Baking Bread on the Boat

This is a long time personal goal.

I took a hiatus from baking bread, failure was part of the reason, the rest ... well, check out my blog, we've been busy and I don't even mention the other loves of my life - Peggy & our 4yr old grand daughter.

But it was time, our local store changed their bread supplies and, sorry, but their new bread sucks.

We have Kindle Unlimited, so I scraped my way through several books and came across a winner: My No-Knead Bread Cookbook: From the Kitchen of Artisan Bread with Steve

by Steve Gamelin (author), Taylor Olson (editor)

Steve's descriptions, recipes and videos are easy to follow and my first loaf was a total success (at least, in my eyes.) It lasted 4 days and was good to eat down to the very last slice. That's a huge improvement on my previous attempts, every one of them turned into a rock within 24 hours - made great toast even if they did look like a Flatbread.

 

Apparently that 'split' in the side was caused by 'Oven Spring' but I'll have to figure out what that is and how to reduce it, I kinda like the split.

It cuts nicely, is soft and fluffy all the way through, just enough crust although I would be happy with a bit more crunch to the crust. The white/brown swirls in the loaf are due to the recipe using both regular Bread Flour and Whole Wheat Flour, and because they are mixed in the bowl and this is a No Knead Bread, the two flours are not completely blended. In my next loaf, I'll blend the flours before adding them to the mixing bowl.

The recipe is Steve's Honey Whole Wheat Bread (Bread Pan) and requires the oven to get up to 400ºF and I'm not sure if my boat's oven can do that. It only needs to bake for 40 minutes, just enough time to enjoy a tot of rum.





For my next attempt, I'll use his Honey Whole Wheat Bread (PMDO) (Poor Man's Dutch Oven)

If you see me on the water, I might have some bread to share.

Paul