Everything is drier at high altitude, especially baked treats! Low air pressure makes baking rise faster and lose moisture. This is the pits because dry bread is for the birds! Literally!
The solution?
Tangzhong
Gesundheit!
No silly! Tanzhong is a Japanese method of cooking a small amount of flour and milk (or water) before adding it to the recipe.
NOTE: Can be used for ANY yeast bread recipe to moisten and tenderize the overall product. Loaves, rolls, cinnamon rolls, donuts….
Using Tangzhong makes it so the dough can absorb more moisture – a big deal at high altitude. Tangzhong also helps it rise higher and makes the dough less sticky – so you don’t have to add flour when kneading.
Remember this if you remember nothing else! In high altitude baking, the less flour – the better!
With yeast bread baking, I NEVER follow the recipe amount of flour. I add the bare minimum to get a workable dough.
Too much flour makes anything heavy, dry and stale.
Ew!
A basic Tangzhong for a two loaf recipe or 2 dozen rolls would look like this:
1/3 C. Flour
1 C. Milk or Water
Warm in a saucepan, stirring until smooth and thick enough to coat the back of a metal spoon. Cool before adding it to your recipe.
Have you ever noticed how the simpliest things bring about the coolest results? There’s a lesson in there somewhere! 🙂