Frypan “baking” on an induction hotplate (or Refleks diesel heater top or stove top)

[LostBiker]

With our stove even on low setting its really too hot to cook anything. I had Junior cut out some aluminum disks that we used as heat deifusers and that did the trick. The first pizza was basically a sacrifice as it kinda burned the bottom, but the second came out good. I had to use the 8" iron skillet just sitting on the fiddle and about 12 minutes to cook with a lid on.






No LP gas/electric was used and the only hit was using the bread machine to just make the dough. We'll try our hand at the making the dough by hand next - baby steps. Seaworthy's pizza sauce is right on.


John

[Seaworthy Lass]

Originally Posted by LostBiker

With our stove even on low setting its really too hot to cook anything. I had Junior cut out some aluminum disks that we used as heat deifusers and that did the trick. The first pizza was basically a sacrifice as it kinda burned the bottom, but the second came out good. I had to use the 8" iron skillet just sitting on the fiddle and about 12 minutes to cook with a lid on.






No LP gas/electric was used and the only hit was using the bread machine to just make the dough. We'll try our hand at the making the dough by hand next - baby steps. Seaworthy's pizza sauce is right on.


John

Hi John
That’s looks fantastic! I am glad you enjoyed the sauce .

I am chuffed about how well pizza cooks on the Refleks. With the crispy bottom / soft top combo I think it is actually better than oven baked pizza.

Regarding hand kneading the dough, for me this is a pleasure. It is easy to get into the rhythm of pressing with the heel of one hand, rotating the dough then with the other hand pulling a bit and folding over and repeating. There are lots of YouTubes that show the most common techniques.

I find a little olive oil on the bench and on my hands hands decreases sticking and means no messy loose flour is needed. I know little power is consumed with bread mixing machines, but I think it is just satisfying kneading by hand.

SWL

[LostBiker]

Thank you! - we just made another batch of dough by "hand" and it looks like it came out ok. Made it just like you said.

Heres lunch right now. Followed your recipe exactly except we used chickpeas. Made it in the Instant Pot and there is enough left over for tomorrow in the fridge.





Ummm - whats next?


John

[Seaworthy Lass]

Originally Posted by LostBiker

Ummm - whats next?

John

Hi John
Now that your tums are full of healthy soup, it is time for a sweet treat .

This is early days for me, so I am still finding my feet with frypan baking. I have only had a chance to make a few cakes in a frypan on the Refleks, but all have been successful. I have been using ¼ to ⅓ of my normal amount of cake mixture. On your larger Refleks that takes a bigger pan, a larger quantity may still work.

I have found a final result that is no more than 2cm (¾”) thick is about the maximum possible on our Refleks (without using any heat distribution discs or a cast iron pan) to ensure the top is cooked when the bottom is just gently coloured.

Details of yesterday’s trial:

FRYPAN BLUEBERRY UPSIDE DOWN CAKE

WET INGREDIENTS
1 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil (edited to add: or a tablespoon or two of melted butter)
½ tsp vanilla extract
1 egg
¼ cup milk soured with 1 tsp lemon juice or vinegar

DRY INGREDIENTS
⅔ cup self raising flour
2 tablespoons sugar

A couple of handfuls of blueberries (or other berries, stone fruit, pineapple, a sliced apple, banana or whatever takes your fancy )
1 heaped teaspoon soft brown sugar

- Whisk wet ingredients with a fork.
- Sift in dry ingredients.
- Fold together very gently until barely combined. The result will be denser if you are heavy handed.
- Lightly oil a 21cm frypan. If you are not using a non stick pan I would line the base with a small circle of baking paper. Sprinkle with the brown sugar and scatter the blueberries. If you are using sliced apple and have the time and inclination, swirl the slices around artistically .
- Spoon over the batter and cover with a lid.
- Put on the top of the Refleks (preheated on the lowest setting for ours).
- Cook covered approx 17 minutes. Don’t overcook as it will dry out. I have found that if the top is set to touch, it is done.
- Invert and enjoy warm with a cuppa.
It also makes a satisfying dessert served with double cream or custard.

This treat is particularly good on an afternoon like yesterday when outside temperature hovered around freezing and surrounding pastures were white with frost .


Having pulled out all the ingredients and equipment (which is most of the effort involved), I have been measuring out a double lot, putting the flour and sugar in a small container, and the wet components in a glass jar and refrigerating until needed the next day. It takes literally a minute to then shake the contents of the jar, pour into a bowl and fold in the dry mix.

The cake can be altered the second time around by omitting the fresh fruit and adding dried fruit or coconut or nuts or spices. A handful of chopped chocolate improves all these even further .

SWL

PS I am going to try making your buttermilk biscuits today.

[LostBiker]

Originally Posted by Seaworthy Lass

Hi John


FRYPAN BLUEBERRY UPSIDE DOWN CAKE

WET INGREDIENTS
1 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil
½ tsp vanilla extract
1 egg
¼ cup milk soured with 1 tsp lemon juice or vinegar

DRY INGREDIENTS
⅔ cup self raising flour
2 tablespoons sugar

A couple of handfuls of blueberries (or other berries, stone fruit, pineapple, a sliced apple, banana or whatever takes your fancy )
1 heaped teaspoon soft brown sugar

- Whisk wet ingredients with a fork.
- Sift in dry ingredients.
- Fold together very gently until barely combined. The result will be denser if you are heavy handed.
- Lightly oil a 21cm frypan. If you are not using a non stick pan I would line the base with a small circle of baking paper. Sprinkle with the brown sugar and scatter the blueberries. If you are using sliced apple and have the time and inclination, swirl it around artistically .
- Spoon over the batter and cover with a lid.
- Put on the top of the Refleks (preheated on the lowest setting for ours).
- Cook covered approx 17 minutes. Don’t overcook as it will dry out. I have found that if the top is set to touch, it is done.
- Invert and enjoy warm with a cuppa.

SWL

PS I am going to try making your buttermilk biscuits today.

Ok, SWL - question time - isnt the 1/4 cup of milk soured the same as buttermilk?
And fold over till gently combined - no kneading at all? Baking paper we have aplenty now.
That cake looks great - cake is my weakness and the reason I have to run 3 miles every morning.



Speaking of pan baking, I made a breakfast pan bread thingy and it came out pretty good. Now, I did knead it a bit till it was smooth - it came out good and chewy dense. If I just folded it over till combined, would it come out more cake like?

Im still working on terminology. I had to think for a second about stone fruit (like a peach)- I havent heard that since we were in the UK years ago.



You realize you've created a monster now, dont you?



What we made this morning.





This was made with:


1C self rising flour
Pinch of salt
1 Tablespoon butter cut in
1/2 C milk


I kneaded it till smooth and patted it down to about 3/4 inch - it comes out to 6 inches round and about 1.5 inches high when cooked. I used 1 tablespoon olive oil to wet both sides and cooked it in the 8 inch skillet - I had to lift the side a few times to see if it was brown - about 3 minutes(?) per side. Nice and crispy crust. I added the cheeze to my side as soon as it was flipped so it would melt (didnt use a cover) and left the other side plain for Liz so she could put marmalade on hers. It turned out to be quite filling. After it was all gone, I wished I had had marmalade on mine also.



Its just a big biscuit that took about 20 minutes start to finish.


Oooo - thinking good thoughts in your direction for your biscuits!


Thanks! We need to get milk again, so we'll pick up some fresh blueberries that we saw at the grocer the other day and try your recipe asap.



John

[Pete7]

Are you guys cooking in a frying pan with a lid on?

Pete

[LostBiker]

Originally Posted by Pete7

Are you guys cooking in a frying pan with a lid on?

Pete

Um, right now its yes and no. For the pizza - yes, I used a lid (clear glass). For a biscuit, then no, as I flip it when it gets browned on each side. This is all an experiment cooking on a diesel heater. Its getting really fun and productive now thanks to SWL. She started it and Im just now following along.


John

[Seaworthy Lass]

Originally Posted by Pete7

Are you guys cooking in a frying pan with a lid on?

Pete

Yes. The shallow depth means that the airspace under the lid gets hot and the top side cooks far more than it would otherwise.

I am about to post about the “biscuit” success. They were a hit!
When I flipped those to brown both sides, I did leave the lid off so that the golden side did not get soft with the steam that results under a closed lid.

SWL

[Seaworthy Lass]

Originally Posted by LostBiker

Heres the recipe for a nice buttermilk biscuit that we use all the time.

2C All purpose flour
1 Tablespoon Baking Powder
1/4 Teaspoon Baking Soda
2 Teaspoons Sugar
6 Tablespoons Butter (we use Kerry Gold)
3/4 C Buttermilk

Put all the dry ingredients in a large bowl and mix well.
Cut in the butter
Add the Buttermilk and mix.
Roll out to 1/2" or 3/4 and use a biscuit cutter or cup to cut out.
Will make 6-8 biscuits.
Bake in 450* oven for 10 to 12 minutes till the tops are golden brown.
Remove and eat! Good hot or cold. This is our 2x per week biscuit.

John

My first attempt making “buttermilk biscuits” was a GREAT success. They are light and fluffy yet super flaky and they taste oh so buttery. I now know why these are so popular in the US! I am just munching on one from the second pan load.

They worked absolutely brilliantly in a frypan. I can’t imagine that they could possibly taste any better made in an oven, or why anyone would bother doing this, especially on a boat.

I modified the technique slightly, based on what I do when making pastry and scones (the ingredients seemed to call for that):
- I used very cold butter and flour and milk (left it outside ).
- I rubbed in the bigger bits of butter a little with my fingertips (I am not good at effectively cutting it in yet).
- I mixed in the buttermilk with a knife until the flour was barely combined rather than mixing well.
- I barely patted the dough out to a rough rectangle rather than rolling it and folded it in half twice to incorporate some extra air before patting it a bit thinner and cutting the rounds.

I cut out four rounds a bit less than 1 cm thick for the first lot. I wouldn’t bother with circles again, as with the lack of room in the small pan when they rose and spread out a bit, the round shape was not retained. For the second lot I simply gently patted together the remaining dough, handling it as little as possible, and cut it into four squares and these came out equally well.

Cooking time covered was 14 minutes on the lowest Refleks setting (at which stage most of the top looked nearly cooked), then they were flipped and left another 6 minutes uncovered. Both sides ended up evenly golden.

On board these will now be referred to as “Biker’s scones”. The term “biscuit” for what is not a proper biscuit at all is far too confusing for Aussies .

Again, many thanks John .
Any more gems like this?

SWL

These are how they looked when flipped. Not very handsome, but the thinner rounds cooked to perfection. They had just about doubled in height and had risen enough to just touch the underside of the lid before they were flipped:

[Seaworthy Lass]

Originally Posted by LostBiker

Ok, SWL - question time - isnt the 1/4 cup of milk soured the same as buttermilk?

Yes, I just have no buttermilk. When I make a full sized cake along these lines I use half yoghurt. Any of these options will work here.

Originally Posted by LostBiker

And fold over till gently combined - no kneading at all? Baking paper we have aplenty now.

No, no kneading. The mix is a thick batter, so you could not knead it anyway. Overmixing cakes (and muffins and scones and pancakes) alters the proteins in the flour and creates a much denser result, so fold in the flour very gently a minimal amount, trying to fold in air at the same time.

Originally Posted by LostBiker

Speaking of pan baking, I made a breakfast pan bread thingy and it came out pretty good. Now, I did knead it a bit till it was smooth - it came out good and chewy dense. If I just folded it over till combined, would it come out more cake like?

Without any egg in your breakfast recipe it would not be cake like, but it would certainly be much lighter rather than chewy dense if you handled it a minmum amount.

Originally Posted by LostBiker

You realize you've created a monster now, dont you?

You are feeding the monster at this end too .
It is actually really nice to bounce ideas around, so thanks.

SWL

PS If you and Liz enjoy marmalade I have a few wonderful recipes. I made marmalade on the Refleks last winter and I will dig up my favourite recipe for you. This year I stashed several jars of tart Tyttebaer berry jam before we left Norway, so marmalade making has been on hold.

[LostBiker]

Hot diggity dog! Tomorrow morning is "scones day" for us and we'll be doing it your way and I bet they come out better than what we usually have. They look great! I have the sinking feeling we (I) need to be a lot more gentle when mixing things.

I agree that things are noticeably better when the butter and milk is cold, but didnt know that warm room temperature flour could be an issue. Its 34* or 1*C out now, so it will be easy to cool things.
Hmmm - 1cm is a little over 1/3" so maybe I need to thin things out instead of 1/2" or 3/4" for a taller biscuit. Would mean more biscuits too.

Yes, I think I can come up with a few things for you - We need to go get milk and blueberries to try the blueberry upside down cake this afternoon, so give me a few hours.

Oh! A question - the knife in the cake picture - is that a Japanese Shun? Cant quite make out the logo.

In the meantime, heres a picture of one of our Siberians in the snow we had a few days ago. The sun doesnt come out much now, so its nice when it does.




John

[LostBiker]

I need to learn baking talk, so please keep on just the way your doing!
Im saving and printing out all your advice and recipes so they dont get lost due to my poor memory.
In my experience there's food and then there's FOOD. Food for the soul as I like to think. Many of the simpler dishes have a good "feeling" to them for lack of a better word. We appreciate your taking the time to school us.

Yes, that would be great if you can teach us the art of marmalade. Orange is our favorite.


John

[Seaworthy Lass]

Originally Posted by LostBiker

Oh! A question - the knife in the cake picture - is that a Japanese Shun? Cant quite make out the logo.

It is Miyabi 5000MCD 20cm Gyutoh. A joy to use .

Originally Posted by LostBiker

In the meantime, heres a picture of one of our Siberians in the snow we had a few days ago. The sun doesnt come out much now, so its nice when it does.



John

Beautiful cat and beautiful photo! The long shadows from the low sun create a stunning effect.

It is still five weeks until the solstice, but here the sun is only about 14° above the horizon at its peak at the moment. No snow lying on the ground yet, but it won’t be long. It is still a novelty for me, but on the negative side the decks do turn into an ice skating rink when they ice over.

SWL

PS Think of baking being akin to flying - contrary to instinct, a lighter touch rather than a fierce grip is usually best (ex glider pilot here ).

[LostBiker]

Back again. Yes, thats a wonderful knife - a good all purpose knife! Our daughter gifted us a few years ago with an Okami 8" Chef knife which is a good all around knife.


We have 2 Siberians - One orange (Toula) and one Tabby (Simon) - together they weigh 39lbs or 17.7 kilos. 2 years old and still another year to reach maturity.This is why we need a bigger boat. They travel all over with us (US and Canada).

Ah! Pilots! No wonder the light touch. I have 3000+ parachute jumps out of perfectly good aircraft - hence the heavier touch.

Ok - heres an old recipe for yeast rolls that my Mother made every Thanksgiving and Christmas.
2 1/4 teaspoons active dry yeast.
1/4C warm water
1/3C white sugar
1/4C softened butter
1 teaspoon salt
1C hot milk
1 egg lightly beaten
4 1/2C all purpose flour
2 tablespoon butter for brushing on rolls

Dissolve yeast in warm water in a large bowl and let it foam for 10 minutes.
Add sugar, the 1/4C butter, and salt to the hot milk and stir till dissolved.
It says to cool the mixture to 110 degrees.
Add milk mixture to yeast and then mix in egg.

Beat in the 4 cups flour, ONE cup at a time to 4 cups. The last 1/2 cup of flour is for to dust a pastry cloth.(?)
Knead dough for 5 minutes.
Dust hands and pastry cloth.
Put dough and cover in warm, buttered bowl and let double in size.
Punch down and knead for 5 minutes on the lightly dusted pastry cloth using very little flour for dusting your hands.
Cut dough into 4 pieces and then pinch off dough from each piece to make a ball about 1 3/4 inches.
As you roll the balls, pull sides down and under to shape the roll.
Place rolls bottom side down and in rows not quite touching in a buttered 13x9x2 inch pan.
Cover rolls and let double in size in a warm place.
Brush with melted butter and bake at 375* for 18 minutes or nicely browned.

I had to poorly translate this from Polish, so I hope I got it right and you can understand what it all involves. I really miss these rolls. Time to learn!

John

[Seaworthy Lass]

Originally Posted by LostBiker

Ok - heres an old recipe for yeast rolls that my Mother made every Thanksgiving and Christmas.
2 1/4 teaspoons active dry yeast.
1/4C warm water
1/3C white sugar
1/4C softened butter
1 teaspoon salt
1C hot milk
1 egg lightly beaten
4 1/2C all purpose flour
2 tablespoon butter for brushing on rolls

Dissolve yeast in warm water in a large bowl and let it foam for 10 minutes.
Add sugar, the 1/4C butter, and salt to the hot milk and stir till dissolved.
It says to cool the mixture to 110 degrees.
Add milk mixture to yeast and then mix in egg.

Beat in the 4 cups flour, ONE cup at a time to 4 cups. The last 1/2 cup of flour is for to dust a pastry cloth.(?)
Knead dough for 5 minutes.
Dust hands and pastry cloth.
Put dough and cover in warm, buttered bowl and let double in size.
Punch down and knead for 5 minutes on the lightly dusted pastry cloth using very little flour for dusting your hands.
Cut dough into 4 pieces and then pinch off dough from each piece to make a ball about 1 3/4 inches.
As you roll the balls, pull sides down and under to shape the roll.
Place rolls bottom side down and in rows not quite touching in a buttered 13x9x2 inch pan.
Cover rolls and let double in size in a warm place.
Brush with melted butter and bake at 375* for 18 minutes or nicely browned.

I had to poorly translate this from Polish, so I hope I got it right and you can understand what it all involves. I really miss these rolls. Time to learn!

John

Oh, rich yeast dough is wonderful . I bet your mum made Paska at Easter as well.

Rich dough is baked in almost every European country for Christmas and Easter (apart from the UK it seems ). When I explored the difference between the recipes a few years ago when we were in the Med and I wanted to celebrate as the Europeans do, I found they all started by using milk instead of water, then the amount of melted butter, sugar and eggs all varied from country to country (and from one housewife to the next). Small quantities of citrus zest, vanilla and sometimes spices (such as cardamom or nutmeg) were often added, and in places such as the Netherlands, marzipan as well. Ten minutes of kneading and a second rise before shaping were generally used for a lighter result.

The recipe may look a bit intimidating if you haven’t tried it before, but unlike making sponge cakes or meringue where proportion of ingredients and technique is critical, it is extremely forgiving.

I have found it really doesn’t matter exactly how much butter, sugar or eggs you use, all the variations taste great, even when quantities are wildly different. Order of adding ingredients isn’t too important. Dry yeast doesn’t have to be proved beforehand, but doing this does ensure it is still active (fresh yeast would have been used in years gone by and it was necessary to mix that with a bit of warm water and sugar and let it sit until it foamed). Exact temperature of the milk isn’t vital either, as long as it is not hot enough to kill the yeast. Just make it warm to touch. A sticky dough is far better than a stiff one, but again, there is no need for precision.

What is important is to knead the dough enough (you can even pop it in your bread machine if you don’t want to knead it by hand) and let it rise twice or even better, three times, until it has doubled in bulk before baking and you will have a mouth watering result. You can also shape the dough into a roll (plaited or plain) or bake it in a round cake tin instead of making individual rolls. I have even used muffin tins on board, as baking time is then very quick.

Although it is a much slower process, it is actually FAR easier to get a perfect result than it is when baking “Biker’s Scones” .

It would be a nice thing to make with your grandkids to keep the family tradition going. Just be prepared that you may get a little emotional if you haven’t tasted these since your mum made them .

I will try making your mum’s version today and report how it bakes on the Refleks. That will be new for me.

SWL