The Life of Bread, from Sea Level to 4500 feet!, Tips, tricks and a bit of a confession...

Imagine my surprise when all the perfect loaves of bread we enjoyed while living at the beach, were now nothing more than bricks! That was my sad reality, as we settled into our high-altitude home...so it was time to gather knowledge, tips, and tricks for successful bread baking at high altitudes. 

The Life of Bread, from Sea Level to 4500 feet!

I had always lived at sea level or close to it, for most of my life. Being a West Coast Native and always living in close proximity to the coastline, not once did I come up against any baking difficulties with altitude. Oh sure, I had heard all about them, but could not relate in any way. 

When the decision was made to move to Montana (and from there Wyoming), never once did I consider that we would be living at a higher altitude. Which would change how ingredients work and work together. When we got here there was so much to do, what with the unpacking, the organizing, and putting it all away! I have to say that bread baking was not my first thought as we got back to regular meals and daily cooking. But soon that itch to bake our bread was tingling...

I might as well confess, right now. I have always been in love with bread baking. Always! And while I have been baking bread for over 45 years, I also need to say, I have not always baked perfect bread...some days as I played bread baker in the kitchen we would have a feast to take to the seagulls at the edge of the sea. When living in Montana, it is the duck pond down the road. But we still needed a loaf of bread for the bread box, so I would begin another batch... 

The mistake I made when we first moved to Montana was that I got out all my standard recipes and used the same techniques that I had spent all those years perfecting and enjoying, only to be rewarded with hard, heavy bricks of what could barely be called bread, but not eaten as such! 

I won't lie, I was very disappointed. After a trip or two to the duck pond to offer up chunks of bread, there was only one thing to do. Figure out what I needed to change (read that learn about high-altitude baking) in order to get fluffy, tender loaves of whole wheat bread we actually wanted to eat. So I did. 

I started reading lots of information on high-altitude baking, hoping to learn what I needed to learn to get back to baking edible bread. And I am happy to say that it is really just a few small changes in process and procedure. I thought it might be handy to share these new techniques, for high-altitude baking in your own kitchen. Ironically our altitude is even higher with our move to Wyoming, but these techniques work just fine!

Come and take a look at the simple but effective new techniques for bread baking:

Update: With our recent move to Wyoming, I found I had to review the tips and see which ones I needed to brush up on because we are actually at a higher elevation here in our new home! It seems you are never done learning to be a better baker! But I think that keeps me inspired to keep learning and improving each loaf. 

 

• Proof the yeast! Even the newer instant yeast. Yeast seems to take a little longer to start working at higher elevations.  If you do not "proof" the yeast to activate it, it will languish in the dough and you will get a doorstop instead of a loaf of bread. Also, it is important to "proof" using water that is between 100 degrees to 110 degrees. Use an instant-read thermometer, and avoid trying to guess...

• Update, I now proof in the bottom of the mixing bowl. Might as well save some dishes, we wash by hand around here! Also now I simply take out the kneading hook and let rise in the mixing bowl. For the life of me, I don't know why I did not do this simple action sooner!

• Create a warm and moist environment to set your dough for rising. This is really quite easy, place a 9X15 pan of hot water into the oven on the rack below where the dough will rise, and turn on the oven light to maintain the warmth. Not too hot, not too cold. Plus with the light on for warmth, if there is a window in the door, you can peek without opening the door.

• Update, the warm and moist environment will produce a tasty loaf in about three to four hours, from start to finish. I have also learned that proofing the yeast also allows for an overnight/cold rise in the refrigerator. Resulting in a fuller, richer flavored bread. If you want to proceed with an overnight rise, decrease yeast by half. Otherwise, the rising dough will take over your refrigerator! 

• Due to the higher altitude, the second rise happens fast! If you let the dough over-rise you may have flat-top loaves. Over-rising the dough will cause it to collapse in the oven when baking. You want a bit of "oven spring" when you put the dough in to bake. But with dough that has risen too far, the "oven spring" happens but the dough is not strong enough to hold the shape and collapses instead. 

• Remove the pans of dough along with the pan of hot water from the oven to preheat the oven. Do remember the loaves of dough will continue to rise while the oven is preheating. And I have found out the hard way that putting the over risen loaves into the oven while it is preheating will cause them to collapse...the proof is in the following photos.

These beauties do show signs of overrising and collapse (dimpled top crust), it can happen to us all!

Whereas these do not! No over-proofing here.  

• Preheat the oven 50 degrees hotter than you will actually bake at so that when you open the oven door to place the loaves in to bake the oven is still hot enough to bake properly, preventing deflating and dimples. But this is quite important, immediately reset the oven temperature to what you need for baking bread. For example, I preheat to 400 degrees, load the oven with my pans of dough, and immediately reset the temperature to 350 degrees. 

• On a personal note, I have found that the dough is a bit stickier up here at 4000 feet. I now prepare my bread pans just like a cake pan with shortening and a sprinkle of flour. Plus I let the loaves sit 5 minutes after baking before turning the bread out onto a cooling rack to cool completely. 

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