High altitude homemade bread

June 6, 2023 Recipes

This recipe uses the tangzhong technique to make the bread super soft and stay fresher, longer. Typically homemade bread is great the day it is made, but quickly dry out after a couple of days. Using the tangzhong technique makes the rolls even softer and makes the bread stay fresh longer.

Explanation of the tangzhong technique from King Arthur Baking:

Tangzhong is a yeast bread technique popularized across Asia by Taiwanese cookbook author Yvonne Chen. Tangzhong involves cooking some of a bread recipe’s flour in liquid prior to adding it to the remaining dough ingredients. Bringing the temperature of the flour and liquid to 65°C (149°F) pre-gelatinizes the flour’s starches, which makes them more able to retain liquid — thus enhancing the resulting bread's softness and shelf life.

Most high altitude bread recipes shorten the amount of time that you let the bread rise, but I found in Patraia Kendall's High Altitude Baking that she recommends the opposite: longer rising, and a third rising.

So I made three loaves of bread: one with a shortened rising time, one with a longer rising time, and one with a longer rising time and using the tangzhong method.

Pretty clear which method works best:

Ingredients

1 1/2 cups water, separated
2 cups milk
1/4 cup sugar
1/4 cup honey
2 tbsp butter, melted
5 tsp yeast
8 cups flour (bread or all purpose)
5 tsp salt
2 tbsp melted butter

Mix 1 cup of water with 6 tbsp flour, then heat over medium heat until it forms a paste. Remove from heat and cool.
Heat remaining 1/2 cup water, milk, sugar, honey, and 2 tbsp melted butter in a medium sauce pan until it reaches 110-115 degrees on an instant read thermometer. Stir in the active dry yeast, and set aside to bloom for about 5 minutes, or until the mixture is bubbly and foamy.
Transfer the yeast mixture to the bowl of a stand mixer, and add in 4 cups of flour along with the salt. Mix until combined with a paddle attachment. The mixture will be liquidy and lumpy at this point.
Add in another cup of flour and paste mixture, and continue adding in 1/4 cup portions until the dough starts to pull away from the sides of the bowl. Switch to a hook attachment at this point. The dough should be soft and slightly sticky when you stop adding flour.
Knead until the dough is elastic, about 5 minutes. The dough may still be slightly lumpy, but should spring back when you touch it.
Transfer the dough to a lightly oiled large bowl, and cover with plastic wrap. Let the dough rise by about doubled in size, about 1 hour.
Punch down dough, re-cover, and let rise another 30 minutes.
Grease two 9x5" inch loaf pans. Set aside.
Roll your dough into a large rectangle. One side should be about the same length as the length of your loaf pan. Roll the dough, starting on the loaf-pan-length side, into a tight log, and place seam-side down into your prepared loaf pan. Cover with plastic, and let rise for 30 minutes.
Preheat your oven to 375 degrees, then bake for 45 minutes, or until an instant read thermometer reads 190 degrees.
Remove from pan and spread remaining 2 tbsp of butter on each loaf.

Ingredients for 3 loaves of bread

2 1/4 cups water, separated
4 cups milk
6 tbsp cup sugar
6 tbsp cup honey
3 tbsp butter, melted
2 tbsp + 1 1/2 tsp yeast
12 cups flour (bread or all purpose)
2 tbsp + 1 1/2 tsp salt
3 tbsp butter, melted

References:

Dough-eyed - High-Altitude Sandwich Bread https://www.dougheyed.com/high-altitude-sandwich-bread/

King Arthur Baking - How to convert a bread recipe to tangzhong https://www.kingarthurbaking.com/.../how-to-convert-a...

High Altitude Baking - Patrica Kendall ISBN 1917895011 White Bread - Page 98