Baking aBoard Black Diamond!

Braided Chala Bread

Yes it is possible to bake aboard your boat, and it is easier than you think. My wife Roxane has baked all sorts of goodies for us; Birthday Cakes, Cup Cakes, Breads, Egg Loaf, Braided Chala Bread, croissant, Banana Bread, Pizzas, Muffins, Hamburger buns, the list goes on. We also enjoy such things as waffles, pan cakes, crepes and french toast.

When we are cruising, especially in the Bahamas, we are often in very remote places, away from settlements, therefore no stores to purchase these items from. When we are near towns and grocery stores in the Bahamas, you could pay as much as $10 for a loaf of bread in a remote settlement, and even in populated towns you can pay as much as $6 a loaf. They also make great gifts for cruiser friends, especially those that have helped you out in some way!

Local Bahamian boy enjoying Roxane’s Muffins

Roxane makes most of these from scratch and in our boat oven. We usually bake a loaf a day, and can start to be a bit time consuming, so we purchased a bread machine for the boat. You drop the ingredients in and in about 2 hours you have a fresh loaf. We started our recent cruise from Toronto with two large 50lb bags of flour, and enough yeast and sugar to kill a horse.

The regular boat oven is very capable for baking, we have two 10lb propane tanks, and with all the cooking we do onboard it they usually last about a month. The bread machine requires some power, a little less than you might think, but still consumes. About an hour is mixing and kneading and letting it rise, which takes no power. The remaining hour is baking. When at anchor, we run the bread machine when we are generating electricity anyways for the batteries, and have either our generator or engine running. We have a 2000 watt inverter, with 4 AGM 110 Amp hour batteries, providing over 400 amp hours of power. We could run it just on the inverter, but I never do that.

The best method, is to use the bread machine for the mixing and kneading, then use your propane boat oven for the cooking. This uses the least elbow grease and electrical power!

Here are a couple of recipes of Roxanes for baking bread.

Simple Bread

1 1/2 cups      warm water
1 tsp               yeast
3 cups            flour
1 tsp               salt

1. Add yeast and 1 tbsp of flour to one cup of water until foamy (30 – 40 minutes)
2. Using dough hooks add remaining water, salt and half of flour.
3. Add rest of flour (should come clean away from bowl).
4. Knead.
5. Shape into a loaf, cover and let rise (approx. 1 hour)
6. Brush with water and bake for 45 minute