More Adventures With Bread Friend

Last night we attended a dinner gathering hosted by our friends Erica and Doug. Erica made an absolutely DIVINE Pork Posole, which, though of course I can take zero credit for, I did promptly hunt down her recipe so I can soon replicate it. It was completely awesome, fall/winter comfort food at its best. Erica served it with a yummy salad of dark greens and some corn bread, which was perfect. Our contributions to the table were a 12-pack of Pacifico, (classy I know, but hey, beer really is the best pairing with Mexican), and a seven grain bread I threw together thanks to Bread Friend. The bread smelled divine and was very good, a nice addition on the appetizer spread with butter or cheese, but it was also very dense. Yes, I know, with seven whole grains, it's gonna be dense, but I began wondering if there was some detail of working with Bread Friend I was missing, so I've done some research. Turns out, not surprisingly of course, that BF is calibrated to bake at sea level, and that the decreased air pressure up here at 5400 feet above sea level Boulder doesn't allow for enough rising during the first proofing segment of the process. To get technical, (thanks to University of Wyoming's Department of Home Economics) "when air pressure decreases (which it does, for those of us above 3000 ft), there is less resistance on water molecules, which makes water boil at a lower temperature than the typical 212 degrees F. The evaporation of water before the baked product structure is developed and set causes collapsed baked products. " This and other articles go on to suggest various solutions, including increasing the amount of salt (logic is that salt restrains the yeast somewhat and this prevents quick rising during the first proofing, which should help create properly aerated dough since the structure will be more solid and hold up through the second proofing rather than collapse) or decreasing yeast, which basically has the same effect increasing the salt. You can also decrease the sugar, which is food for the yeast, to get a similar effect, but most of the breads I'll be attempting are so low sugar anyway there's hardly anything to reduce (Mr. Seven Grain bread says "don't rob me my measly 1 T of honey!")

So, I'm going to make my seven grain again today and try the above suggestions. And given my impatience and lack of interest in true scientific process and methodical testing, I'll probably try both a little less yeast and a little more salt, just for good measure. I want results!!

And while we're on the topic of yeast, I've quickly realized that I will be graduating from buying the little individual packets of yeast to buying the jar. Silly as it may sound, this is a very exciting prospect for me, and I feel official and accomplished.

Anyway, off to my yeasty adventures, and I'll be sure to share a full report of the results!

UPDATE - Second loaf of Seven Grain and...absolutely no improvement. Sigh...if at first you don't succeed...bake more bread!