High Altitude Bread Baking Adventure

Basic bread. That’s all I wanted to make. Nothing crazy. Not baguettes or sourdough or ciabatta or bagels, although that makes more sense, knowing me. Just a crusty bread at altitude. But successfully producing something so simple proved elusive. Pun intended.

Several years ago I made the unwise decision to attempt a first-ever loaf of homemade bread after a full day of holiday baking. I pictured the heavenly, crusty boule of Kalamata olive bread that my friend Laurel’s neighbors made to share with us, back when she lived in Corvallis, Oregon.

What I wrought in Boulder was closer to hell.

Lots of lessons learned, not least of which is to let freshly baked bread cool for an hour before cutting it. I pulled the loaf out, cut it, thought the interior was raw, and then crumpled in despair. Back in the oven it went. By the end, the crust was overdone and the cornmeal had turned gravel-like.

Things didn’t get much better with subsequent bakes. Even simpler recipes became examples of What Not To Do. At the start of the pandemic I produced a no-knead Dutch oven loaf with wildly uneven salt distribution and a raw center. Since that inedible disaster, we’d been fine just buying bread. But one weekend we couldn’t get our hands on any to go with homemade soup. Using a different recipe, I made an overly-sweet puck that was both badly burned and underdone in the middle.

In desperate need of guidance, I rewatched The Chef Show episode “Pasta a la Raimi,” where Jon Favreau makes a beautiful sourdough boule using Tartine’s no-knead method. Only later, in Season 2, do we get to witness his initial learning curve at the famed bakery.

If he can make such amazing progress, there must be hope for me.

On a recent Sunday I used the ingredients and oven temperature from this Life as a Strawberry recipe, and applied techniques from the show. I struggled with the folding. Dough stuck to the damp kitchen towel and to my improvised proofing basket. The boule wasn’t exactly round. My knife scoring left a lot to be desired.

But this was the best one yet: crisp crust, a hollow sounding tap on the bottom, crackling sounds right out of the oven, a soft and open texture in the middle, and a nice taste. At the end of such a brutal year, this little loaf gave me so much joy. My sincerest wish is that the new year brings much more, for all of us.

High Altitude Dutch Oven Bread Boule

2¼ tsp. (9g) (1 packet) active dry yeast
1 tsp. (4g) sugar
1¼ C. (300g) filtered or distilled water
1½ (10g) tsp. kosher salt
2½ to 3½ C. (360g) all-purpose flour plus extra for dusting

Tools: One 4- to 6-quart Dutch oven or cast iron combo cooker, parchment paper, large lidded Pyrex mixing bowl, proofing basket (or nesting medium mixing bowls plus a cotton kitchen towel), glass pot lid or shower cap, rounded bench scraper, sharp knife, heatproof mitts or gloves.

Heat filtered or distilled water to 100–110°F, but not any hotter.

In a large Pyrex mixing bowl, combine the yeast, sugar, and water. Let it proof for about 5 minutes or until the mixture is foamy. Watch the bowl. Things should be happening. Bubbles forming and rising. That’s how you know the yeast is alive. If it’s not doing anything, start over with a new packet, making sure it’s not expired.

Add the flour to the bowl and mix using a large spatula. Sprinkle the salt across the top. Dip your hand in water and then squeeze the dough to incorporate the salt, mixing it well. The dough will look very shaggy at this point. Scrape it into a rough ball shape with the spatula.

Cover the dough with the lid and let rest at room temperature for 30 to 40 minutes, or until the top seems much smoother.

Leaving the dough in the bowl, use the stretch and fold method to turn it into a ball while preserving the volume: Put your hand under the top edge of the dough and bring it over the top to the side closest to you, pressing down slightly. Rotate the bowl 90 degrees. Repeat that motion: lift, pull, press, spin, until you’ve done four folds total.

Cover the bowl again and let it rest for another 30 minutes at room temperature.

The next step is bench resting the dough. This was challenging for a beginner like me, but here’s what you do: Ease the dough out of the bowl onto a clean work surface using a bench scraper. With the aid of the scraper, lift up the top edge of the dough and fold it up and over to the front like an envelope. Do the same thing side to side. The fourth and last move involves simultaneously folding and flipping it over.

Now create as much surface tension as possible using the scraper or your hand to round it, pressing evenly in a clockwise direction at the base of the dough. Do whatever you can to make the top look pretty. This was also tricky. Wet a cotton kitchen towel thoroughly with water and then mostly wring it out.

Leave the dough ball on your work surface and cover it completely with the damp rag. Let it rest for 30 minutes at room temperature. The dough will get slightly slack again.

Sprinkle a little all-purpose flour or rice flour into a lined proofing basket.

(Alternatively, spread a clean and dry cotton dish towel on the counter, sprinkle flour over the top, rub it in evenly with your hand, and gently shake excess flour into the sink. Line a medium mixing bowl with the towel, floured side up. Tuck the rest of the towel underneath and nest the whole thing inside a slightly bigger mixing bowl. Make sure you can lift both easily. Set aside. Admittedly, dough stuck to the floured towel both times I tried this, which wasn’t ideal.)

Wet your hands with a little water. Take the dough and repeat the envelope folding technique with the bench scraper to form it back into a round. Be delicate because it’s the final turn. Place the dough into the proofing basket or mixing bowl setup and cover with a shower cap or a glass pot lid. Do a final 30-minute proof at room temp.

While the dough rests, place a large round of parchment paper in the base of a Dutch oven. The paper should go up the sides a bit. Press the paper into the round edges. Now, remove the paper and set it aside.

Put the lid on, place the Dutch oven in the oven, and preheat to 460°F.

Gently flip the dough over into the center of the parchment paper. Score the dough with a sharp knife, aiming the tip downward. Make two long intersecting scores, each around ½-inch deep, on the top. Make four similarly deep slashes in the center of each quadrant. Using oven mitts or heatproof gloves, take the preheated Dutch oven out and remove the lid.

Carefully hold both edges of the parchment paper, bring it over to the hot pan, and let it drop into the bottom. Still using the mitts or gloves, put the lid on.

Bake for 30 minutes or until the bread has “oven spring,” where it’s puffed up, pale brown, and the tops of the ears are starting to get dark.

Take off the lid and bake uncovered for another 10 to 25 minutes or until the color on the top is very deep and caramelized. Don’t walk away. Keep watching the color. It will look almost too dark or burned. If you think it’s done but you’re not quite sure, give it another 3 to 5 minutes.

Take the pan out of the oven. You can use two sets of tongs, grasping near the bottom of the brittle parchment, to get the bread out. Be very careful to avoid burns. You should hear the bread crackling. Tap the bottom to make sure it sounds hollow.

Let the bread sit for 1 hour before cutting into it.