How to make Artisan Bread in 5 Steps on your boat
If you love bread and are planning on sailing (even costal) one skill you may want to learn is how to make bread. It is not always easy to just pop down to the corn store and buy fresh baked bread whilst cruising. Sure you can always freeze bread but there is nothing quite like fresh bread straight from the oven.
Bread making doesn’t have to be complicated, there are plenty of recipes out there and even if you’ve never made homemade bread or worked with yeast before, this homemade crusty artisan bread is for you.
It’s the perfect beginner recipe and to use onboard because it only requires 4 ingredients without any special pans or mixer, there’s no kneading or complicated shaping involved, and 95% of the work is hands-off. Bread masters will appreciate this recipe too because it delivers with delicious flavour, a slightly crisp and mega chewy crust, and those signature soft holes inside like ciabatta or French bread.
Ingredients
3 and 1/4 cups (about 430g) bread flour (plus more for hands and pan)
2 teaspoons (about 6g) instant yeast
2 teaspoons (about 9g) coarse salt
1 and 1/2 cups (360ml) water, close to room temperature at about 21°C (70°F)
Let’s get Cooking
Mix the dough ingredients together. At first the dough will seem very dry and shaggy and you’ll question if it will even come together. But it will. Use a spatula at first, then switch to your hands to ensure all of the flour is moistened. The dough is actually a little sticky after it’s thoroughly mixed.
Let it rise at room temperature for 2-3 hours. Cover the dough and let it rise at room temperature out of the wind for about 2-3 hours until doubled in size.
Use right away or refrigerate. After 2-3 hours, you can immediately continue with the next step. However, for ideal flavour and texture, I strongly recommend letting the dough sit in the refrigerator for at least 12 hours and up to 3 days. Yes, 3 full days! I usually only let it rest for about 18 hours. During this crucial step, the cold air slows the fermentation process and adds so much flavour and texture. So, you can bake bread in 2-3 hours or in 3 days. The longer it sits, the better it tastes. 🙂
Shape into 2 or 1 loaves. Rest as oven preheats. You can shape the bread into a round loaf or two longer loaves. Preheat the oven to a very hot 246°C. The extremely hot air will immediately set the crust so the bread rises up instead of spreading all over. To help ensure a crispier crust, after the oven pre-heats– pour boiling water into a metal or cast iron baking pan/dish on the bottom oven rack. Immediately place the dough inside and shut the oven door to trap the steam. The steam will help create that coveted crisp crust. If you have a dutch oven, shape the dough into 1 round loaf, and bake it inside the dutch oven with the lid on.
Bake until golden brown, about 20-25 minutes. Gently tap the loaf because if they sound hollow, they’re done.
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