Thursday, October 8, 2009

Jeff's bread...


Our friends back in Castine all know that I have been working on making bread for the last 2-3 years. Right before we left Maine, I made sure there was enough basic ingredients to try and bake some on aCappella.

After leaving Solomons and arriving in St. Mary's, Maryland, we awoke yesterday to gale force winds. There was no way that we were going to take down the dinghy and go into town. We were all going to stay on the boat snuggled up against each other. At anchor we keep a wind alarm set at 25 knots so we can watch our anchor setting if any larger winds appear. We had to adjust the alarm to 30 knots and finally 35 knots because it was continually going off. What a perfect time to bake bread!

My recipe takes 24 hours of rising time so we had to wait until today to actually bake the loaf. But first, we took the dogs swimming at St. Mary's College and walked around the historic areas of St. Mary's City. When we got back, we popped the bread in the oven. It came out looking funny but tasted great - there are some adjustments I need to make for the next attempt. We proudly set the finished loaf in the warm breeze of the setting sun on the bow. Dyna was very, very interested in it.

Needless to say, within an hour, the bread was gone. There is nothing better than warm bread with honey on top. And of course, Dyna and Dylan had their share.

4 comments:

One More Time Around said...

When we lived on the sailboat we had no oven but we too made bread...in a pressure cooker.
http://www.recipesource.com/baked-goods/breads/00/rec0011.html

You never, never had to worry about the bread getting stale; it was usually gone even before it got cool.

MV Red Head said...

Pressure cooker break...very cool. Didn't know that would work.

Carol 'n Wayne said...

Jeff,

Very happy to see another guy that makes bread. I have really expanded my range this year. What kind of bread did you make?

I just made cinnamon-raisin bread for the first time last week. Turned out great. Of course, I am most famous for "Wayne Thomas' English Muffins" ;-)

MV Red Head said...

Wayne, us bread guys need to stick together. I started a few years ago with a really interesting recipe called "No-Knead Bread". It makes a really nice bread with a chewy crust and soft, airy center. We love it a lot. I've messed around with the recipe and adjusted it for whole wheat, healthier flour. The basic idea is the same. Here's the original recipe:
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/11/08/dining/081mrex.html

It is very easy to make and works well on the boat. The most important part that took a while to figure out is that if there is any chlorine in the water added, it must stand out for a day to allow the chlorine to come out of the water. Without doing this, I found that the yeast was killed during the long 24 hour rising cycle.