Greetings!! I am brand new to this email list, and am very excited to
be part of this community.
I have looked through some of the postings that concern baking at
"high altitude". I live at 5,000 feet, and have made bread using some
of Ken Forkish's formulas as well some from a couple of Peter
Reinhart's books and Bien Cuit by Golper and Kaminsky.
While the breads have turned out fairly well (I'm a newly-returned
bread baking enthusiast, and my standards for "fairly well" are likely
a wee bit low), they have been a tad dense, much like the baker. :) I
use active dry yeast which I rehydrate - haven't quite decided to go
the instant yeast route. I grind my own flour using wheat berries
both from our CSA and from Breadtopia.
While I have suspicions about the way I am using the active dry yeast
in recipes that call for instant yeast, multiplying the called for
amounts by 1.25, I also am wondering if the 5,000 feet elevation may
have something to do with this. While not really high altitude, I
suspect that it's enough, both in terms of barometric pressure and
lack of humidity, to have some impact.
This is a rambling post with a fairly amorphously posed question. But
if anyone has any feedback on what I might try to have bread be a bit
lighter in density, I would be grateful. Thank you all very much!!
Flour power,
VelkySyr