I can use it for storage when I'm not using it, well until oyster season comes which is around the corner then I will be using it every day (like the Jimmy Buffett song- oysters and beer every day of the year ha.)

I use to sail with a cook who made is own naan, which he then spread with a curry mix and finished off in the oven, Very nice, he called them Gandi's flip flops.

[vientoman]

so for what's it's worth,

a loaf of bread baked by a common bread machine ( rated @ 560W ) connected through a modified sine wave inverter will pull a 250 amp hour battery down to around 60% from a full charge.

[Ballenxj]

Originally Posted by vientoman

so for what's it's worth,

a loaf of bread baked by a common bread machine ( rated @ 560W ) connected through a modified sine wave inverter will pull a 250 amp hour battery down to around 60% from a full charge.

Sounds like this would be a good time to run your generator while baking bread?
-Bruce

[vientoman]

Yea, I think you are right.

That's a pretty significant "hit" to a battery bank but when I reached over to lift the machine, it occurred to me just how much heat is involved and how little insulation is used on these units.

[onestepcsy37]

vientoman -

did you measure the end of cycle voltage immediately after turning of the bread machine or did you wait a few hours? battery level will recover after a few hours rest following a large draw. just curious....

[vientoman]

hmm.....good point. I measured it right when It finished baking so maybe it didn't use as much charge as I thought.

Guess I'll have to recharge and bake another loaf of bread then give the batteries a little time to stabilize themselves before I try to establish a final post bread state of charge.

[Katiusha]

Originally Posted by Azul

I've decided to try the big boiling pot (thankfully I have tons of storage) I use for oysters etc on land as an oven on the burner until I get a grill or proper oven. Maybe I can use it for storage when I'm not using it, well until oyster season comes which is around the corner then I will be using it every day (like the Jimmy Buffett song- oysters and beer every day of the year ha.)

Maybe add a clay plate inside the pot on a small wire rack and insulation on the outside? This way your 'oven' will be better than regular oven for baking bread.

[Ballenxj]

Originally Posted by Katiusha

Maybe add a clay plate inside the pot on a small wire rack and insulation on the outside? This way your 'oven' will be better than regular oven for baking bread.

That sounds like a neat trick. Does it work well in any pot, or would a cast iron Dutch Oven be even better?
-Bruce

[Bruce Johnson]

Originally Posted by senormechanico

We use our propane barbecue.
We found two different cake pans which semi nest, so there's an air gap everywhere except the very top edge.
We made a snake out of rolled up aluminum foil to give a little bit extra space between the pans and I found a lid at a thrift store which fit over the pans.
I had to remove the top handle and replace it with a tubular metal standoff, a washer and a couple of nuts because the barbecue heat was too much for the original.
We run the barbecue on lowest possible heat and the bread turns out great every time.

I would love to see a picture of this set up.

[heatherbrie]

When my oven is being cranky, I regularly bake bread on top of the stove in my hard-anodized aluminum (calphalon) cookware. I use a skillet (their "everyday" pan) and a pot. I simply mold a free-form loaf the length of skillet and a round loaf about the size of the pot, and pop them into the greased, cold pans. I then set them on low heat, cover them and cook for about an hour; the aluminum is very conductive and heats incredibly evenly, so no burned spots on the bottom. Take the lids off for about the last 15 minutes or the crust will be soggy. You won't get a crispy crust this way, and it's not the same as bread cooked in the oven, but it's better than store-bought anyday. Except for those baguettes from the French islands, of course!

I'd be careful about using pans with teflon coating on high heat, as someone mentioned earlier; high heat can damage the coating, causing it to peel and enter your food -- definitely not very healthy or nice!

[Mark Johnson]

Originally Posted by Azul

I love to eat homemade bread but my boat doesn't have an oven (yet) just propane burners, can I make bread in a dutch oven on a burner somehow?

BTW, I love this recipe: Italian Bread Recipe | MyRecipes.com I use three cups of flour and it comes out perfectly every time if you measure everything precisely especially the water and flour, you want the dough only very slightly sticky. Fluff up the flour before measuring it. Also, I add fresh rosemary (one frond) and 1/4 tsp of garlic powder. The recipe makes a nice small loaf in one hour total from simple, common ingredients that store easily. One of the mistakes I made on land several times was to heat the water up too much, if it is much over 115 degrees (130 and up) it kills the yeast. Too low and the yeast takes forever to foam. I bought a neat thermometer with a remote sensor at Wally World for $30, it even has a pager (?!) that works up to 200 feet away (probably won't use that feature as I am self insured!) and find that when the bread hits 195 degrees it is baked perfectly. Could I put that inside the dutch oven to monitor the temp to simulate an oven? Or better inside the bread?

Part of what I love about living aboard is the feeling of being directly connected to life's simple pleasures such as cooking instead of spending all of my time working to buy expensive things to impress people I don't like.

If I can figure this out it will also give me something to trade for a cold beer from someone that already has a reefer .

Of the 17 years cruising our boat, 12 were as full time liveaboards, with no home base. We only have a 2 burner cook top, and we make what ever we want.

My wife bakes brownies, corn bread, biscuits, small cakes, or pizza. She uses a variety of pans with glass lids, a tall pressure cooker under NO pressure (with an upside down "elevator" = 1" tall sauce pan inside), and later, from our Dutch friend, we were given, (what else), a Dutch oven. This is a nicer version of the first two...

My wife is the cheffette, so I can't be specific, you need a book on the subject... however, I can assure you, it is not a problem. In fact, I consider a proper oven a huge waste of VERY valuable space, on any boat < 42'. Ovens use more gas too, to do the same job...

M.

[Ballenxj]

Originally Posted by Mark Johnson

Of the 17 years cruising our boat, 12 were as full time liveaboards, with no home base. We only have a 2 burner cook top, and we make what ever we want.

My wife bakes brownies, corn bread, biscuits, small cakes, or pizza. She uses a variety of pans with glass lids, a tall pressure cooker under NO pressure (with an upside down "elevator" = 1" tall sauce pan inside), and later, from our Dutch friend, we were given, (what else), a Dutch oven. This is a nicer version of the first two...

My wife is the cheffette, so I can't be specific, you need a book on the subject... however, I can assure you, it is not a problem. In fact, I consider a proper oven a huge waste of VERY valuable space, on any boat < 42'. Ovens use more gas too, to do the same job...

M.

Any recommendations of a cook book for this?
-Bruce

[DeepFrz]

There was another thread not long ago with some nice looking bread recipes.