Bread Maker Aboard ?

[sadia]

I am thinking of buying a bread maker. Any pros and/or cons? Anybody have a favorite brand ? size ? recipe ? I a living aboard a power boats. Thanks.

[sail01lyn]

Originally Posted by sadia

I am thinking of buying a bread maker. Any pros and/or cons? Anybody have a favorite brand ? size ? recipe ? I a living aboard a power boats. Thanks.

My husband just started baking bread in a pressure cooker. So far it seems to do quite well.

[sailnautilus]

I got a Hitachi 1 lb loaf machine (small) at the thrift store- new in the box. Great model and price. Often see many like new at thrift stores.
Works great; I often made bread without the machine, but it does make a mess of the galley. Machine is much easier and have made pizza dough and sweet roll dough. Great to have if you have space!!!

[osirissail]

I know a lot of cruisers who make their bread strictly by hand or from scratch. There is a lot of personal satisfaction associated with it. But I prefer loading the machine and pressing the button and coming back after "x" hours/minutes and taking out a loaf of bread. So I use the Zojirushi bread machine which makes a "horizontal" loaf of bread similar to the ones you buy in the plastic bag in a grocery store.

[Microship]

google 'no knead bread.' I gave my bread machine away... completely superfluous. We're doing loaves every few days, regular and sourdough... wheat and rye... the no knead process changes everything.

[anjou]

I would love to know more too cos once ive got the cow teathered on the foredeck and feeding on the crops growing on top of the wheelhouse, the only thing I will be short of is bread.
Oh yeah, a coup of chucks wouldnt go amiss either, and a pig, and a few lambs.

How much electric do bread makers use?

[barnakiel]

Some people have them. They work OK but I think you need a bigger inverter.

We bake our bread in the oven, 30 to 40 minutes baking plus 15 minutes preparation.

b.

[Simes]

We have and use a Kenwood Bread Maker. Only draws 60W but runs for 5 Hours so thats around 25Amp not including the losses associated with converting 12 v to 240 v. Usually it is run when we have the genny on.

We buy the packs of bread mix from the supermarket or from the local bulk reseller.

Favourites are the plain White Bread and the Wholegrain.

On Passage we will make bread by hand, but at the moment we both have full time careers so the machine is their for us.

Simes

[Tingum]

What is wrong with a bowl and a bread pan? Not enough room to store dem power sukin lectric gadgets!

[svBeBe]

If you plan to cruise in the tropics you might want a break maker aboard. This saves heating up the entire boat to bake bread. A couple of things you might want to consider when buying one:

-if you have an inverter, find a machine that will operate off your inverter. In marinas ours operates off shore power. At anchor it operates off the generator or off the inverter. Underway it operates off the inverter. These machines use far less energy than one might assume as the heating element is tiny and is only on for about 30 minutes. Most of the time the bread machine is idle and not consuming energy.

-make sure the machine also does a short cycle. Almost all machines today offer a shortened cycle for some types of bread, but make sure before purchasing one. Ours does the normal 4 hr process but also bakes a few recipes using only a 2 hr process. Saves time and battery usage.

When it isn't too hot to use the real oven, the bread machine also great for making dough for easy cinnamon rolls or pizza or foccacia. I cannot imagine cruising without a bread machine -- especially in the heat of the tropics. We have visited far too many places where the local breads were disgusting. The only caveat is that you will need real bread flour (strong flour to the Europeans) for a bread machine. Some people tell me that their bread machine works great with regular all-purpose flour, but we find the texture unpleasant. There is a big difference in the gluten content and quality between all-purpose flour and bread flour. Rarely one can find tiny containers of gluten that can be added to regular all-purpose flour and this results in bread that is almost as good as bread made from bread flour.

Real bread flour is sometimes hard to find when cruising. Stock up heavily when it is available and vacuum seal. Keeps for at least 3 years.

Judy
S/V BeBe

[osirissail]

Originally Posted by anjou

. . . How much electric do bread makers use?

Generally a lot of electricity for a long time. The units not only operating a mixing machine blending thick dough but then turn on an "electric oven" to cook the bread. With my unit this whole process, including two rising periods, can take three and a half hours and about 20 or more amp hours. The units are 120VAC or 220VAC so need either shore power, genset, or an inverter and large battery bank.
- - As stated before, there is a lot of personal satisfaction with making bread from "scratch" on the counter top. And long term cruisers tend to have plenty of time to re-discover the joys of cooking from scratch.
- - But for those with other time constraints or other priority items requiring their time, the bread machines make fresh "home-made" breads with minimal involvement beyond loading the machine.

- - It is amazing how many different things go into making a loaf of bread, so as sv/BeBe mentions, it is important to have a supply of all the stuff before you head out into the back waters of the world.
- - Vacuum sealing is about the only way to keep the different things from sucking up atmospheric water vapor and going bad quickly.
- - IMHO, the most important ingredient is the dry active yeast which does not store well for long periods of time. But luckily it is one item that is available most anywhere there is a village with a grocery store.
- - Different bread flours, gluten, dry milk, and other ingredients for more exotic breads are quite difficult to find.

- - Just remembered another little "trick" with breads. If you buy bread or make your own, it will store longer and taste fresher if you get the "uncut/unsliced" loaves. With homemade breads they come out "uncut" and with a good bread knife you slice off only what you want. Grocery stores with bakeries inside (latest wrinkle on food marketing) will hold a loaf or two for you "uncut" if you ask. Or if your timing is right you can get a loaf fresh out of the ovens before they put it into the slicing machines.

[slowshoes]

Originally Posted by Microship

google 'no knead bread.' I gave my bread machine away... completely superfluous. We're doing loaves every few days, regular and sourdough... wheat and rye... the no knead process changes everything.

Microship,

Do you have a link to any tried and tested no knead recipes that are good? Just trying to save some time by trying recipes that other folks know are good. I don't have any no knead recipes so I'm starting from scratch.

[bill352]

Slowshoes - Google "no knead bread" for the original NYT article and followups, then check out breadtopia.com for more (including videos) than you will ever need to know about it.

Now my question - does anyone do this in a pressure cooker? If so, how? Also, does a small propane oven get hot enough? (I use 450* at home.)

Thanks.

[anjou]

Sounds like its too power hungry for the inverter, not cos inverter isnt big enough but it would kill the batteries over 3 hours.
Whats more, to run genny for that length of time would make it very expensive bread.

Oh well, its time I lost weight and went carb free anyway. I will have to stick to eating pasta and rice.

[donradcliffe]

Our machine is good for making bread underway--it only takes 5 minutes to throw the ingredients in, then you can forget it till its done. Power draw is minimal in the mixing and rising phase, and averages about 200 watts during last hour of baking--I usually turn on the engine/alternator when it starts baking.