Friday, September 07, 2018

Fulltime RVing…baking goodies doable in a RV?

Unlike the previous five 5th wheels we’ve lived in during our 24 years of full time RVing, our Landmark 5th wheel doesn’t have a conventional oven.  However, It did come equipped with a convection/microwave oven and we bought a Breville toaster oven so I do have baking capabilities.  I really like the toaster oven but it is the mini model that has size limitations.  Fine tuning operation of a convection oven is a bit challenging but it gets easier with each use.

I don’t bake very often for one simple reason:  if I bake it we will eat it and we don’t need to eat more sweets!

A few weeks ago our friends Sandy and Rick treated us to a delicious catfish lunch at their beautiful home. For dessert Sandy served a blueberry galette.  Wow, we were impressed!  I was shocked when she explained how easy it is to make this tasty dessert and decided that maybe, just maybe, even I could manage it!

I had wild blueberries in the freezer and a pasty shell on hand so my first foray was blueberry much like Sandy’s.  Turned out pretty good!

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GET loves peaches, me not so much, but I decided to treat him on this second attempt;  a little more difficult but not too bad!

I chose Martha Stewart’s Stone Fruit recipe.  I peeled and sliced about six small peaches.  My slicing technique leaves a little to be desired.  Very few nice uniform slices!DSCN0792DSCN0791

Following recipe instructions I first lined my baking pan (also my pizza pan, pans in a RV have to be multi-functional!) with foil and then topped the foil with non-stick parchment paper.  I didn’t have any parchment paper and considered skipping this step but wanted to follow Martha's recipe.  (And I had noticed that Sandy baked hers on parchment – if she did it it must be important to success!)

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The recipe called for lemon juice.  I got creative and included the zest of the lemon.  Cornstarch, sugar and salt rounded out the ingredients.  (Interesting that it called for no spices?)

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Sandy said she uses ready made pie crust so I followed suit.  Pillsbury makes such good pie crust that I don’t think there is a good reason to make my own!  I know there are fabulous made-from-scratch pie crusts, in fact my sister-in-law Lee makes one, but for my level of baking Pillsbury does the trick.

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I brushed a beaten egg on the crust and it was ready to go into the 375 degree oven.  I think that I should have lowered the convection oven temperature to 350 degrees because the peaches got a little blackened on top!

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Looks pretty in the shiny convection oven!DSCN0796

Out of the oven in about an hour, slid onto a polka dot plastic plate, sliced, topped with Blue Bunny vanilla ice cream and served on a paper plate!  GET likes it!

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Baking in a RV…yes, very doable with just a few adjustments!