Showing posts with label Cooking. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Cooking. Show all posts

Saturday, December 12, 2020

Date and Fennel Whole Wheat Bread

Date and Fennel Whole Wheat Bread


Christmas came early (again) and some new baking tools arrived: Brotform, Lame, Dough Whisk and I just had to use them

Found a recipe for Date and Fennel Bread but it was basically a white bread and we really appreciate a good whole wheat bread, so tweaked the recipe and this is the result. The dark spots on the surface are where the dates got a bit crispy. We have to wait for 3 hours before our first slice and that's way to long to wait! So we'll see if we can hold out for a couple of hours.

This is a two part dough, starter and dough.
Starter (Make the day before)
1 Cup of bread flour
1 Cup of warm water
1/8th Teaspoon of Yeast

Mix all of the starter ingredients into about a 4 cup bowl that has a lid, stir them up, pop the lid on and leave till the next day, at least 6 hours, but up to 24.

Next Day:
Complete the Starter
  • 1 Cup of room temperature water - add to the Starter let it stand.
  • 1/2 Cup of Wheat Germ - add to the starter and mix with a whisk.
Dough (Make this before lunchtime so that you're not baking at night.)

Prep:
  • 1 Tablespoon of Fennel Seed - toast in a skillet for 3 or 4 minutes, don't let them burn and empty skillet onto a cool plate to stop them cooking further.
  • 1 Cup of Pitted Dates - cut them crosswise slices about 1/8 of an inch thick.
  • Oil a rising bowl with lid, about 7 quarts so there's room to double the dough
In a Stand mixer's bowl:-
  • 1 Cup of Bread Flour
  • 1 Cup of Whole Wheat Flour
  • 1 1/2 Teaspoons of Yeast
  • Whisk them up to evenly distribute in the bowl
With the mixer running on slow, pour the starter mixture and mix for 3 minutes, if the dough does not start to combine, repeatedly add a teaspoon more of bread flour with about 30 seconds in between, the dough just needs to start to make strings of gluten. 

Continue to mix the dough and gradually add the cooled fennel seed, about a teaspoon at a time to make sure it's not in a lump.

Continue to mix adding the salt.

Continue to mix and very gradually add the dates, same rate, about 1 teaspoon at a time, they should evenly distribute into the dough

Now continue to mix the dough for a total of about 10 minutes, it will be sticky but might start to pull off of the sides of the mixing bowl.

Scrape the mixture out of the mixing bowl into the rising bowl,
Rise #1: Cover and let stand for 30 minutes
Rise #2: Using fingers or an oiled scraper, fold the edge of the dough to the center, turn the bowl a qtr tern and repeat for a total of 8 folds. Cover and let stand for 30 minutes
Rise #3: Do #2 again
Rise #4: Do #2 again
That's a total of 2 hours rising and folding.

Prepare the Brotform: Spray with water, dry with a kitchen towel, sprinkle Rice Flour on the inner surface and turn the Brotform on its side, rotating it so that the flour rolls into the grooves of the form all the way around. Don't use regular flour. No rice flour? Just use some fine cornmeal instead.

At the end of the two hours of rising and folding the dough should be about doubled in size from when it came out of the mixing bowl. Gently deflate it and turn onto a lightly floured surface.

Fold the far edge towards you to about the center of the dough and press it into the dough beneath it.
Turn the dough clockwise 90º and repeat the fold.
Do that so that there's now a rectangle of dough.
Turn the dough over so that the seams are on the underside.

Shape the dough into a large ball keeping the seams underside

Transfer the dough into the Brotform with the seam side uppermost.
Cover with a kitchen towel and let it rest for about an hour, it should rise above the top of a medium sized Brotform

While it's rising: Setup the oven with two shelves, a baking or pizza stone on the middle shelf and a tray of rocks on the lower shelf, heat the oven to 450ºF

When the oven is at temperature and the dough has risen in the Brotform, pour a half cup of water into the tray of rocks and close the door, that will add some steam to the oven. Let it sit for a minute.

Place a piece of Parchment paper onto a pizza paddle and turn the risen dough onto the paper. Now is the time to slash the bread with the lame, if you want. 

Add a second 1/2 cup of water to the tray

Slide the Parchment paper and dough off of the paddle onto the hot stone and close the oven

Set a timer for 35 minutes


Check the dough internal temperature after 35 minutes and every 5 minutes until it registers 200ºF Max of 45 minutes. 

Then pull the Bread out and remove the paper. Cool the bread before slicing it should look really good.

Hope you enjoy.


Saturday, November 21, 2020

English Whole wheat Boat Muffins

Making Whole Wheat English Muffins on the Boat

I really enjoy cooking on the boat, but I practice at home first. That practice includes using utensils that I have on the boat and avoiding those that are not.

Here's the recipe, it's a version of the King Arthur Baking English muffins but modified to cook aboard.

Makes 8 English Muffins. (Just double for 16, but that might be 4 separate bakes of 4 )

Time to bake:-

  • 1st Rising Time - Two hours
  • 2nd Rising Time 20 to 30 minutes
  • Baking time 21-25 minutes
  • Total time: about 2 1/2 Hours - but most of that is just watching, plenty of time to do something other busy on the boat.

Ingredients:

  • 7/8ths Cups of warm milk (warm enough to melt butter)
  • 1&1/2 Tablespoons of  butter
  • 3/4 Teaspoon of Salt
  • 1 Tablespoon of Granulated sugar (or cane sugar)
  • 1/2 of a large egg or 1 small egg -  lightly beaten
  • 1 Cup of KABC Whole Wheat Flour
  • 1 1//4 Cup of KABC Bread Flour
  • 1 Teaspoon  of yeast
Also need a tablespoon of Ground Cornmeal for the baking tray.

Kitchen Tools:

  • Mixing Bowl I use a 7 Quart Mixing bowl with Lid and a Spatula to mix the ingredients.
  • Spatula
  • 4 Cup measuring Cup
  • Hand whisk or Fork.
  • Cookie sheet that fits the oven.
  • Parchment Paper.
  • Kitchen slice (to flip the half baked muffins)
  • Oven that can get up to 350ºF

Making the Dough:


Add the egg to the measuring cup and lightly beat the eggs maybe 30 seconds.

Add the butter to the egg mix.
Add the warm milk to the mix and give it a good stir.

In the mixing bowl, add the Flours, Salt and Yeast.
Whisk to mix for about 30 seconds.

Pour the Egg, Milk, Butter mixture into the bowl containing the Flour, Salt and Yeast.

Now the difficult bit: Stir it up with the Spatula, this should take about 3 or 4 minutes, it'll be a sticky and about as stiff than peanut butter (creamy). Mixing it is just to ensure the flours are all combined and the yeast is generally distributed. 


 Once mixed, put a lid on the mixing bowl ( I really detest using plastic film, but if you have to !)

Let the dough rise for about 2 hours, it won't rise much, probably not double.

Preparing the Muffins:

Line the baking tray with Parchment Paper ( I don't have a small tray at home so I'm using a standard tray here, on the boat I would cook two batches on the small tray that fits the oven.)

Sprinkle some cornmeal on the paper.

Turn the dough onto a lightly floured surface.

Divide into 8 pieces

Roll each piece into a ball, then turn the outsides up into the bottom to form a smooth top to the ball.

Press the dough piece to form about a 3" diameter disk, it'll be about 1/4" or so thick.

Place the dough onto the paper with the cornmeal. Repeat for as many of the muffins as will fit your tray.

Cover the tray with either another piece of parchment paper or with a second tray inverted.

Let the dough rest for about 20 to 30 minutes, they won't rise up very much but they'll rest easy :)

While the doughs are resting on the tray, preheat the oven to 350ºF (My boat's oven can get up to 475º)

When the oven is up to temp and the 20 to 30 minutes rest time is over, Pop the tray in the oven.

Let them bake for about 7 to 8 minutes, then flip each muffin.

Let the 2nd side bake for 7 to 8 minutes, then flip again. This time one side (now the top) should be browned, Let them bake again for another 5 minutes. Time to pull them out.

The inside of the muffins should reach close to 200ºF if not leave them for another couple of minutes.

If using a small baking tray, then let the oven get back to temperature and bake the 2nd batch.

Let the muffins cool if you can, but no harm if you fork one or two apart while still hot and smother the nooks and crannies with butter or spread.





Keep them in the bread bin and toast them in the morning for breakfast, oh so good!

This batch turned out great, the whole wheat flavour is really nice and the nooks and crannies are not like crumpets, but they are just waiting for a tablespoon of butter or spread with, perhaps, some Peanut Butter and Plum jam.

I'll be baking these often, so easy and so delicious. 


See you on the water, I may have a few on board to share.





Tuesday, November 10, 2020

More cooking for on the boat

Pita Bread Bake

Ok, so I enjoy coking & baking, a recent hobby that has turned out to be really useful. There's a FB page for 'Cooking on Boats' that shows I'm not the only one. But, of course, I mostly cook at home with a healthy dose of wishful thinking - I could be baking on the boat!

Normally when we're out on Eximius, I do all of the cooking, just detest being idle. Bread baking on the boat is a big deal for me, and I typically bake more than one loaf so that I can share it with whomever is my boat neighbor.

Easy meals on the boat are always welcome, and Pita Bread is the basis for so many, funny that I've never baked Pita Bread before. Time to bake Pita Bread.

Because I can, first bakes are normally done at home, however, I do my best to consider what it would be like if baked on the boat. So I resist the Stand Mixer and lean towards hand mixing and kneading instead

Here's the recipe for these easy pita breads.

1&1/3rd Cups of Bread flour.
1 & 1/4 Teaspoons of yeast.
1 Teaspoon of Salt
5 oz of warm water
1 oz of EVO (Extra Virgin Olive Oil)
1 Tablespoon of sugar (or honey)




Making the Dough:
Mix Flour, Yeast, Salt in a mixing bowl (Stand mixer or regular large mixing bowl)

In a four cup measuring jug or medium sized saucepan, mix the Water, EVO and sugar/honey. I used very warm water (110ºF) to help the honey melt.

Add wet mixture to dry mixture and mix for a couple of minutes (Dough hook slow stand mixer or using a spatula) until all of the dry flour is incorporated.

Mix on medium speed for about 8 minutes (total mixing 10 minuts) OR turn onto lightly floured surface and knead for 6 minutes using a scraper to pick the dough up between turns.

Now on a slightly floured surface, knead for a less than a minute to form into a round ball. Place dough in a lightly greased rising bowl (I use a bowl with a lid rather than cover with plastic wrap)

Let rise till about doubled in size, about an hour or more.

On a clean lightly floured surface, turn out the dough and deflate getting rid of most of the larger air bubbles. Cut the dough into 4 pieces, put 3 back in the bowl and cover.

**Shape the 1/4 dough into a ball then press down with your hand palm to form a disk. Then pick up the disk (it's probably about 2-3 inches diameter) and squeeze the edges towards the center with thumbs, do this until the dough is ball shaped again.

Now to form the Pita: Preheat the oven and pizza stone/Cast Iron plinth to 500ºF (or as close as you can get your boat oven to that temperature.) 

Have a sifter with flour handy and sprinkle flour onto the ball and surface. Press and roll the dough into about an 8" round, it will quite thin. Place onto a piece of parchment paper and cover with another. They need to rest for about 20 minutes

 Repeat from ** above for each of the quarters of dough.

Baking the Pita Bread: 

On the boat I can only cook one at a time, at home it's the same because my pizza stone is not big enough for 2.

 Using a well floured pizza peel or large scraper, slide a piece of dough onto the stone/plinth. Bake for about 1 minute, they should start to inflate. As soon as they begin to inflate, turn them over and bake for a total of about 3 minutes, they might turn a golden brown if the oven is hot enough, don't leave them in too long, they'll become crusty - guess how I know!

They are done! Put the baked pita onto a cooling surface, let the oven get back up to tempreature, about 2 or 3 minutes and then bake the next dough, same process.

Storing the Pita Bread:

This recipe is for 4 pita breads and Peggy & I typically eat half of one for lunch. I store the remainder in a zip lock baggy. They survive for 3 or 4 days in the fridge.

Stuffing the Pita Bread:

If all went well, I hope it did, then cut a Pita Bread (along it's diameter) and it should easily shape into a pocket, I use a table spoon to open the pocket almost to the outer edge of the Pita Bread.

If I'm preparing a salad pocket, I'll spread some dressing over the insides of the open pocket, if preparing a fruit pocket (unusual I know, but it works) then I'll spread some yogurt over the insides. 

Stuffing the pocket with just about anything that is not too wet. For salad I'll use whatever I have:- Some mixed salad, some carrots, onion, chopped pickles and some cheese and some lunch meat. I'll make a pile of it all and mix it up, then scoop in enough to fill the pockets. If I'm making a fruit pocket, do the same with chopped, thawed frozen fruit or fresh fruit and scoop that into each pocket.

Make ahead:

The wet dressing/yogurt will make the Pita Bread soggy, so I don't fill them for a later meal, but I will prepare the filling with some dressing/yogurt in a zip lock baggy, or, much preferred, in a locking snack box and then fill the pockets with the mixture when it's time to serve


Hope you enjoy them. Let me know of any variations or questons.


Paul

See you on the Water. 

 

 

 



Saturday, August 17, 2019

Raw Toast Explosion


Exploding Bread

I have now been baking bread for just over a year and since getting the America's Test Kitchen Bread Illustrated book, my bread baking skills have risen (pun intended) greatly.

Here's a link to ATK: https://www.americastestkitchen.com

Yesterday I baked my 1st ever Soaker, Sponge, Dough bread - Whole-wheat sandwich bread (See page 209 of Bread Illustrated).

It exploded! 


This method of baking (which should not normally blow up like this)

The Soaker process seemed to go ok, although it probably had a higher hydration % (I didn't have any wheat germ and used toasted Flax Seed instead). The Sponge processing went well too (as per the book)

I followed this process when I made the dough by combining the soaker and sponge: Putting the Sponge in the mixer bowl and setting it on Low, then adding the soaker one tablespoon at a time until incorporated. Then I added the other ingredients. Finally kneading for 8 mins on med-low.  Into a greased (EVO) bowl with plastic lid to rise. It rose to the top of the bowl within 30 minutes! (15mins early) but hey, this is South Florida in Summer = Hot, Humid even with the AC running to 78º F .

Folded dough the 6 times as described, next rise, that was quick too.

Split and shaped the dough then into the Bread Pans (8.5" x 4/5") and covered with greased plastic wrap.

My oven takes a while to get to temp. So I set the oven to 350 while the final rise was taking place.

15 minutes and the bread was overflowing the pans!!! I pulled the bread from over the pan sides onto the top and pressed to seal - did not slash the dough.

Popped the pans into the oven sitting on a baking sheet - just as well

I checked the bread at 25 minutes to rotate but - Explosion!! Dough had spilt over the sides of both pans and had risen even more on the baking pan (the baking pans were hardly visible)

As I have learned, if it fails - finish the cooking - it might be salvageable.  Baked until 205ºF

Pulled out of oven, had to let them cool in the pans until set sufficiently to try removing them.

I had to  do some major surgery to get the loaves from the pan, but was successful and transferred loaves to the cooling rack.

My wife buttered a couple of pieces of the lava left overs, delicious!

This morning we had some of the bread toasted - Delicious!!! Very light, lots of reasonable sized holes  and the toasted Flax seed added flavor to the bread.

So, I'm guessing that the problem was the amount of yeast in the final dough!

The recipe on page 290 indicates 2 Tablespoons of Yeast, I'm betting that's a typo and should read 2 teaspoons!


And the good news:


 None of the dough spilt over into the oven! It was close.

And the bread in the pans looks good.

They were cojoined but none of it was burnt, a hint in the left corners nearest  to the camera.








With the excess cut crusts cut off, the bread came out of the pans in one piece, the 'open' sides of the bread were not trimmed, that's how they came out of the pan.

Size and shape were just fine. It's just odd having a loaf with no side crusts.








Not too shabby!

The loaf is very light, really light! I was expecting a rock, as I have baked a few of those over the last year or so.

But the crumb was very airy, the flax seed was we distributed, and the flavor was really much better than I expected.

Next time I'll use just 2 teaspoons of yeast and will not use Flax seed but use the suggested Wheat Germ.

Oh, what did we do with the overflowing crusts? We ate about 1/3rd of it and tossed the rest. Too much bread crumbs in my galley already.




This is not a bread I would or could make on the boat! It requires a stand mixer - don't have one on the boat - and it takes 24 hours total to make - I started my prep at 14:30 and the bread came out of the oven at 18:00 the next day!  But I must say, it is really delicious.

See you on the water - and I'll probably have Boat Baked Bread on board too!

Paul

Tuesday, March 5, 2019

Making better use of our Fridge

The Fridge/Freezer on Eximius works well, but it's a pain having to dive down into the top loader in order to get anything out that's not on the top shelf, especially if it's a nice cold drink!

Solution: Bottle Bags!
Simple tube bags that will stand up on the bottom of the fridge and be easily accessible and hold 3 or 4 bottles of water, G2 and possibly beer and wine!

Finished Product - it has 2 bottle of G2 inside.

Components

11" by 24" Phifertex®  panels
4 1/4" Circle of Phifertex®

8" strip of Webbing















 Step 1: Turn a seam the full width of one end of the panels and stitch the seam.

















Step 2: Fold the Webbing in half and the panel in half along it's length - the Panel is folded so that the seam is on the outside (it will be turned inside out later)
Sew about 1" of the webbing on each side of the panel and complete the sewing of the panel the full length from top to bottom.













Step 3: Starting at the bottom of the tube, turn it inside out. That will result in the 'handle' being on the inside of the tube. This takes a bit of fiddling to get the tube folded on itself, but only takes a few minutes.















Step 4: Cut tabs into the edges of the tube base circle from the outside to just inside the blue line (1/2" on mine)

Make a cut about every 3/4" around the circumference. These slits will allow for easy sewing of the base into the end of the tube.













Step 6: Position the base on the inside of the tube and sew each 'tab' around the rim of the tube until all tabs are sewn.

That's it! I made three of them in less than an hour










These turned out really well. I'll take some pics of them on the boat to show how they work.

See you on the water.

Thursday, February 21, 2019

Preparing to Cook on the Boat

I enjoy cooking, but I don't claim to be very good at it, but I am working to get better.

We're planning on a 3+ week trip to the Abacos in March/April 2019 and I'll be doing most of the cooking on the boat, that includes baking - I really enjoy baking on the boat.

So, in preparation, I bake at home with an eye to doing the same thing on the boat where there's not as much space, nor as many resources as in our home kitchen - eg. I have a nice KitchenAid Stand mixer at home, on the boat I have a bowl and spatula! And there's not much room for additional cooking/baking equipment.

Here's an example of something I could easily cook on the boat.

The loaf is No Knead - 3 ingredient bread.

The Quiche are prepared using one bowl - I'll have to work on making the dough for the pie base.

The bread cooked at 450ºF and the Quiche at 350ºF both could be cooked in our tiny oven on the boat.





Here's my recipe, developed after baking dozens of loaves and at least a dozen quiche - at home.

The Bread

  • 1.75 Cups of warm water (Graduated Cup measure, Instant kitchen Thermometer. 
  • 2.25 tsps of Yeast ( I keep it in a Jar in the fridge, at home and on the boat)
  • 3 Cups of KAF All Purpose Flour
  • 1/2 tsp of salt.
Preparation:
  • Store the water and yeast in my bread mixing bowl (It's a big red plastic bowl with snap on lid)
  • Let them proof for 10 minutes, bubbles will form on the surface.
  • Add the 3 Cups of Flour
  • Stir it all up with the handle of a spatula (because it's easier to clean the handle), doesn't take much stiring, perhaps a minute, just enough to make sure there's no dry flour in the mix. The result will be really sticky and soggy!
  • Cover the bowl and let it rise for about an hour - check it often, if it's in a warm area, it may double in size, cooler and it may take longer, but 90mins is the most I have let this dough rise.
  • Meanwhile spray a bread pan (9.5" x 4.5") with oil (pam)
  • Once it has doubled in size (or after 90mins) prepare a clean surface.
  • On the boat, this is on one of my Starboard sink covers. I have it clean and ready to go, then spray a mist of oil (pam) on the surface and on my Dough shovel (that's what I call it)
  • Pour the risen dough onto the surface and use the shovel to turn the dough onto itself 2 or 3 times, basically I'm trying to make a really soggy log about the length of the bread pan.
  • Now use the shovel to scoop the dough into the prepared bread pan.
  • Preheat the oven! It takes about 20 minutes for my oven on the boat to come up to 450ºF 
  • By the time the oven is up to temperature, the dough should have risen to the top of the bread pan. (some times, the dough rises quicker in the pan, I can normally tell if that's going to happen because the 1st rise was less than an hour! In that case, I'll heat up the oven before I transfer the dough to the bread pan)
  • With the Dough risen the 2nd time and the Oven up to 450ºF it's time to put the pan in the oven. 
  • I set my timer (my phone's alarm clock) for 30 minutes, after which I use the Thermometer to test the bread temp, I'm looking for 200ºF in the middle of the loaf.
  • As soon as it gets up to temperature, typically 30 to 40 minutes, turn the loaf out to cool.
  • On the boat I turn it out onto the cleaned surface then onto a small wire rack.
  • Let the bread cool completely, then I keep it in a 1/3 food container, but it has to be cool first, or the container will get condensation on the inside, that reduces the life of the loaf.
The entire loaf prep takes about 15 minutes to collect and mix everything, 60 mins to let it rise and 20 mins for the oven to heat up and finally 30 minutes to bake. Just over 2 hours with only about 15 minutes of actually doing something other that watching the bake plus the time to let it cool


The Quiche
  • 2 Pie Frozen Pie Crusts (I've yet to try making them)
  • 6 Extra Large Eggs (or 7 Large Eggs)
  • 2/3 Cup of Egg whites (out of a box)
  • 1/2 Cup of Half n Half (or Cream, your choice)
  • 8 oz of grated cheese
  • 1/4tsps ground black pepper
  • 1/8tsps sea salt
  • 1 Pack of Prosciutto thin sliced
Preparation
  • Preheat oven to 350ºF (I try to make the quiche before I put the bread in the oven, saves propane, and the oven is quick to get up to 450ºF after the quiche is cooked, ready for the bread to bake)
  • Lay the thin slices of Prosciutto to cover the still frozen pie crust (takes about 3 slices)
  • Mix the Eggs, Egg Whites, Cream in a bowl.
  • Sprinkle 4oz of the cheese into each pie crust to just about cover the Prosciutto.
  • Pour half of the egg mixture over the cheese in each pie, it should come to within about 1/4" from the top of the pie crust edge.
  • Salt and Pepper each pie to taste (well, I guess you won't figure that out until the 2nd time you make these.)
  • With the oven up to temperature, slide the pies into the oven they barely fit into my oven at the same time.
  • Bake for 35mins
  • Test for 190ºF and then pull them out.
  • Ready to serve hot or let them cool for later with a salad. 
Time to make the quiche is about 5 minutes of prep, 30mins of baking and a few minutes to keep the hungry crew away from them until they are cool enough to eat.

Hope you enjoy them as much as we do.

See you on the water.

At home, doubling the Ingredients for 2 loaves. (boat oven too small)

Wednesday, January 30, 2019

Pre New Years Eve Cruise

This year's New Year's Eve Cruise is at Lake Boca

Because of the tide times, we decided to spend the night at Lake Sylvia after an easy motor from the Dock.

The following morning, we left the lake early, it was low tide and we nudged the bottom despite hugging the East side of the canal. As we headed out of the lake, there was a Forty something sailboat listing heavily, they had an 8' draft and were way to close to the canal center line even at high tide. They acknowledged that they had about a 5 hour wait. Hope they got off easily without any damage.

We motored up the ICW, making all of the bridges, we did cut it too close to the inside bend before the Hillsboro Inlet Bridge and came to a smooth, sandy bottom, stop. It was a none event, we had turned towards the deeper part and easily motored off. Gotta pay attention

Diversion was already at Lake Boca when we arrived, not many other boats, so we had the pic of anchoring spots. We backed down hard knowing the weather might kickup over the weekend.

As the afternoon wore on, more of the club boats arrived and we prepared for the Champagne Party that evening aboard Into the Blue and Chesshire.

We took a dish of appetizers made at the last minute from what we had onboard. Cocktail sticks, Cheese, Grapes, Slice of Ham on  a piece of Cucumber. Worked out great, they disappeared.

We took a dink ride over to the park and Peggy practiced her Dinghy exit plan - success, her workouts are having a very positive effect, we even went for a 20 minute walk to the bridge and around the park. We also dumped our trash. There's Water at the park if we had water containers to fill.

Sunday We had the chance to chat with Halabaloo and some friends of  Jeff Miskin's but everyone else abandoned the lake by Sunday afternoon. By Monday we were one of the few boats left on the lake despite it being New Year's Eve and the promise of a great fireworks display close to the lake.

So we left the lake Monday morning and took the inside route back to the slip. We were home with time to prep dinner of Crab Cakes (Thanks Shawn!)


A fun weekend, even if we didn't get to sail. But I'd rather be on the boat under motor than mowing the lawn!

Looking forward to getting out there, hope to see you on the water.

Next Club trip is the Chili Cookoff on Feb 9th.

Meanwhile, we're still prepping for our trip to the Abacos in March/April.
Shopping list includes:
  • AIS Transponder (replacing our AIS recever)
  • New Fishing Gear: Rod, Gaff, Lures, Fillet Knife.
  • New Cabin lighting to replace those that have failed in the past few months. (Galley lamp, Reading lamp, Aft Berth lamp).
  • Holding tank Beckson access plate (I know, never want to use it but need to clean the tank)
  • Add rail tubes Port and Stbd sides for Fuel & Water tanks.
  • Purchase 4 x 6 Gallon Water tanks
  • Make Covers for new Water tanks and remaining Fuel Tanks.
  • Top up Propane tanks (1 is already full)
  • Clear up the Tool storage area to enable Non-perishable food storage.
  • Gearbox Oil Change
  • Clean out Water tanks & replace all water filters (3 on the boat 1 on the boat refill assembly)
  • A few other things that might get done - crack the list above first.
Sailing - It's fun even when it's just time preparing.

See you on the water.

Sunday, July 15, 2018

Piece of Cake

Still trying for a decent loaf

After several bakes on board, I'm nearly satisfied with my bread making, but it's always a delight when a loaf actually turns out better than expected.

This loaf was baked using a dough recipe from King Arthur's Flour website, here a link: 

I substituted 1/8th cup of brown sugar for the 1/4 cup of Honey just to keep my grand daughter interested in the bake.

After kneading the dough for 10 minutes with my grand daughter's help, we left the dough to rise and it rose to over double it's size in an hour sitting on top of my cooker (off). Next, I divided the dough into three nearly equal pieces (that's a good game!) and rolled them on a slightly oiled surface into sausage shape about 12" long. Then Platted them, squeezing the ends underneath and placing into a prepared sprayed baking tin. 2nd Rise for 1 hour, heated the oven to 350º F (regular bake, not 'Fan') and baked for 40 minutes.

Turned out nicely.


This is definitely doable on the boat. I did not use city water, which probably explains why the rises were so good. It makes great toast but is delicious (Peggy & KT both gave it a 10) and it looks nice.  The lower temperature for this bake, 350ºF v 400ºF of my other bakes should make it even more repeatable on the boat. I'll have to try it on a baking sheet rather than in a bread pan, it seems to hold it's shape really well.

If you see me on the water, you might come aboard for a snack of Cheese, Grapes and some fresh baked bread. 

Monday, February 12, 2018

Cooking on the Boat - Bread

Cooking for a weekend on the boat

We're planning on spending Friday Thru Monday on the boat, joining a bunch of sailing buddies for the Annual Chili Cook Off, and I'm hoping to do some cooking on the boat that is not just heat up the Seal-a-Meals we have prepared in advance.

Bread on the Boat.
We normally take at least a full loaf of whole wheat bread, more if over 4 days. That covers Breakfast Skillet Toast and Lunch Sandwiches. This weekend I want to Bake Bread on board.

Honey Whole Wheat Bread (Pan)
I got into bread making about a year ago and just could not bake anything other than Wheat Rocks! They turned out more like Biscotti than Bread. A good friend helped with advice, but I was doing something wrong, they tasted good, but really didn't need to be toasted, they were already like rock the morning after baking.


Over the past weeks, I've been practicing baking bread following Steve Gamelin's No-Knead Bread Cook Book, and very successfully too! So far I have made about 6 loaves of Whole Wheat Bread.


Several of the loaves turned out nice but many had an unintended split. I learned from the Cooking On Boats Facebook Group that it was known as 'Oven Spring' and I figured it was caused by our Oven's 'Convection' setting. 

The bread still tasted great, had a good crumb and was cooked evenly all the way through.

It cut well and toasted well, really pleased





This loaf turned out really well. It toasted really well and with Avocado, Scrambled Eggs, Mini Toms, Cheshire Cheese, it made a great breakfast.

There's something about home made bread that makes a huge difference at breakfast time. Something to do with the fact that it's not from the store and that it was made with that extra bit of excitement as it comes out of the oven.



This was my multi seed bread, no Oven Spring (cooked on regular 'Bake' setting), and was really tasty. Whole Wheat PMDO sCrumbstios Whole Wheat Flour, Bread Flour, Flax Seed, Caraway Seed, Fennel Seed, Oats D-Licious!

Then some good friends invited us for their Birday celebration, their Parrot was 40 years old!
So I planned on taking a loaf to help feed the crowd. This would be my first White Bread loaf. Intimidation was low because Whole Wheat Bread is supposed to be difficult compared to White Bread. 


I started it in the morning, it's Cheesy White Bread, Gruyere Cheese instead of Cheddar (because that's what I had!) 
The dough should have risen within 90 minutes, but did nothing, I was ready to toss it out. Peggy said just let it proof overnight. So we took two bottle of wine instead of one. 
Sunday morning, it had risen quite a bit, not what I have been used to seeing, ready to toss it again. Peggy said 'Bake it!' So I did, it's awesome.

Just cutting the bread brings out the flavor of the Gruyere cheese. 


Now, it's time to get ready to bake a loaf on the boat. This is a perfect time to try it. We're heading up to Lake Boca on Friday for the HISC annual Chili Cook off. We'll be at Lake Sylvia on Friday night with friends coming along side after they finish work for the day. I plan on putting my first Bread on the Boat together starting Friday Night.

Harvest 8 Grain Whole Wheat Bread, cooked in a Bread Pan.
The method requires a two step mix. Step 1. Yeast, Salt, Sugar, 8 Grain mix that gets added to the Water and Olive Oil, yeast 1st. So I'll make a baggy of Salt, Sugar, 8 Grain mix, and take along a packet of Yeast and a bottle of Olive oil.

Step 2 is to add the Flour: Whole Wheat Flour and Bread Flour - I'll prep them at home and take to the boat in a 2nd baggy.

I'll need a mixing bowl (don't have one on the boat right now) and a couple of identical bread pans, one to act as a lid in order to create a Poor Mans Dutch Oven.

Maybe the excitement of baking will wear off someday, but for now, I'm happy that it doesn't take much to brighten my day. Heading out on the boat and baking bread - simply pleasures are sometimes the best.

See you on the Water

Paul

Here's a link to the results: Loafing on the boat












Thursday, January 11, 2018

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