Baking No-Oven Bread Onboard ?

[Azul]

I love to eat homemade bread but my boat doesn't have an oven (yet) just propane burners, can I make bread in a dutch oven on a burner somehow?

BTW, I love this recipe: Italian Bread Recipe | MyRecipes.com I use three cups of flour and it comes out perfectly every time if you measure everything precisely especially the water and flour, you want the dough only very slightly sticky. Fluff up the flour before measuring it. Also, I add fresh rosemary (one frond) and 1/4 tsp of garlic powder. The recipe makes a nice small loaf in one hour total from simple, common ingredients that store easily. One of the mistakes I made on land several times was to heat the water up too much, if it is much over 115 degrees (130 and up) it kills the yeast. Too low and the yeast takes forever to foam. I bought a neat thermometer with a remote sensor at Wally World for $30, it even has a pager (?!) that works up to 200 feet away (probably won't use that feature as I am self insured!) and find that when the bread hits 195 degrees it is baked perfectly. Could I put that inside the dutch oven to monitor the temp to simulate an oven? Or better inside the bread?

Part of what I love about living aboard is the feeling of being directly connected to life's simple pleasures such as cooking instead of spending all of my time working to buy expensive things to impress people I don't like.

If I can figure this out it will also give me something to trade for a cold beer from someone that already has a reefer .

[Cheechako]

I've heard of it done in a pressure cooker.... so dutch oven might work.

[wingNwing]

If you have a pressure cooker you might try this: Pressure Cooker Bread: less energy, less time, REAL bread! | hip pressure cooking - pressure cooker recipes & tips!

I haven't made this bread - yet - but everything I've made since discovering this site has been excellent!

[onestepcsy37]

we make frying pan bread but i doubt that it would be acceptable to a true bread lover, which you seem to be. if you want to give it a try there are a thousand recipes out there on the net...

[senormechanico]

We use our propane barbecue.
We found two different cake pans which semi nest, so there's an air gap everywhere except the very top edge.
We made a snake out of rolled up aluminum foil to give a little bit extra space between the pans and I found a lid at a thrift store which fit over the pans.
I had to remove the top handle and replace it with a tubular metal standoff, a washer and a couple of nuts because the barbecue heat was too much for the original.
We run the barbecue on lowest possible heat and the bread turns out great every time.

[Azul]

Senormechanico, that's a great idea. I need to move buying a Magma grill up on my two page list of "nice to have's!" Those things are pricey, is there a certain model that is ideal in terms of propane use/cost/size for the average 34 foot boat? Is it safe for me to put a propane tank in a padded (with bumpers, extra rope coils etc) lazarette if it isn't connected to anything or is it still an explosion hazard, the rail mounts I have seen are hundreds of dollars? There is a gizmo to attach the large bottle to little stoves instead of the tiny little green bottles which are also a potential problem.

[Dsanduril]

We have an oven now, but for years used a big, heavy aluminum (aluminium to some of you) pressure cooker to bake bread. It was about 10-12" in diameter and about the same tall. We baked with the pressure weight off, so not using it as a pressure device, just a heavy pot. Didn't handle loaf pans too well, so we took to baking round loaves in a coffee can. Takes a few attempts to figure out what flame level on the stove creates the right temperature, but after that it was very repeatable. Mostly cooked a pretty standard whole wheat bread recipe, probably every 3-5 days for a couple of years, it was always pretty tasty.

Is it safe for me to put a propane tank in a padded (with bumpers, extra rope coils etc) lazarette

That's how ours has been stored for years, with the proviso that there is a pretty large drain in the lazarette the leads overboard. That way, if someone accidentally knocks the valve and opens it a hair the propane won't pool at the bottom. To me, the biggest concern with propane is making sure that any leaked propane has a nice, easy way to get out and away from the boat. A ventilation opening near the top and a large drain at the bottom are a great way to do this and keep things from going BOOM. Just make sure any openings aren't near an intake for something else.

[Ballenxj]

Originally Posted by Azul

I love to eat homemade bread but my boat doesn't have an oven (yet) just propane burners, can I make bread in a dutch oven on a burner somehow?

Ever thought about a Convection Oven?
What Is a Convection Oven?
I understand you can do everything you can with a regular oven, including baking.
-Bruce

[bobconnie]

If ya got the power to run a convection oven ya have the power to run a bread maker, we have run a bread maker for a long time with a inverter Just sayin

[Ballenxj]

Originally Posted by bobconnie

If ya got the power to run a convection oven ya have the power to run a bread maker, we have run a bread maker for a long time with a inverter Just sayin

Bet Ya can't cook a turkey in your bread maker though.
Just sayin...........
-Bruce

[vientoman]

It would be interesting to determine how many watt hours of power is required to bake a loaf of bread using the common 110VAC bread-maker via inverter. Out of curiosity, I plugged a "Welbilt" Bread Machine into an inverter connected to two deep cycle trolling motor batteries and it did in fact work. When I did this first test, I did not take any measurements but I did determining that the bread tasted pretty good.

If anyone is interested, I could actually gather a little data next time to determine how much of a hit the batteries actually take. To do that, I could take a voltage measurement before and after the bake. This may not be the most accurate method of determining actual power used. However, by using a known capacity ( amp hour ) battery bank and recording the end state of charge, that should give us an idea.

The power use profile of a bread machine varies widely. The particular model bread machine that I am using has a sticker claiming it to be 560 Watts, but I imagine it only uses this much power when it's in the full on bake mode. As an example, if you want to bake a 1 lb loaf of bead, it takes about two and a half hours and the majority of that time, the machine is not using much power at all. It uses a small unknown amount of power to kneed the dough - all the while, the heating element is used slightly to provide a warming effect to promote the action of the yeast. ( I'm not sure it this is done by switching the power to the heating element on and off periodically or not.)

I'm going to go bake a loaf of bread using my two batteries and I'll report back with the findings.

FYI, for this experiment, I'm using two wal Mart Maxx Everstart Marine deep cycle 125amp hour batteries in parallel with a no frills, modified sine wave inverter. Starting full charge voltage is 12.83.

who ever guesses the nearest end voltage wins a loaf of bread.......

[Ballenxj]

Originally Posted by vientoman

I'm going to go bake a loaf of bread using my two batteries and I'll report back with the findings.

FYI, for this experiment, I'm using two wal Mart Maxx Everstart Marine deep cycle 125amp hour batteries in parallel with a no frills, modified sine wave inverter. Starting full charge voltage is 12.83.

I'd like to hear about your results.

Originally Posted by vientoman

who ever guesses the nearest end voltage wins a loaf of bread.......

Um, 11.8ish?
-Bruce

[bobconnie]

We did have 2 LARGE battery banks, one always in charge mode when the other was in use, so we could use more power then some can ! In the new boat (which we are still waiting to hear back on LOL) theres a nice small genny so there will be no problem for our bread maker !! wont leave home without it !! we love our fresh bread! (and so do the folks we give a loaf to) But we did run one of the old ones on batts and inverter, and it took way more power then the one we have now !!

[daddle]

Frying pan bread works just fine for me. Covered. A burger bun is the thickest I have done. A sliced loaf won't cook thru.

I make just basic white or whole wheat type yeast breads. Leave the dough quite wet so it puffs up easy. Very sticky. Form it with plenty flour on the board. Put covered in a very hot (I use teflon) pan. Turn over after 1 minute when very slightly brown. Then turn down to medium low after another minute. Done in about 15 or when the smoke says so. Semolina flour in the pan cuts down on the browning and burning. Put stuff on top after the first flip for a pizza or yummy loaf treats.

Easy. Minimal LPG use. Minimal cabin heat.

[vientoman]

Ah,,not so bad........

popped a nice cold "Session"Full Sail premium dark opened the breadmachine and was faced with the job of eating freashed baked bread while I work out the state of charge of two 125 amp hour batteries.......start volage - 12.83v ----> end voltage = 12.21 ~
given
http://www.urbansolarcorp.com/images/battery_state.png
dropped two 125 amp hour 12Vbatteries in paralell to 60% state of charge.......The waste heat from this bread maching could have been used to boil a pot of tea.

https://picasaweb.google.com/1111898...7/August162012

I'd say we did no harm....The bread was a basic 2 cups and a half handfull of flower, cup and a splash of warm water, break open a small stone and carve out the center with a nail then fill it with yeast. add enough salt to balance on the edge of your little finger. add belly button full of nice olive oil.....I prefer t his:...it's a bit spendy but it will suffice: http://most-expensive-luxury.com/wp-...ds/2012/07/jpg

a pinch of salt : http://graphics8.nytimes.com/images/...s/salt_531.jpg