Bread

“Man shall not live by bread alone,” …. but it certainly helps.

Last year, during our first extended summer cruise to the North Channel of Lake Huron, one of the comforts we sorely missed was good bread. In our hometown of Portage, MI, we have several small bakeries we frequent and one of the local supermarkets carries a range of excellent frozen, partially cooked breads and rolls. Thus we are accustomed to having choices of high quality artisan breads. We instinctively knew that we would be challenged in the North Channel but decided to stuff our freezer full of frozen rolls and breads and, when our stocks were depleted, to bake our own.

Our first mistake was to assume that bread making on the boat would be easy. In hindsight, we should have performed some trials at the dock! Not one to start with something simple, I decided to jump straight in at the deep end and combed the internet for recipes for our favorite bread, Ciabatta – not something simple like plain old white bread. I downloaded several promising recipes to take with us, packed up a large mixing bowl and a few utensils we don’t normally carry on the boat, and a good supply of yeast and bread flour.

Now if you are not familiar with Ciabatta bread, it is an Italian crusty, free-form, light bread with many air pockets and a distinctive flavor somewhat like sourdough bread. It achieves its characteristics through the use of a “biga” (a small amount of yeast, flour and water) or starter (like sourdough) that likes to sit undisturbed in a dark place at a slightly warm temperature for about 24 hours although it seems to survive for much longer.

Making the biga was successful with a moist airy mass the result. When combined with the other ingredients (water, yeast, flour, olive oil) the next step was to “stir well for 8 minutes to form a clean doughy mix.” The recipe suggested using a heavy kitchen mixer with dough hook. I lacked this tool but attacked the problem with a strong metal spoon that soon buckled under the load. Since we did not have a concrete mixer on board which would have been the ideal tool as the mix was very dry, I labored for the 8 minutes to the best of my arm’s ability and was moderately successful in getting a “doughy mix that left the sides of the bowl clean.”

After leaving the dough to rise for 1 ½ hours, it did double in size as promised and, when plopped on to a well-floured board, approximated the picture in the recipe. The next step, forming the dough into three loaves, was not quite as successful since the dough at this point was very soft and stuck to everything it touched. It rivaled 3M 5200. Finally, three loaves were formed and left to decide whether to double in size again. The bread gods were with me and I was faced with the final and most critical step – baking. Lacking a stone, I settled for a tray; lacking a couche (some sort of canvas cloth), I skipped that; lacking a misting bottle, I skipped that as well. All manner of arcane tips for improving the recipe were also ignored. Four hours had elapsed by this time and I was getting impatient to eat bread!

The oven, a modern convection/microwave unit, was fired up to 450 deg. F, the maximum temperature available. The manufacturer failed to tell the owner in the handbook that it approaches 450 deg. asymptotically, only reaching that temperature at infinity. After 30 minutes of running the generator just to test the concept of infinity, I settled for 430 deg.F reasoning that I could compensate with a short increase in the baking time. I opened the door quickly and popped the first loaf in, shut the door, and pressed, “Start.” In the ten seconds the door was open, the temperature plummeted to 320 deg. not the best temperature to make all those small air bubbles get excited and expand to create delicious holey bread. After an extended bake, the first loaf looked reasonably good but would have made a good kellet (a heavy weight that slides down over the anchor rode to increase the holding power of the anchor).

Again the approach to infinity was taken and the second loaf popped into the oven in less than five seconds – only lost 80 deg. that time and the loaf came out close to expectations. The final loaf went into that oven in a blur and was relatively successful – medium/light, crusty, with good flavor. We gave the loaf to our travelling comrades, Bill and Jo on “Dolly” in partial appreciation for introducing us to the North Channel. The middle loaf of the three was ours and was quite tasty considering I missed a fairly important ingredient – salt! That was our contribution to a low sodium diet for a couple of days. As a footnote, the first loaf did admirable service on the anchor rode until it finally dissolved or was eaten by water creatures.

This year on our trip to the North Channel, we again stocked the freezer to the top with rolls but, by Little Current, we were soon depleted again and faced with the prospect of six weeks of Wonder Bread. It is a mystery why they call it Wonder Bread as it in not a wonder and barely bread. As fortune had it, we brought a small toaster oven from home (not planning for bread but just because the boat oven was next to useless). One day while anchored for two days in Mathieson, I decided to try making bread again using a bread mix purchased in Little Current. The mix was essentially bread flour, yeast, salt and various unpronounceable chemicals. Expectations were low but the little toaster oven worked like a dream and produced two excellent loaves that were shared with our fellow travelers.

Inspired by this success, I returned to my Ciabatta recipe and whipped up the biga, waited 24 hours, substituted 8 minutes of kneading for the arm breaking mixing and created two fine loaves. Since then, Ciabatta rolls have just emerged from the oven. Still warm, covered with butter and homemade strawberry jam, they just vanished in seconds.

The recipe used for the bread follows:

Biga

Stir 1/8 teaspoon of yeast into 2 tablespoons of warm water and let sit for 5 minutes. Stir.

Add 1 cup of bread flour or all-purpose flour (do not use any other flour)

Add 1/3 cup of room temperature water

Mix well for 4 minutes (it will be very stiff but should combine – if necessary, add water 1 teaspoon at a time.

Cover and leave in a cool place (the Nordic Tug shaft alley works well) for at least 16 - 24 hours. The biga should increase in size, be moist, and have a lot of bubbles.

The biga can be frozen after about 8 hours and thawed for 3 to 4 hours before use.

Bread Mix

Stir ½ teaspoon of yeast into 2 1/2 tablespoons of warm milk and let sit for 5-10 minutes. Stir.

In a large bowl, combine 2 cups of bread flour or all purpose flour, and 1/2 tablespoon of salt, 2/3 cup room temperature water, 1 tablespoon of olive oil, and the biga.

Stir until just combined and you have a ball of dough. If too moist, add a little flour. If too dry add a small amount of water. The dough should be very soft and may appear to be too sticky (this is OK)

Turn out onto a floured board and knead for 5-8 minutes (until springy)

Place dough in a well oiled, cover, and leave to stand at room temperature for 1 ½ to 2 hours. In this time, it should have doubled in size.

Turn out on to a well-floured board and cut in half.

Place each half on a well-greased baking tray and form into a rough oval about 9” long. Dimple top with fingertips.

Dust well with flour and cover with a damp kitchen towel (cloth works best – paper seems to stick).

Let sit at room temperature for 1 ½ to 2 hours to double in size.

Remove towel and cook low in an oven preheated to 425 deg. F for 15 to 20 minutes or until pale golden brown. Tapping the crust should produce a hollow sound. Our small convection toaster oven cooks the bread well at 400 deg. F for 16 minutes so you may need to experiment.

Place bread on rack to cool.

Rather than splitting the dough in two for bread, the dough can be split in to eight or ten pieces and formed in to small rolls. They should be cooked at 425 deg. F for around 15 minutes or until pale golden brown.