Bread Makers

[Steve Rogers]

My wife is looking for recommendations on models and brands of Bread makers

[Vasco]

We use the oven. Put the dough under the dodger and it really rises. Easy on the batteries too, we don't have a genset.

[ssullivan]

Originally Posted by Steve Rogers

My wife is looking for recommendations on models and brands of Bread makers

Yup... scrap it. Bread makers are kind of lame.

Just put together some bread dough, rise it, stick it in the oven and enjoy fresh bread any time without needing electricity.

[imagine2frolic]

We went through the I HAVE GOT TO HAVE A BREADMAKER SCENARIO. I was promised fresh bread every day, and of many different varieties. The unit was sold to her unknowing friend, and I am back to leaning onto the counter with my 2 breadmaking hands. Less electrical energy is used. More space for truly useful items. Less idle time on my hands too. Idle hands are the Devil's workshop........

[Pblais]

As much as a sailor loves gadgets this one just isn't getting much of a response. The consensus seems to be to go the low tech route with bread. For myself I prefer low sodium and low tech for my food. Storage space would be a limiting factor as well.

[David_Old_Jersey]

Originally Posted by Steve Rogers

My wife is looking for recommendations on models and brands of Bread makers

Tell her you are looking at the Bread Maker already. and duck

[MidLandOne]

I'll buck the hands on approach trend, contrary as usual .

We've used breadmakers over the years and have had a Panasonic one for last few years. It does a good job and would buy the same again. It makes a good shaped loaf - the only real flaw is the hole underneath the loaf where the mixing paddle has been (and in the Panasonic the paddle comes out of the loaf cleanly, unlike some other breadmakers).

We normally do wholemeal and grain types as well as malt type fruit loaves, etc and wouldn't go back to the manual approach again. Takes 5 minutes of work to drop the ingredients in the breadmaker then just go and do something else. Of course one does not get the psychological pleasure of doing the kneading of the dough but as that pleasure is, I'm told, derived from recollections of childhood desires to play with ones own faeces I am happy to give it a miss .

Also know a number of people who use breadmakers on board but we have never done so - we carry frozen bread rather than make by hand.

[Chuck Baier]

In all of our cruising we have found lots of boats with bread makers. Only thing is, most did not use them nor did they particularly like them when they did use them. Everyone, including us, use the more traditional method of baking bread.

[sailorgal]

Speaking of baking, has anyone heard of or tried the sun oven?

Sun Oven Solar Cooking

It's a little expensive, for this model anyway, but if you baked a lot, it would save on propane and heating up the galley. You could put this on the foredeck on a sunny day and voila! Bread, or whatever.

[GordMay]

Build a Solar Cooker (Plans):
Plans for Solar Cookers -- The Solar Cooking Archive

Much more bout Solar Cooking:
The Solar Cooking Archive

[shirley]

We are cruising right now with 3 kids... food gets expensive, especially when we go through a loaf of bread a day!!!

We have a Magic Chef that I inherited from my mom. It works fine. I don't think it was very expensive, but we have great results.

I leave it on the counter because I make 2 loaves a day. It hasn't been in the way yet. I have used the bread mixes that come in a box, but it's really just as easy to make it from scratch.

I have never made bread the "hard" way, so I couldn't comment on that. All I know is, I dump the ingredients in, push a button and get a wonderful smell followed by a quickly eaten loaf of bread.

So, I don't think the brand is a great issue. Check epinions.com, but I think if you stick with name brand you'll be fine.

By the way, I am the female onboard and if my husband had suggested I make bread from scratch without a bread machine, I wouldn't have come!!!

[Pelagic]

We only use ours when remote cruising as it is hard in the Asian tropics to find good bread. We bring the flour and grain to make the healthy bread we like and it doesn’t get the galley as hot as the oven.

No mess, no flour dust! When the gen is turned on for battery charging and making water we also make bread (3 minutes prep push a button and wait 3 hours).

The Bread maker I got was a gift but if I were purchasing again I would look for one whose timer can be reset to any stage, if for some reason you needed to cut the power.

[rsn48]

If you have a freezer on board, buy frozen bread dough already formed into 'loaves' then bring it out to thaw and rise - usually around 6 - 7 hours - and bake it, around 1/2 hour. If your boat's oven is in use, don't hesitate to bake the bread in the barbecue.

On Vancouver Island, I can buy 6 loaves of unrisen bread dough for around $5 and then I make them, one at a time - almost no work at all.

[maxingout]

I have a bread maker, and her name is Donna.

[Sparohok]

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/11/08/dining/081mrex.html

This bread making method is only slightly more work than using a bread maker, and produces a vastly better product. Google "No Knead Bread" and you'll see testimonials in all sorts of blogs from people who have tried it. You can easily adapt the recipe to make your own favorite bread.

Martin