Baking on a boat
Nothing is better than a freshly baked loaf. I was proud when I finally presented my first loaf of bread which had not collapse, burned on the bottom or turned into stone. But with the recipes from friends and fellow sailors and a few years of trial and error, I finally got it down.
Baking on a boat depends greatly on the gear you have in your galley. Not everyone has gas and oven. But in this post I will share with you our 3 key recipes demonstrating 3 ways of baking on a boat. By oven, cast-iron pan and Thermal Cooker.
Oven
Onboard Black Duck we have Force 10 oven, which is well over 10 years old and has needed many repairs. (Once because a rat build a nest in the insulation under the Stovetop)
The Oven runs on LPG which is a precious resource onboard as it is both unethical, expensive and sometimes very hard to get. But it does feed a good flame.
Cast iron pan
“You gotta have one of these” Senna told me when he gave me the cast iron pan in Tassie. Unlike those non-stick pans, this was a healthy cooking tool, he let me know.
Four years later, this is still what I prefer to cook on. For baking I use it as a base in the oven or on the stove top with a lid. It retains the heat well, but prevents the bottom of the bread from burning.
Thermal cooker
I think the thermal cooker is a huge advantage when baking on a boat.
To save gas we recently bought a Thermal Cooker, which works surprisingly well and cooks using about half the gas.
The thermal cooker is basically a pot which is placed in an insulating container, which keeps the content cooking for hours after it has come of the stovetop. For baking you put your dough in a smaller pot with a lock on lit, which then is placed in water inside a bigger pot. The water is brought to a boil for about 10 minutes. Then it is removed from the stove and placed inside the thermal container to continue cooking for hours. It retains a heat at around 70 degrees.
(This is a ‘Travel Chef’ which we bought for 50AUD in a camping store. I have never tried another brand, so I have nothing to compare with. But this works great and convinces me that you don’t need to buy a really expensive one.)
Default Oven Spelt Bread
INGREDIENTS
- 500g Spelt Flour or mix with white flour
- 1 tbsp. dry yeast
- 1 tbsp. Honey
- 1 tsp. salt
- 1/2 tsp caraway seeds
- Nigella seeds, sunflower seeds and pumpkin kernels
- 2 tbsp. olive oil
- Water
Wake yeast in lukewarm water with honey for 5-10 minutes.
Mix all dry ingredients.
Make a well in the flour and pour in water, oil and yeast and until dough can be whipped hard with a spoon.
Add flour again until dough is dry enough to be kneaded by hand.
Coat bowl in oil and place dough covered with tea towel.
Leave in warm place until dough has risen to double size.
Punch dough down and place on cast iron pan to rise again. (I use the rim of a cake tin to hold the dough up when the boat is rocking).
Put dough in preheated oven and let bake for about 40 minutes depending on your oven.
Sailor Greta’s Pan-Baked Pizza / Bread
INGREDIENTS
- 2 tsp (7g) dry yeast
- Good pinch of salt
- Drizzle of Olive Oil
- Squeeze of Honey
- 3 1/2 cups of Plain Flour
- 375ml lukewarm Water
In water add honey, oil and yeast. Stir and let sit for 10 minutes.
In a bowl mix dry ingredients. (Add herbs of your choice)
Using a spoon bring together water/yeast and flour.
Place onto floured surface and knead by hand for about 10 min.
Coat bowl in oil and place dough into it. Cover and prove for a minimum of 1 hour or until doubled in size.
Divide dough into portions and place in fridge until ready to use.
Pre-heat cast iron pan and drizzle with oil. Roll out dough to fit pan.
Fry bread in pan covered by a lid for about 3-4 minutes, then flip.
Alice’s Marinized Banana Bread (thermal cooker)
INGREDIENTS
- 3 large overripe bananas
- 1 1/4 cup plain flour
- 1/3 cup oil
- 1/2 cup brown sugar
- 1 tsp. bicarb soda
- 1/3 cup Milk of your choice (add until consistency is right)
- 1 tbsp. vinegar
- add dark chocolate and walnuts/almonds
Mush bananas and mix dry ingredients ingredients together.
Whisk vinegar and milk together.
Add milk and oil to dry ingredients and mix.
Pour into cake tin.
This can both be made in oven, on pan or in thermal cooker. If you have the latter I would highly recommend that method as it is very energy sufficient and gives great results.
In thermal cooker: Boil for 10 minutes in inner pot on stove top. Then place in Thermal Cooker and leave for 3 hours.