The same factors of high altitude that affect our bodies create various problems in cooking and baking as well. At 2,000 feet above sea level, low atmospheric pressure begins to affect baking/cooking in three ways. As elevation increases, the boiling point of water gets lower, liquids evaporate faster, and leavening gases expand more quickly.
Under standard atmospheric conditions, water boils at 212 degrees F at sea level and drops one degree every 500 ft increase in elevation. In Mexico City, it boils around 197 degrees. When water boils at a lower temperature, it takes longer to cook food in it. For example, pasta and rice seem to take twice as long. Many people here boil potatoes in a pressure cooker, they just never seem to get soft enough otherwise. The pressure cooker or "olla express" has been indispensable for cooking dried beans. It literally takes 20 minutes to get a perfectly soft texture and slow-cooked flavor that might take six hours in a normal pot.
Moisture evaporates faster at high elevations. When water evaporates rapidly from a batter or dough, it changes the ratio of liquids to solids. In baked goods, the structure can be weakened by too high a concentration of sugars and fats, causing them to set slowly, have a course texture, or collapse. Lately I've been making bread. Moisture retention in the beginning of the bread baking process is very important. Not only does more liquid in the dough make a more interesting, varied crumb and crust, but its important to keep the surface moist and elastic so it can expand to its fullest. Before I put my dough in a blazing hot Le Crueset, I spritz the pot down to create more steam and bake it for the first twenty minutes with the lid on. I then take the lid off and cook it for thirty to forty more minutes, but still I can't get a good enough browning on the crust (even at 500 degrees). Apparently this is because the faster evaporation of moisture lowers the temperature on the surface of the bread, inhibiting the caramelization of sugars.
In the proofing stage when yeast feeds on the carbohydrates or sugars in the dough, it's byproduct is carbon dioxide. Our altitude's lower atmospheric pressure allows the gas to expand more rapidly, causing bread to over-proof in too little time. Its desirable to have a longer and slower fermenting process because it produces a better, more complex tasting bread. Following the original bread recipe, I was letting my dough proof for twelve to eighteen hours. I think that I may have been missing the window for baking because there has been very little rising in the oven. Some things I can do to prolong the proofing time is to use less yeast, more salt (a yeast retardant), and to keep the dough in the refrigerator after the initial rise.
As scientific as this is, my goal is still just about finding the best outcome with the easiest process (I hardly measure the ingredients), and to get my technique down on making the already very forgiving no-knead bread. It was 2006 when I first heard of this recipe popularized by Mark Bittman of the New York Times, but I never tried it. I did plenty of baking at my restaurant job but baking at home was something I didn't do. Probably because out of the three years in Philly and the three different houses I lived in, I never had a working oven in my kitchen. Now that I do have an oven, I'm faced with the challenge of baking at 7,350 ft. Try this recipe at sea level and let me know how it goes: No-Knead Bread
Whole wheat bread with cranberries, pecans, pepitas, anise seed, and cinnamon.
-Kenny
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