‘Tis the season to think about baking holiday treats. And if you live on a boat, this can be quite the challenge. Unless you make a few adjustments.
Downside of Making Holiday Treats on a Boat
When I read Windtraveler’s blog about Brittany’s trials and tribulations baking Christmas cookies on a boat, it reminded me so much of my first holiday season on the boat. I tried to do everything exactly the same as I had ashore. As we continued to cruise, each year got a little easier. I began to develop some new traditions.
It can be a real pain to make cookies in the typical galley. The oven is smaller, so it takes a lot longer to bake them all. In turn, that puts a lot more heat into the boat. Counterspace is typically pretty limited. So it is hard to make one type of cookie while baking another. If you don’t have a mixer aboard (and power — such as shore power — for it), it can be a real workout to make traditional cookie doughs by hand. And hot weather (and no air conditioning) can instantly melt the prettiest frosting.
Tips for Holiday Baking Onboard
Don’t be a Grinch. You don’t have to abandon the idea of Christmas cookies. Here are several ways to simplify the operation. Admittedly, many involve starting some new traditions and finding new family favorites. But there are also ways to adapt old favorites to be more boat friendly. Here’s a few quick ideas to make holiday baking a little easier.
Make bars instead of individual cookies
It’s a lot faster to bake one 9″ x 13″ pan and cut the cookies into 24 or 36 squares than to bake 4 small batches of 8 or 9 cookies each. Not only will you cut down the time spent, you’ll cut down the heat in the boat.
The obvious choice here is brownies, but you can bake many more traditional “cookies” as bars. A “single recipe” of Toll House Cookies (the traditional chocolate chip cookie recipe, made with 6 ounces or 1 cup of chocolate chips) can be patted down into a greased 9″ x 13″ pan (which will fit inside most boat ovens, but check yours) and baked for 20 to 25 minutes at 375° F.
Sugar cookies also work well baked this way (dough should be about 1/2″ thick in the pan). Sprinkle the top with colored sugar (put white sugar and a few drops of food coloring in a zippered plastic bag and carefully shake) so you don’t have to make frosting by hand . . . or have it melt if you’re in a hot climate.
I’ve also done peanut butter cookies and ginger snaps this way. Typically, they take between 20 and 25 minutes to bake, but start checking early rather than risking burnt cookies.
While gingerbread men are a Christmas tradition, why not make a pan of cake-like gingerbread? If you have powdered sugar, an easy way to decorate it is to either cut strings of “gingerbread men” out or one large gingerbread man, lay the paper on top of the gingerbread, and sprinkle the powdered sugar around the cutout. Remove the cutout and its outline will remain. See my “Gingerbread Pan Man!“
No-Bake Cookies
While most no-bake cookie recipes require some cooking on the stove top, it’s usually only for a few minutes, keeping the galley cooler and also not taking nearly as long as baked cookies. Some ideas:
- Rice Krispies treats — color them red and green or roll in colored sugar or little silver balls, if desired.
- Booze Balls — a Christmas tradition where I grew up, it was only later in life that I decided they could be made at other times of the year. And you can make them very quickly by pressing into a pan and cutting in squares instead of making balls.
- Chocolate-Oatmeal No-Bake Cookies — not as pretty as some of the other options, but everyone always loves them. And you probably already have the ingredients aboard!
Recipes that use oil
Whatever you’re baking — bar cookies or traditional cookies — if you don’t have a mixer, find recipes that use oil instead of calling for you to cream shortening. You generally need recipes that are designed for oil; it doesn’t usually work to just substitute it for butter or shortening. These recipes are usually meant to be made by hand and are much easier on the arms! Another trick is that if your preferred recipe does require butter or shortening, leave it out for a few hours to get really soft before trying to cream it with the sugar.
Alternatives to frosting
Cream frostings are tough to make by hand, and if you’re in a hot climate they’re likely to melt and drip some even if you do go to the effort of making them. Far easier decorations include:
- Powdered sugar, dusted over the top in a random pattern or over a paper pattern to leave an outline when the paper is removed.
- Colored sugar sprinkled over the top.
- Press a candy into the top of each bar, either flat or standing up (Life Savers work well, as do peppermint candies — and don’t melt).
- Mix a thin drizzle frosting of powdered sugar and milk or water (color if you wish) — drizzle over the top of cookies or bars.
Try shortbread
Finally, one tip from a member of the Boat Galley Team and the creator of our logbook, Julie Tijerina She suggests shortbreads make great holiday treats on a boat. They are easy to make. And you can enhance them with different extracts or even by dipping them in chocolate.
No matter what you do for the holidays, stay safe! Don’t try to bake in a rolly anchorage — you’re very likely to burn yourself getting food in and out of the oven as the oven swings. Even if it seems calm, watch out for sudden wakes from passing boats and more.
Happy Holidays!
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Heather Reimer says
Such perfect timing! I have just returned from the tienda….no butter!!! How the @#$&! am i supposed to bake Christmas cookies without butter? Especially as my captain is looking a lot like the Grinch right now. Your cookbook, in the Sustitutions section, said margarine or shotening would work. Fingers crossed!
Carolyn Shearlock says
The taste won’t be identical, but the cookies will still be good!
Carolyn Shearlock says
The taste won’t be 100% identical, but you’ll still have some great cookies!
Sarah Wilde says
Thank you – I’m going to have to try that gingerbread man cake pan thing now, looks great!
Sue says
My problem is that my Christmas cookies go soggy in the humidity of the tropics.
Kathleen Kathe Spidell says
9×13 won’t fit in my little boat oven
The Boat Galley says
Mine neither . . . but I can do a 6 x 9 pan and do 2 batches.
Heather Kolankowski says
I’ve found that the Betty Crocker Easy Bake ovens, the ones for kids, have little cookie sheets, pans and the works that fit in all galley ovens or a toaster oven. I just Googled them, and apparently they stopped producing them in 2017, however I have found these items in thrift/charity shops and toy stores. For my husband and I they’re perfect, as we really don’t need 5 dozen cookies (we WANT 5 dozen). I’ve had much success halving recipes and even 1/4 for cookies and squares which are very forgiving for imperfect measurements. Also, Carolyn’s tip of keeping a baking stone (we use a granite slate tile wrapped in tin foil) allows me to use glass bakeware and almost any smaller glass or metal dishes including used thin tin pie plates (careful things burn quickly). Thanks so much Carolyn! Your Tips and Tricks have solved many challenges! Happy Holidays from the Pacific Northwest (Canada, near Alaska).
Louie says
Go to Pinterest ladies. They have so many ideas for Xmas, you are sure to find something easy. We like ‘white Christmas’ and use pistachios, cranberries and the odd marshmallow with Rice Bubbles and white choc. Always looks gorgeous.
Carolyn Shearlock says
I had never heard of “White Christmas” so looked up a recipe. I’m going to have to make it! Here’s one version:
https://eatlittlebird.com/white-christmas-with-pistachios-dried-cranberries/
Wanita says
Is there a chocolate, or something you can add to it, that slows the melting in your hand?
Carolyn Shearlock says
Darker chocolate generally has a higher melting point than milk chocolate, but it’s still not very high. Adding a touch of parafin to chocolate when melting it will make it set up with slightly better “hand” characteristics.