Last week Andrew Odom did a great post on Baking in a Tiny House. There are many similarities between the kitchen of a tiny house and the galley on a boat. It was quite an adjustment to get used to but over the last year I have learned how to make it work pretty well.
The holiday season usually presents more of a challenge than regular every day cooking simply due to the volume of food being prepared. I love to go crazy during the holidays with pies, cookies and chocolate covered pretzels.
Andrew’s post gives some great tips for overcoming the space limitations and use of propane. We too have a tiny oven. It’s only 15″x15″ and there aren’t very many dishes and trays that will fit inside. There are two racks but the height is not very forgiving. Baking in batches is pretty much done one batch at a time where in a full size oven you could probably do up to four cookie sheets of treats! It’s been so long since I’ve had a full size oven I really don’t even remember.
On our boat I had to limit the supply of all kitchen equipment. I have a large pan and a small pan, a large pot and a small pot. I have a large bowl and a small bowl. When using lots of different ingredients and when a recipe calls for several different steps of mixing, I have to get creative with what I put everything in.
When baking a pie, I usually use the pie plate itself for mixing the dough because both of my bowls are already in use. All the ingredients are placed on top of my three-burner stove on a wooden board cut to fit. My pastry cloth fits on top of my top-load refrigerator leaving barely enough room to roll out the dough. When the pie is done, I don’t have room to store a cooling rack so I repurpose my upside-down cupcake tray as a place to set the hot pie until it cools.
Baking cookies has to wait until all pie-making supplies are cleaned and put away, since I use all the same counter space, bowls, spoons and measuring cups. The Nav Station turns into a cookie frosting station (navigation station is where our VHF radio is and where we chart our courses).
Even though I’m short on space and baking takes longer with propane, I still love to bake on my boat!
Do you bake in a tiny space? What tricks to you use?
By Jody Pountain for the [Tiny House Blog]
You are adorable Jodi!! Well done on the baking – and in the heat no less – that pie looks perfect and those palm tree cookies are too cute!
Aww thanks Brittany! I love to bake 🙂