If you’ve been following us on Facebook, you’ll have seen a few random questions here and there about baking bread. After moving, I just could not get my bread to hold its rise. It would look beautiful until about 30 minutes before it was done and then it would quickly deflate, leaving me with a loaf of bread that looked like someone had sat on it mid-bake.
At first I thought maybe it was the yeast. The water was too hot (or too cold) and the yeast just got tired and decided to take a nap. I bought some fresh yeast, tried again, and Ppppbbbt. Same deflated loaf of bread.
Then, one of our fans mentioned altitude. When you’re at higher altitudes, the lower air pressure causes everything to rise very quickly and then fall, which means any recipe that has yeast or needs to rise needs to be tweaked. Having lived at low altitudes all my life, I hadn’t even thought about it. I adjusted the recipe, using less water and less yeast. Finally! A loaf of bread that looked like a freshly baked loaf of bread.
Here’s my un-smooshed honey whole wheat bread loaf.
- 1 cup warm water (110 degrees F/45 degrees C) (minus 1-2 Tablespoons for high altitude)
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 1 tablespoon butter, melted
- 1 tablespoon and 2-1/4 teaspoons honey
- 1-2/3 cups bread flour
- 1 cup and 3 tablespoons whole wheat flour
- ⅝ (.25 ounce) package active dry yeast (minus ~1/4 teaspoon for high altitude)
- Place the ingredients into the bread machine in the order listed.
- Depending on the bread machine, select loaf size (mine was 1.5 lb) and crust type. Start machine.
- Once the bread is finished baking, remove it from the machine and let it cool on a wire rack.
Simple Honey Whole Wheat Bread
Living in Colorado at about 5,300 feet I’ve always been aware of having to make changes to recipes due to the altitude. I’m glad you were able to figure it out.
sounds yummy. many baking mixes will tell you haw to adjust for altitude, too.
sorry I haven’t been by the blog lately, so busy, I haven’t been on FB much either.
Yum! I love homemade bread, this sounds great.
I wish I had this loaf and a stick of butter right now….looks great
sibabe64 at ptd dot net
This looks so good and I can’t wait to try it, thank you.
Bread machines make bread making so easy! I could never make homemade bread on my own, everything turned out terrible. The first real bread I made was after I had a bread machine!
Homemade bread is so good. I haven’t made any in a while and this makes me want to start again – even thought I do it by hand (no bread machine).
Have all the ingredients in my pantry. Will be making it.
that looks so good! I used to make bread all the time, with mixed results, but I’d always eat it. I wonder it must be fun to live at a high altitude!