Bread Maker Aboard?

[svBeBe]

We use a Panasonic bread maker. Our boat is 220v and our dirt dwelling was in the land of 110v; the Panasonic brand was the only 220v machine I could find. This machine has a quick-bake cycle that is very useful. I very much wanted a bread machine on the boat to cut down oven time. Our normal cruising grounds are in the Caribbean and it is much too hot there to use an oven in the galley if you can avoid it.

The only caveat to having a bread machine is that it requires using bread flour to produce good bread, or strong flour as the Europeans call it. And finding bread flour can be a major challenge in many areas of the Caribbean and South Pacific. On a positive note, however; bread flour can be vacuum sealed and it lasts several years. Regular all-purpose flour will lump when vacuum sealed, but bread flour seals and keeps beautifully. So I stock up on massive quantities of bread flour when it is available.

The maximum wattage used by my Panasonic bread maker is 700 watts, but that is for only 25 minutes of a full 4-hour cycle. It also has an express feature which produces great basic bread recipes in only 2 hours. I really like this rapid bake feature and rarely use the 4-hour cycle. We can use this bread maker with our Prosine 1800 inverter and allows me to make bread using battery power rather than running the generator. I do use this bread maker while on long passages.

And the best feature is that I can place the bread maker up in the cockpit using an extension cord so that the minimal heat generated by the machine does not heat up the galley when we are in the hot Caribbean. Not something that one need worry about when in cool New Zealand, but greatly appreciated when in equatorial areas.

Can't imagine living aboard without my bread maker.

Judy
S/V BeBe
Amel SM2 #387
currently lying Auckland

[s/v Jedi]

This is a good thread, I like breadmaker vs manual threads ;-)

First: Yes, I think the mini Zojirushi will be great too if it bakes as good as the bigger version and if it can handle the power outages as well (I don't know). I think it wasn't available yet when we bought ours.

2nd: I agree, if you don't bake bread a lot, the advantage evaporates. But it doesn't matter much in that case, as you cruise close to supermarkets and bakeries who sell bread that you like and can afford.

However, I can assure you that there are times that this isn't the case. Sometimes, there is nobody around selling bread, like during a passage or anchored in exotic places (for Caribbean: Roches, Aves, San Blas etc.). Also, the bread available can be horrible or even inedible for your taste buds. We don't like the sugar-sweet American bread for example.

3rd: Yes, we like baking bread by hand too, sometimes. But not if this needs to be done every other day. We much prefer snorkeling the reefs or meeting the local people, learning about their culture etc. We have enough work to do on the boat!!!! Also, when in cold climate, I could see us doing it more often as I don't think we'll do much snorkeling and the heat from the oven might be welcome indeed!

4: We never run the generator for the breadmaker, the inverter powers it. The reason for our need that it survives a power outage is that the time the breadmaker needs for kneading, rising and baking a bread is long and we might want to switch to generator power for another reason during that time.

5th: no-knead bread. Better than breadmaker bread? This makes it sound like the bread from a breadmaker isn't as good as no-knead bread! So, Is no-knead bread better than bread from the bakery? If so, why are there no bakeries selling that, getting filthy rich etc.? I don't fall for that but will actually do a test so that I will end up throwing away 1 bread... we'll see if that is the no-knead or Zojirushi bread! ;-)
Also, any decent breadmaker bakes a better bread than what is sold by supermarkets!

and the last one, 6: We often end up using standard all-purpose flour because it is often the only thing available. The Zojirushi bakes a very good bread from that, no problem at all.

cheers,
Nick.

[Amfivena]

Originally Posted by s/v Jedi

This is a good thread, I like breadmaker vs manual threads ;-)
5th: no-knead bread. Better than breadmaker bread? This makes it sound like the bread from a breadmaker isn't as good as no-knead bread! So, Is no-knead bread better than bread from the bakery? If so, why are there no bakeries selling that, getting filthy rich etc.? I don't fall for that but will actually do a test so that I will end up throwing away 1 bread... we'll see if that is the no-knead or Zojirushi bread! ;-)
Also, any decent breadmaker bakes a better bread than what is sold by supermarkets!
Nick.

In my opinion, + wife and 2 daughters, dough baked in an oven is better than anything from a breadmaker. We like our crust chewy - breadmaker never could get it right - FOR US.

For years we had a breadmaker and used it to knead the dough and then baked in an oven. That was on land. In the process of moving aboard we discovered the no-knead method and find it at least equal to dough made from the breadmaker. Plus it is literally 15 minutes worth of work for a week's worth of bread. Every day we take a handful, or two, of dough and slap it on a pizza stone. Put it in the oven at whatever temp it happens to be. Give it 20 minutes and then check every 5 minutes until done. Since the oven is our main heat source, cooking is free 9 months out of 12.

Of course we're weird. Going south for us consists of hitting the St. Pattie's day parade in Boston. So take anything we say with a grain of salt.

[s/v Jedi]

Okay, I'll make sure to pay extra attention to the crust ;-) We like crispy but it gets chewy the second day, so we'll have to try both for two days now...

Also, I think that maybe.... just maybe... the breadmaker you had wasn't as good as the ones available today. The Zojirushi has three settings for the crust desired! Also, bakers use both pre- and post-baking treatment of the loaf for crust control, but from your post I understand you didn't do anything special so I'll do the same for the test.

cheers,
Nick.

[bill good]

WK,
You should only use power from a pure sine supply gen or inverter as the timer is often taken from the input freq this will mean making sure the correct hz is used.

The power used is not much as the bulk is only required for the baking phase.

If you have too much made for one day you can cut it & wrap up a days worth & freeze it. It is good for mths. (I do that with shop bread as well)

regards

[nicollej]

Hi,

Making bread on your boat is wonderful!

We don't have a bread maker ourselves, we just make the bread from scratch which is lots of fun!

We used to have a bread maker at home when we lived on land and it was great, much quicker and easier.

But we have plenty of time to cook on Sea Life so we do. We usually cheat and use a bread making mix from the supermarket but we also have a recipe to make the dough ourselves when we can't buy the mix.

The smell of cooking bread coming from the oven fills the boat with yummy, warm fresh bread smell.....mmmm....it is just wonderful!

We just use a little metal type square baking tin to make a loaf. It is really easy and fun. Great for when you can't buy fresh bread in the area you are in. Also we just have a very simple, basic little 2 burner prophane oven, so don't feel that your oven is too small or basic to make bread or cakes of cook a nice roast. I find I just have to watch what I am cooking and sometimes I need to cook for longer or shorter amount of time than the recipe says depending on what it is.

I don't think it matters how you make the bread (by hand or with a bread maker) as long as you have fun doing it and it tastes delicious!!!!!

Have fun and happy bread making!

Yummmy!

Smiles

Nicolle from Sea Life
www.ourlifeatsea.com

[sail4evr]

Hi,
I noted some say bread flour and some say any, what about whole wheat? How does that affect the process if at all?
joe

[s/v Jedi]

We always try to get whole weat and rye flower. Rye flower is very hard to find but whole weat is available in many places.

For manual vs breadmaker it doesn't make a difference, works well for both systems. For sour dough bread you do need a breadmaker that has user-defined programs because of the different rise-times needed (changes with every different sour dough culture).

cheers,
Nick.

[Jack Tar]

My wife and I live aboard a Formosa 51 here in Seattle. Today it's cold with snow falling. We have a Zojirushi bread machine that does a full size loaf and it does a great job. 115 volt 1500 watt without any trouble. It has a quick bake feature. Heck it has all kinds of setting and can even cook jelly and jams. It will make pizza dough as well. It's great for being able to set it to start early morning so we can wake up to the smell of fresh bread with our breakfast. In this cold weather however be just use it for making dough. The dough can also be frozen for later use in the oven. Baking the dough in our Force stove/oven works best this time of year. Not only does it give us a better crust and nice bread but it provides a nace warm cabin with a nice smell. The machine also does a great scone recipe. Anything that needs baking can be addapted to the machine. Well almost anything. The only other machine onboard that sees more use is our Magic Cheff ice machine. Can't wait for summer and those nice cold drinks.

[Jack Tar]

Anyone care to post some bread recipies

[delmarrey]

Originally Posted by Jack Tar

Today it's cold with snow falling.

Yep!

Has anyone tried a batter bread. They go great using cereals of different types. You just pour them into a juice/coffee can (w/the top cut out) and bake them just like regular bread. My favorite is the Zoom cereal.

[delmarrey]

Originally Posted by Jack Tar

Anyone care to post some bread recipies

Here's the one for just standard batter bread. Please excuse the quality! It's from an article that my Mom cut from a magazine in the late 1950's. From that she made variations of different types (Apple sauce, banana & rye).

Sorry, the cereal bread was not a batter type, it's another recipe of it's own.

[Jan B]

Thanks to those of you who recommended the Zojirushi Bread Maker. We just purchased the one pound model and love it. So far I've made French Bread, basic white bread and pizza dough. All turned out perfectly. The recipes in the instruction book are varied, including many types of bread as well as dough for rolls, doughnuts, brioche, cinnamon rolls, croissant, buns, pizza, pretzels, cookies, pasta, scones, cakes, and somehow it also makes jam. I ordered it from Amazon.com and shipping was free. The one pound loaf is a great size for two people with enough bread for two meals. I haven't had a bread maker since the original ones, and don't know how loud the most recent models are, but this one is practically silent. The footprint is 7 1/2" X 9 1/2" and it is 11 1/2" tall, taking up the about same space as a coffee maker. This smaller model does not seem to have a provision for power outages, at least it's not mentioned in the instruction book. There is a "reset" button, so that might work after a power outage but I haven't tried it. I also purchased two bread maker cookbooks from Amazon.com by Linda Rehberg and Lois Conway: Bread Machine Magic and More Bread Machine Magic. Both are excellent and have recipes for small, medium and large loaves.
Jan

[MarkJ]

Originally Posted by Jan B

. So far I've made French Bread, basic white bread and pizza dough. All turned out perfectly. ...Jan

Note for Diary: Anchor next to Jan.

[s/v Jedi]

Jan: just try the power-thing when you just start a program. Pull the plug from the outlet for 10 seconds, put it back in and see if the program resumes. If it doesn't work, you can still program it again as it only just started.

Our big Zojirushi starts with the 20 minute "pre-heat" thing, very easy to test/simulate power outage.

Let us know the results! ;-)

p.s. you can even make meat-loaf with it. The pizza dough is a favorite for us! Try the version with beer!!

cheers,
Nick.