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Breadmaker aboard

9K views 21 replies 8 participants last post by  SailNet Archive 
#1 ·
Does anyone keep a breadmaker aboard? We''ve recently moved aboard & it''s one of those luxuries I''d hate to give up. Mine,however,is too cumbersome to stow.Does anyone know of a compact model or have any good stowage tips?
 
#4 ·
we did away with our breadmaker and replaced it
with Wolfgang Pucks 800 watt mixer. We use the same recipe as the breadmaker and use the dough hook to mix with. It takes only 5 minutes to mix put it into bread pan let it rise and bake. makes great bread. If you are going to cruise outside the US it''s hard to find flour for breadmakers. So try a recipe for bread and experiment. That''s what we did and we our bread is great and takes very little time to make.
But as we traveled outside the US we found that making Tortillas was easier. So we make more tortillas than bread now.
Tauras
 
#5 ·
christiner,
There wasn''t a hurry or need to use power tools when we were cruising so we did the dough by hand. Then baked it inside a coffee can set inside a pressure cooker without the pressure on (aka dutch oven). When finished baking it made a perfect round loaf for slicing. Yes, it drops right out of the can. We baked bread daily for approx 2 yrs this way. For us, yeast was harder to find than flour.
 
#8 ·
I knew a guy with a 31 ft Hunter with a breadmaker aboard. It was a real treat while cruising. He did not have a 12V frig,but an icebox. He had a large solar panel and a wind gen, inverter. As, you know when you are out cruising for a time it is nice to have a few special things(whatever they are for you, like chocolate,alcohol,waffles,fruit,etc). I stocked up on Spices for food. It was a good way to make the same food taste diff each time. I used more spices than I would ever use at home. Some of my choices in food were because of the date on it, not how much I liked the food. I have a 12V frig.
 
#9 ·
Below is a link to a breadmaker site, the breadmaker is yours truly. The site is the Island Packet Owner''s Photo Site, the photo is of a couple of beauties I made while enroute on a delivery from St. Thomas to The Chesapeake.
http://www.islandpacketphotos.com/pictures/Ad_634_6.jpg

As you can see, there is no limit what you can do without special equipment, I did however need the oven but the dough and loaves were freehanded.

Captain Bruce
 
#10 ·
Yeast bread is easy to make. Dry yeast will keep for a year if you don't lay it out in the sun. You don't need anything more than a bowl for mixing and an oven for baking. Four cups of flour, an envelope of yeast, a scant 12 ounces of water, 2 teaspoons of salt. Mix by hand until it forms a lump with no dry places, allow to sit covered for about 20 minutes and knead in the bowl for five minutes, don't add flour, oil the bowl, turn the bread to coat with oil, cover and let rise until very puffy, shape into a round somewhat flat loaf like a big bun, sprinkle some cornmeal on a cooky sheat, let rise until at least double in size. Bake in a375 degree f. oven for forty minutes.
 
#11 ·
You can also bake bread in a Pressure Cooker... might be worth looking at/learning, as the fuel savings are fairly significant. :D Also, pressure cookers have the advantage of locking shut, so in a rough sea, the contents stay inside.
 
#12 ·
Sailingdog, does it develope a nice brown crust that way. It seems to me that it would steam more than bake. It would be done in the sense that it could be sliced. I do steamed puddings in wide mouth pints in a pressure cooker. But that is for canning with the "dome" lids and they keep for months. But they get processed for 75 minutes.
 
#14 ·
Ssor said:
Sailingdog, does it develope a nice brown crust that way. It seems to me that it would steam more than bake. It would be done in the sense that it could be sliced. I do steamed puddings in wide mouth pints in a pressure cooker. But that is for canning with the "dome" lids and they keep for months. But they get processed for 75 minutes.
The lid can be locked shut, and if you leave the weight off or the pressure switch in the open position, it would bake, not steam, as the pressure would not build up. The fact that the lid locks is useful, even when baking, as in a rough sea, having the dough thrown out of the dutch oven at you is less that fun...especially if it has heated up to a good temperature...
 
#16 · (Edited)
Yes, I have baked bread by this method. IIRC, bread browns for two reasons, one is the heat carmelizes the sugars in the bread, the other is that the hot surface and air dries out the surface of the bread and allows it to brown, much like what happens in a toaster. There are two types of pressure cooker bread recipes.

The first class of recipes, the bread is cooked under pressure, with the weight or pressure switch on, and the gasket in place. These are steam baked breads. Here is a recipe from this first class of pressure cooker baking:

Sun-dried Tomato/Herb Bread
This bread is an example of steam-baking in the pressure cooker. It is done under pressure. The amount of time for steam-baking is a bit shorter than when using an oven, and you save fuel by heating only the pressure cooker.

Pre-heat the pressure cooker on medium heat five minutes before putting in your food to be baked, covered with aluminum foil to retain heat. Turn your burner down very low. A consistent low flame will produce a moderate oven temperature. Cakes and other sweets seem to take a little longer than breads this way.

We love this bread sliced and toasted under the broiler with cheese melted on top. The crust is chewy and not browned on top. You can make plain bread this way by leaving out the seasonings. I like to use 1/2 whole wheat to hide the fact that the bread is not browned on top.
1 cup warm water (110-115 F)
1 1/2 teaspoons active dry yeast
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 tablespoons olive oil
About 3 1/2 cups unbleached bread flour
1 cup fresh basil, chopped finely
4 cloves garlic, minced
6 reconstituted dry-packed sun-dried tomatoes, chopped
1/4 cup shredded Parmesan cheese

Dissolve yeast and sugar in small bowl with 1/4 cup of the warm water. Add remaining water to large mixing bowl. Add salt and oil and allow to cool while yeast is dissolving. Add yeast mixture and 3 cups of flour along with basil, garlic, dried tomatoes, and cheese. Turn out on floured counter and knead for 10 minutes or until smooth and elastic, adding flour as needed. Place dough in a greased 2-quart oven-safe casserole dish or bowl that will fit in your pressure cooker. Let rise until doubled in volume in a warm draft-free place 40 minutes to 1 hour. When doubled, punch down, turn out onto counter, and knead a few times. Place dough back in dish and let rise a second time for 1/2 hour.

Pour 2 cups fresh or salt water into pressure cooker with rack. Place container of dough in the pressure cooker and seal with lid. Bring up to 15 pounds pressure. Turn heat down to maintain pressure, and cook 40 minutes. Cool cooker immediately by placing in a pan of cold water or letting cold water run over cooker. Open lid carefully and remove bread. Cool in baking container for 10 minutes, then invert and take out of dish. Cool 15 minutes before slicing. Makes 1 loaf.


The second class of recipes are tradionally baked recipes, and require that you remove the gasket and leave the pressure weight/switch in the relief position. These are usually baked using a small rack and a smaller baking container, inside the pressure cooker. In this situation, the pressure cooker is merely acting as a stove-top oven, much like a traditional dutch oven. Here is a traditional baking recipe for brownies, adapted to pressure cooker baking:

Mercator Brownies
This is an example of baking with a pressure cooker. To bake in the pressure cooker, remove the gasket, leave the pressure regulator off the top, and use the cooking rack and a separate heatproof dish that fits inside the cooker for the food. Doubling the recipe and baking it in an oven will produce a 13x9 pan of brownies. It is a scaled-down recipe tailored to using my medium stainless steel bowl (that holds 6 cups) as a baking pan. A soufflé dish would work well as a heatproof dish.

2 ounces unsweetened baking chocolate
3 tablespoons butter
3/4 cup brown sugar
1 egg
3/4 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/2 cup unbleached flour
1/2 cup nuts (optional)

Pre-heat pressure cooker over a medium flame with rack inside and top locked on but without a gasket or the pressure regulator. Do not put liquid inside. Lightly grease the heatproof dish that will fit inside your pressure cooker for the batter.

In a pot over very low heat, melt chocolate and butter, stirring constantly. As soon as it's melted and smooth, remove from heat and add sugar. Stir until well blended. Add egg and vanilla; mix well. Add flour and nuts, if desired. Stir mixture well. Pour into heatproof bowl. Cover with aluminum foil. Open your pressure cooker and place dish inside on rack. Turn heat down to low and bake 45 minutes or until a wooden toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Remove from pressure cooker and cool. Enjoy!

I hope this clears things up a bit. BTW, both of these recipes were from the Good Old Boat magazine website, and their article on cooking with a pressure cooker can be found here. One other point, the second type of baking generally requires a larger pressure cooker than the first type, which can be done with a four-quart model. I have both a four-quart and an eight-quart pressure cooker that came as a package. A nine-inch round cake pan fit inside without much trouble, as the pressure cooker is 10" in diameter. Getting the cake pan out is another story. ;)
 
#18 ·
I place bread into two catagories. Yeast breads and quick breads. Yeast breads take from 2 hours to 18 hours from start to finish. Quick breads are the muffin , biscuit, pancake types and take from 30 to 45 minutes start to finish. I have baked upside down cakes on top of the stove with a cover on the pan. These cakes are always rather anemic looking on top, the taste is fine. For very hot weather I bake quick breads in the early morning. In cold weather I make yeast breads that are baked after sundown. In cold weather sundown seems to come early. Steamed puddings are generally slow cooking even in the pressure cooker and cooling the cooker too quickly can result in bursting the loaf of steamed pudding.
 
#19 ·
I am not the breadmaker chef, my wife is really the expert, but I will throw in my little bit of experience: We did carry a breadmachine and it is great. It is reccommended (Essential Galley Companion, by Amanda Swan-Neal I think). I do not care if you are a first time liveaboard, weekender, or 30 year old salt, that is a great book with great recipes, hints, etc. That being said, and this will come with a lot of dissagreement, but: Trash the bread maker and buy a compact ice maker!!

THere are other ways to make bread, including the pressure cooker with a upside down tuna can to distribute heat, etc... but I have NOT found a good way to make ice other than an ice maker.

Once again, my humble little opinion.
 
#20 ·
I have never used a machine to make bread and haven't bought a loaf of bread in thirty years, but I almost always use a machine to make ice. The exception being when it is too cold to go sailing and I can just put a pail of water ouyside and get ice in a few hours. ;)


An Ice maker makes more sense to me than does a bread machine.
 
#21 ·
Ssor-
It's easy to make ice in a pressure cooker, much easier than making bread.

To make ice cubes in a pressure cooker, place one ice tray in the bottom of the pressure cooker. Add two inches of liquid nitrogen, cover, and wait for the pressure weight to stop moving.

Open cooker, remove ice cube tray, pop out ice cubes.

See? just two ingredients, time and temperature totally not critical.<G>
 
#22 ·
Hellosailor, That reminds me of the contest to find the fastest way to start a barbeque fire; Pile the brickettes in the grill, add one lighted match, and 1 liter of liquid oxygen. This was done somewhere a few years ago at a University picnic, they never did find the remains of the grill. :)
 
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