All electric galley: bread machine

[s/v Jedi]

Originally Posted by Mike Banks

I would check the 30 watt hours. My bread maker uses far more than that. A loaf of bread, if one ignores the pre-warm, the rest and the two mixings, uses 500 watts in the baking element for 40 minutes. that is approximately 450 watts for that one hour proportionately. A smaller loaf would be less though.

If you are just mixing the dough and using propane to bake it, that is a different thing altogether, but if your inverter is 3 or 4kw or so output and your battery bank capacity is sufficient, baking bread or electric cooking should not be a problem in an electric galley. Some vessels have no propane at all aboard. Hot water can be solar or electric solar.

Having said that, I baked bread using shore power or a gen-set, and my cooking and hot water was propane. Primitive.

Yes the 30Wh was for the dough program we use for 16 rolls worth of dough. BTW, your math assumes that the heating element is on at a 100% duty cycle, which is not how it works for the machines I have seen. I will be doing a bake program as soon as we finish these delicious rolls

Also, please note that the Zojirushi does use the heating element in the dough program. It first enters a 15-minute pre-heat phase, then it mixes the ingredients, then it kneads the dough, then it does 3 rises with degassing in between. During these rises it uses the heating element to provide optimal temperature for the rise.

[KP44]

I bought a bread machine for the galley. I use one about 3 times a week during the summer when we are on land. I found that we seldom used the bread machine on the boat. We also used the microwave only about once a week to heat coffee. Both the bread machine and the microwave are off the boat, giving a little more counter space for food prep. The one appliance I use consistently is a little 1 liter (4 cup) food processor.

[s/v Jedi]

Originally Posted by KP44

I bought a bread machine for the galley. I use one about 3 times a week during the summer when we are on land. I found that we seldom used the bread machine on the boat. We also used the microwave only about once a week to heat coffee. Both the bread machine and the microwave are off the boat, giving a little more counter space for food prep. The one appliance I use consistently is a little 1 liter (4 cup) food processor.

So... now you bake 3 loafs using hand kneading and a propane oven? That would convert me to bubblegum bread

[KP44]

Originally Posted by s/v Jedi

So... now you bake 3 loafs using hand kneading and a propane oven? That would convert me to bubblegum bread

Yes. To each, his own.
Bread machines are nice but I seem to prepare different foods when we are on the boat.
I do want to thank you for the information on your excellent bread machine. I will order one shortly. 73

[s/v Jedi]

Originally Posted by KP44

Yes. To each, his own.
Bread machines are nice but I seem to prepare different foods when we are on the boat.
I do want to thank you for the information on your excellent bread machine. I will order one shortly. 73

Ah yes, we did that as well. After 10 years or so we changed our food while being ashore to the same as during time aboard so now it’s all the same

Make sure you don’t overpay for the Zojirushi. With the shortages, some sellers increase their prices a lot. I paid $200 in 2007 and $230 in 2012.

[s/v Jedi]

Update: just baked a whole wheat loaf Which is a program that takes 3 hours 40 minutes. Also, it was on keep warm mode for 30 minutes before I got back to it. Total energy consumed was 420Wh.

I included a picture of the meter with the reading so there’s no doubt these numbers are factual data. Also, this is our old machine, but I don’t think the new one uses less energy; it’s just prettier in stainless steel etc.

[apexio]

I have the Zojirushi BB-HAC10 mini breadmaker. Been loving it. Clocked it at 22Ah to mix and bake one loaf start to finish on the 3 hour cycle (1lb loaf, soft bread).

[fxykty]

Originally Posted by s/v Jedi

Update: just baked a whole wheat loaf Which is a program that takes 3 hours 40 minutes. Also, it was on keep warm mode for 30 minutes before I got back to it. Total energy consumed was 420Wh.

I included a picture of the meter with the reading so there’s no doubt these numbers are factual data. Also, this is our old machine, but I don’t think the new one uses less energy; it’s just prettier in stainless steel etc.

That’s a big machine! In fact, that looks like a house and not a galley. Or do you have a full size fridge and electric range on your boat?

We have considered a bread maker, mostly for convenience. But as full time live aboards we are not generally time poor so have decided against a microwave, but are still deciding whether a bread machine would be worth the space required to stow it.

I don’t mind hand kneading dough and managing the rising cycles, but lack of consistency in the finished product (just needs a little off-ration of water/flour or stale yeast to mess things up) is making me think a bread maker would be nice.

Anyone get a bread maker, then decide it wasn’t worth the space and got rid of it? Or is it a how did we ever live without it kind of appliance?

[s/v Jedi]

Originally Posted by apexio

I have the Zojirushi BB-HAC10 mini breadmaker. Been loving it. Clocked it at 22Ah to mix and bake one loaf start to finish on the 3 hour cycle (1lb loaf, soft bread).

That was for a white bread I assume? The 420Wh I reported was for a whole wheat loaf which takes more I guess.

Originally Posted by fxykty

That’s a big machine! In fact, that looks like a house and not a galley. Or do you have a full size fridge and electric range on your boat?

We have considered a bread maker, mostly for convenience. But as full time live aboards we are not generally time poor so have decided against a microwave, but are still deciding whether a bread machine would be worth the space required to stow it.

I don’t mind hand kneading dough and managing the rising cycles, but lack of consistency in the finished product (just needs a little off-ration of water/flour or stale yeast to mess things up) is making me think a bread maker would be nice.

Anyone get a bread maker, then decide it wasn’t worth the space and got rid of it? Or is it a how did we ever live without it kind of appliance?

We do all our testing in our Florida hang-out. It’s where we have built our workshop.

The bread machine from Zojirushi is completely different than most other machines that bake a bread that doesn’t look like a loaf. We often use this machine just for the kneading and rising (dough program) then use the dough to bake rolls or pizza etc.
Consistency of the process is a key factor, but you still have to adjust. During kneading at some point the machine beeps signaling your last chance to add things (they mean raisins, seeds etc.) where we often add a little flower when too wet etc. It varies with the flower used.

We use the microwave for two things: steaming using a plastic steaming basket thing which works very good and reheating. The reheating of meals works so well that this is our primary meal prep while on passage so I plan to make the microwave gimballed instead of the oven.

For baking rolls we use our (Aussie?) Breville oven that can do anything. It has a dough proofing mode which is excellent. Here’s the rolls that came out Sunday, proofed and baked in the Breville

[CaptTom]

Those rolls are making me hungry!

What's your secret for par-baking them? I've been meaning to try that but not exactly sure on the details.

Love that bread maker. Part of me wants one big enough to make a "real" loaf, but mostly I use the bread maker for the kneading and first proof, so it's hard to justify.

[s/v Jedi]

Originally Posted by CaptTom

Those rolls are making me hungry!

What's your secret for par-baking them? I've been meaning to try that but not exactly sure on the details.

Love that bread maker. Part of me wants one big enough to make a "real" loaf, but mostly I use the bread maker for the kneading and first proof, so it's hard to justify.

Par baking is just cutting baking time by 30% or so, then later after defrosting finish baking them much like store bought parbaked bread.

We now tend to fully bake them and only crisp them up in the toaster oven setting after defrosting. We bake rolls weekly so never a need for freezing for longer

[boatpoker]

I am a luddite. Ciabatta is my favourite and I do it the ol' fashion way

[s/v Jedi]

Originally Posted by boatpoker

I am a luddite. Ciabatta is my favourite and I do it the ol' fashion way

So, with the Zojirushi the dough goes straight from the machine into the baking pan, saving the mixing, kneading and rising cycles of old school. After for ing rolls or in your case transferring into pan and shaping, I give it another rise in the oven on its “dough proofing” setting before baking.

Before the machine we had trouble getting consistent results for a loaf with it often being dense and not rising well.

[dannc]

Originally Posted by fxykty

...
Anyone get a bread maker, then decide it wasn’t worth the space and got rid of it? Or is it a how did we ever live without it kind of appliance?

Yep. We had a bread maker. Got rid of it since it took up too much space and I would not use it anymore once I figured out no kneed/little kneed bread making techniques along with baking in cast iron.

This is in a house but that bread maker took up too much space and we just did not use it anymore.

For a couple of years, I was making bread once a week and was doing sour bread too. None of the baking was in a bread machine.

Later,
Dan

[s/v Jedi]

Yes, artisan bread isn’t for the machine. We do that as well (I recommend Steve’s method for no knead bread, see

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ky-nZfm5C7g

)

But for a normal loaf of bread, used for toast or pressed in the griddle, the machine is quick and perfect and can do this while on passage.