Bread Maker Aboard ?

[Schooner Chandlery]

If you don't bake, just google the bread recipe called something like "so easy even a 4 year old can make it" bread. It's a good recipe to use while underway because it relies on time--all you have to do is let it sit--a couple of watches later you can pop it on the oven 😏 and have great bread.


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[a64pilot]

I have no idea how to make bread, but have thought that bread and vegetables would be the two things that are hard to come by if your off the map cruising.

One of the things I miss badly from living in Germany is the bread. It wouldn't keep for more than a day, but it was really good bread. Contrast that to US bread which seems to keep for weeks, but tastes like crap from day one.


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[JPA Cate]

A64pilot,

When I bake bread, all I use is milk or water, yeast, a tiny bit of sugar (because I prove* the yeast first), olive oil[because that's the oil we carry] whatever kind of flour I want to use, and whatever other additions (I like sunflower seeds sometimes in my whole wheat bread). You mix it up and let it set. Then you bake it. Lots of guys learn to bake, and since you liked the German bread, I'd start with looking for some German bread recipes.

You can become a maker of bread that you are happy with. If you get interested, there's lots of things you can do to improve your results. There's another, really old thread here on CF, where I posted some easy recipes that I use a lot--including about how to use the pressure cooker to cook it stove top when it's too hot to use the oven.

*"Proving" the yeast is where you take some of the warm water, dissolve the yeast in it, and add a pinch of sugar to it (just pinch it out of the sugar bowl; or a tiny dab of honey) with the yeast and water, and let it set 5 to 10 min or so, to check the activity of the yeast. Your mix should develop a froth on top of carbon dioxide bubbles, which are the byproduct of the yeast metabolizing the sugar. If it doesn't get at all frothy, your yeasts are inactive, probably not all of them, but it'll take a while for them to multiply so that you have enough for bread. If you don't want to wait, double up on the yeast.

A man who can learn to fix helicopters in the bush will not have trouble learning to make bread he likes, if motivated. And people love it when you bring it to beach pot lucks!

You can search Jedi's posts, and find a really neat one he posted, too.

Ann

[Iaangus]

Originally Posted by a64pilot

I have no idea how to make bread, but have thought that bread and vegetables would be the two things that are hard to come by if your off the map cruising.

One of the things I miss badly from living in Germany is the bread. It wouldn't keep for more than a day, but it was really good bread. Contrast that to US bread which seems to keep for weeks, but tastes like crap from day one.


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Seriously, germans eat bread? I thought germans only ate sauerkraut.
On a more serious note there are hundreds of types of bread available in US grocery stores not to mention bakeries. "US bread", that is the most ridiculous thing I heard all day.

[sailcruiser]

Does anyone have a recipe for Dutch egg bread? It's a treat for my father. His grandmother and mother apparently made a great recipe he doesn't have. I've tried a few recipes but none have made him grin.


SC

[JPA Cate]

Originally Posted by sailcruiser

Does anyone have a recipe for Dutch egg bread? It's a treat for my father. His grandmother and mother apparently made a great recipe he doesn't have. I've tried a few recipes but none have made him grin.


SC

Sorry, I don't, but you might start a thread asking that question if you don't get an answer in this thread. If all else fails, I can let you have my recipe for Portuguese Easter Bread, which is pretty eggy. PM me if you want it. It is very old fashioned, where you scald the milk with the spices, then cool and proceed.

Ann

[Lizzy Belle]

Originally Posted by sailcruiser

Does anyone have a recipe for Dutch egg bread? It's a treat for my father.

Well, this is embarassing ... I'm Dutch, but I've never heard of "egg bread" (which would translate to something like 'eier brood').

I do know brioche, which is a French bread (and readily available here too): Could this be the bread you're looking for?

Brioche is a very rich bread, with lots of egg and butter, and I know it's sometimes called egg bread or butter bread here because of that. But it's not a Dutch bread, nor an egg bread It is a fairly sweet and soft - even 'fluffy' bread / pastry.

[Lizzy Belle]

Originally Posted by a64pilot

One of the things I miss badly from living in Germany is the bread. It wouldn't keep for more than a day, but it was really good bread. Contrast that to US bread which seems to keep for weeks, but tastes like crap from day one.

Hmm, yes, I remember not eating bread in the US, while I eat it twice a day here

Making bread is very easy, it tastes incredible and the boat smells nice too!

Just to get you started, here are some links from The Boat Galley:

- 5 tips for baking bread on a boat
- White bread recipe (easy, basic 'first time baking bread' recipe)
- Yeast bread making 101
- No-knead bread in Omnia stove top oven (works well with my Coleman oven too ).

I also make quick and easy flat breads and chapati - check youtube for many, many recipes like

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ikW3...eve%27sKitchen

[Dockhead]

Originally Posted by Iaangus

Seriously, germans eat bread? I thought germans only ate sauerkraut.
On a more serious note there are hundreds of types of bread available in US grocery stores not to mention bakeries. "US bread", that is the most ridiculous thing I heard all day.

I'm with A64. I first understood what real bread is when I lived in Germany as a student. My God! A completely different foodstuff, than what we get in the U.S.

Later I understood that this Chinese Wall of bread runs between the whole Anglo-Saxon world, and Continental Europe. The Brits, Canadians, and Americans are in hot competition for the most disgusting bread in the world. I think the UK is winning by a nose -- last time I bought bread, in an M&S Food Hall, no less, all the bread for sale was marked "Extra Soft!" "Really Soft!" or "Super Soft!", all of it as if made from sawdust, for all you can tell by flavor and texture.

On the Continent, the competition runs the other way, and I guess the French are probably leaders for the most delicious bread, with their incomparable strong white breads bursting with flavor and texture. But German bread is marvelous and much more varied than French bread, made from all sorts of different grains and processes. And gray Russian bread made from rye, is also just wonderful (especially with a big spoonful of black caviar on it -- yum! ). Italian bread is not far off French.

Why such a difference? I've never been able to figure it out. Even in bakeries you get almost the same disgusting insipid pap, in the UK, or in the US -- it must be the wheat? Soft vs strong wheat? I don't know. It's true that in the US we have the choice of 500 different types of bread, some of it "artisanal" (i.e. insanely overpriced), but nearly all of it is basically the same inedible carp. Like A64, once I had spent some time in Germany, I found it very hard to go back to U.S. bread (we'll leave beer for a different discussion, but the differences actually are quite parallel).


As to making bread -- I've never been tempted, as it involves so much time, and so much expenditure of LPG, which is hard to resupply when you cruise every year between 10 countries as I do, each with its own standard of gas bottles.

But thinking about a long sea voyage, or being stuck in UK waters, and reading all this in this thread -- makes me think twice about it.

[Siberianhusky]

I've been making my own bread for years now, started with a machine, then got a stand mixer with a dough hook, cook it in the oven.
I think it's about the easiest thing to make and your imagination is the limit.
One of my favorites started out as a Scandinavian Dark Rye but has morphed into something completely different, one of the secrets is Ovaltine powder.....
The mixer and my coffee grinder will be two of the things moving aboard with me!

[Lizzy Belle]

Originally Posted by Dockhead

On the Continent, the competition runs the other way, and I guess the French are probably leaders for the most delicious bread, with their incomparable strong white breads bursting with flavor and texture.
//
I've never been tempted, as it involves so much time, and so much expenditure of LPG

There are plenty of recipes for making amazing bread that are LPG friendly too I have an origo stove, so no LPG, but baking bread costs me about the same little bit of alcohol as cooking a simple one pot meal. Flat bread even less as it pretty much cooks if you show it a picture of a stove

I usually go for no knead bread, which only takes time in the sense that you let it sit for a bit. In actual work, we're talking minutes. But even 'regular' bread is faster to make then it is going to the store to buy. And a LOT cheaper too

I'd say Italy wins the Most Delicious Bread competition, but Germany, the Netherlands etc. also have great breads. In the Netherlands, most people eat bread for breakfast and lunch, so we want a good selection of delicious breads.

Having said that: no matter how great the bread from the shop or bakery tastes, you can't beat boat baked bread. And it's healthier too as you don't use all the additives that's in commercially baked breads.

[a64pilot]

Ann,
I guess I need to learn how to make it, cause I hope to be places at times when it won't be available.

I'm convinced the German bread was so good partially because it was so very fresh, and had no preservatives.
I lived in a little town in Germany called Hailer, it cost me a bunch extra not to live in Military housing, but I wanted to live in Germany, around Germans etc.
Anyway the normal average German family, the wife got up at the crack of dawn every morning and rode a bicycle or walked the short distance to the bakery where she bought bread that was still warm from the oven. Honestly it was a food all unto it's own, and the butter was just as good. I don't know how, but it was actually sweet, not salted and just tasted good. I have not been able to find butter like that over here either.
The vegetables were like the bread and butter, you bought the days vegetables at what we would call a Farmers market, and for some reason the colors were more vibrant, it was obviously very fresh and was just better than what you get here in Supermarkets. Average German had what we would consider Dorm fridges, the concept was completely different than they way we do it in the US. In Germany the food for the day was bought nearly every day from little family run shops, so only a small fridge is needed or wanted.
In the US, everybody works, so once a week or so you drive to a Huge Supermarket and load up with a weeks worth of food. Even the fresh food is plastic wrapped and came from across the country on refrigerated trucks, so it's a week old when you get it.

Now I am a part of the Massive, Industrial US farming industry, and I know for a fact that no time in History has so few people produced so much food, for so little money. The US food industry leads the world in productivity and keeping costs low. But trust me, we lost something with the industrialization and efficiency.

The Beer was the real crime, after coming back to the US, I just cant drink it, it's horrible. You know the old joke about US beer is like making love in a Canoe? Well it's true.
Remember if your old enough how there used to be a Milk man? Drove his truck around I guess every day and picked up the empty bottles of milk, and left fresh ones on the door step?
Well, your not going to believe this, but in Germany there is the Beer man, Honest to God he drives his truck around and picks up your empty racks of beer bottles and leaves a fresh on on your door step.
They drink beer at work, and even have kinderbeer, or children's beer, but near as I could tell they had if anything fewer Alcoholics than we do in the US

[Dockhead]

Originally Posted by Lizzy Belle

There are plenty of recipes for making amazing bread that are LPG friendly too I have an origo stove, so no LPG, but baking bread costs me about the same little bit of alcohol as cooking a simple one pot meal. Flat bread even less as it pretty much cooks if you show it a picture of a stove

I usually go for no knead bread, which only takes time in the sense that you let it sit for a bit. In actual work, we're talking minutes. But even 'regular' bread is faster to make then it is going to the store to buy. And a LOT cheaper too

I'd say Italy wins the Most Delicious Bread competition, but Germany, the Netherlands etc. also have great breads. In the Netherlands, most people eat bread for breakfast and lunch, so we want a good selection of delicious breads.

Having said that: no matter how great the bread from the shop or bakery tastes, you can't beat boat baked bread. And it's healthier too as you don't use all the additives that's in commercially baked breads.

OK, well, you're pushing me towards trying it.

The problem with LPG is not the cost, it's the availability. Baking uses up gas at a vastly higher rate than the cooktop, and I never know what country I'll be in when it runs out.

Right now I have two full 4.5kg butane bottles, UK type, and one empty Finnish/Estonian 6kg propane bottle. If the butane lasts me until I get to Estonia, then I'm ok for a while, but then I still have to get back on whatever is left of the propane . . . It's a PITA. Wish I had an electric oven. I'll have a big crew on board again this year and there will no doubt be a lot of cooking going on. Gas . . .

I'm going to try once more to see whether I might squeeze in the larger 7kg Calor butane bottles. If I had two of those, the picture might be different.


My next boat will have no gas at all -- all electric

[Dockhead]

Originally Posted by a64pilot

Ann,
I guess I need to learn how to make it, cause I hope to be places at times when it won't be available.

I'm convinced the German bread was so good partially because it was so very fresh, and had no preservatives.
I lived in a little town in Germany called Hailer, it cost me a bunch extra not to live in Military housing, but I wanted to live in Germany, around Germans etc.
Anyway the normal average German family, the wife got up at the crack of dawn every morning and rode a bicycle or walked the short distance to the bakery where she bought bread that was still warm from the oven. Honestly it was a food all unto it's own, and the butter was just as good. I don't know how, but it was actually sweet, not salted and just tasted good. I have not been able to find butter like that over here either.
The vegetables were like the bread and butter, you bought the days vegetables at what we would call a Farmers market, and for some reason the colors were more vibrant, it was obviously very fresh and was just better than what you get here in Supermarkets. Average German had what we would consider Dorm fridges, the concept was completely different than they way we do it in the US. In Germany the food for the day was bought nearly every day from little family run shops, so only a small fridge is needed or wanted.
In the US, everybody works, so once a week or so you drive to a Huge Supermarket and load up with a weeks worth of food. Even the fresh food is plastic wrapped and came from across the country on refrigerated trucks, so it's a week old when you get it.

Now I am a part of the Massive, Industrial US farming industry, and I know for a fact that no time in History has so few people produced so much food, for so little money. The US food industry leads the world in productivity and keeping costs low. But trust me, we lost something with the industrialization and efficiency.

The Beer was the real crime, after coming back to the US, I just cant drink it, it's horrible. You know the old joke about US beer is like making love in a Canoe? Well it's true.
Remember if your old enough how there used to be a Milk man? Drove his truck around I guess every day and picked up the empty bottles of milk, and left fresh ones on the door step?
Well, your not going to believe this, but in Germany there is the Beer man, Honest to God he drives his truck around and picks up your empty racks of beer bottles and leaves a fresh on on your door step.
They drink beer at work, and even have kinderbeer, or children's beer, but near as I could tell they had if anything fewer Alcoholics than we do in the US

This tracks my experience living in Germany the first time EXACTLY. I thought I'd never tasted butter, beer, bread, or a number of other things before. It not only blew my mind, but I also gained a lot of weight that year

[Lizzy Belle]

Originally Posted by Dockhead

Baking uses up gas at a vastly higher rate than the cooktop, and I never know what country I'll be in when it runs out.

Use a Coleman Camp oven, or an Omnia stove top oven. I had an Omnia on another boat, and a Coleman on this one. Both work like a charm.

I've never had a "real" oven so not sure how much LPG / alcohol those use.