No-Knead Bread at Altitude

I've long been afraid of baking bread. Yeast is so...alchemical and mysterious. And I'm not really one for measuring. But last weekend it was snowing (again), I was already making soup, and I figured that since I was going to be stuck inside anyway, it was time to conquer my fear. Reminding myself that flour is cheap and it would not be the end of the world if the loaf ended up in the trash, I pulled out Bittman's No-Knead Bread recipe that's been lingering in my recipe file for three(!) years and dove in.

And the bread wasn't bad. Really, it wasn't. But it wasn't great, either. It was kind of dense and tough. I suspected this might have something to do with the fact that (1) I used all-purpose flour instead of bread flour, because that's what I had on-hand (2) I mixed it 2-to-1 with whole wheat flour, because I ran out of all-purpose (did I mention it was snowing?) and (3) I was using a sea-level recipe at 5280 feet.

I did not, however, let this deter me for long. This weekend, I tried again, followed the recipe better, and tweaked it for high altitude. And this time, it was *delicious.* So without further ado, I bring you:


Mile High No-Knead Bread
Adapted from Jim Lahey, Sullivan Street Bakery, via Mark Bittman at The New York Times

Ingredients:
3 c bread flour
1 1/4 teaspoons salt*
scant 1/4 teaspoon instant (rapid rise) yeast

*I recommend Real Salt. It's mined in Utah from a prehistoric seabed and Whole Foods sells it in bulk for less than $3 a pound.

1. Combine flour, yeast, and salt in a large mixing bowl. Add 1 3/4 cups tepid (warm room temperature) water and stir until blended. Dough will be sticky and shaggy, but will come together in a rough ball. Cover the bowl with plastic wrap, and let rest at room temperature (68-70 degrees) for 12-15 hours. When dough is ready, it will have roughly doubled in size and surface will be dotted with bubbles.

Note: High gluten content in your flour is essential at high altitude. Do *not* substitute all-purpose or whole grain flours unless you add additional wheat gluten.

Note: Don't be tempted to skimp on the salt. It turns out it's important.

2. Dump dough out of bowl onto lightly-floured work surface. Fold it over itself a few times. Sprinkle with flour, cover with saran wrap, and let rest 10-15 minutes

3. Using just enough flour (really, the least you can get away with) to keep dough from sticking to work surface or to your fingers, gently and quickly shape dough into a ball. Generously coat a silpat or non-terry cotton towel with flour, wheat bran or cornmeal; put dough seam side down on towel and dust with more flour, bran or cornmeal. Cover with an oiled piece of saran wrap covered with a second, damp cotton towel. (This is to make up for the fact that air pressure is less at altitude.) Let rise for about 1 1/2 hours. When it is ready, dough will be more than double in size and will not readily spring back when poked with a finger.

4. At least a half-hour before dough is ready, heat oven to 450 degrees. Put a 6- to 8-quart heavy covered pot (cast iron, enamel, Pyrex or ceramic) in oven as it heats. When dough is ready, carefully remove pot from oven. Slide your hand under towel or silpat and turn dough over into pot, seam side up; it may look like a mess, but that is O.K. Shake pan once or twice if dough is unevenly distributed; it will straighten out as it bakes. Cover with lid and bake 45 minutes, then check the temperature of the bread. Remove lid and cook for up to another 15 minutes, until bread reaches an internal temperature of 210 degrees.

Note: Mine got stuck at just over 200 degrees, but I took it out after about 55 minutes anyway because, well, it just seemed done.

5. Remove bread from oven and cool on a rack until it reaches nearly room temperature before you cut into it. (This keeps it from drying out.)

Enjoy!