Baking Sourdough Bread at High Altitude

Baking sourdough bread at high altitude can cause a few issues with your bread. Depending on how far above sea level you live, you may have issues with wet, sticky dough or lack of oven spring.

The main cause of problems when baking sourdough bread at high altitude are lower air pressure and drier air (caused by a lack of humidity).

If you are living in areas like Utah, Colorado or Wyoming, you might have found that your sourdough baking is affected by high altitude.

This article aims to guide you through the process of baking a successful loaf of sourdough bread at higher altitude. It's not as difficult as you might think - you will just need to make a few tweaks to your recipe.

Most Common Sourdough Problems at High Altitude

When baking sourdough bread at high altitude, the most common problems you'll run into are:

• Wet, sticky dough that cannot be easily shaped (after bulk fermentation)
• Dough that spreads out when tipped out of banneton (after proofing)
• Dough that is difficult to score and collapses after scoring
• Lack of oven spring (loaves are flat and wide with a dense crumb)

Many of these problems point to a single cause - over fermentation.

Over fermentation happens more easily at higher altitudes because of the lower air pressure and lower moisture levels.

While it may seem insurmountable, these issues are very easy to fix. You will be able to bake amazing sourdough at higher altitudes.

The loaf below is an example of what can happen when baking bread at higher altitudes. The bread has no oven spring and is wide and flat. The crumb is dense and gummy.

How Does Elevation Affect Sourdough?

Living at higher altitude means that you are living further above sea level than most people.

The higher above sea level you go, the less humidity there is. This means that the air will be drier. Drier air will dry your ingredients out.

Higher elevations also mean lower air pressure.

Drier Air Means Drier Ingredients

The higher you travel above sea level, the less humidity there is. This will make the air drier. On average, most higher altitude locations can experience humidity levels as low as 10 - 20%, in comparison to sea level locations, which can be as high as 80% humidity.

Drier air will mean drier ingredients. This is very important when using flour to bake sourdough. Flour at higher altitudes will be much drier and will absorb water differently.

This may mean you need to add more water to compensate for the drier flour. The trick is to not add it all at once because you may add too much!

When baking sourdough at higher altitude it's important to do an autolyse to make sure that the flour absorbs the water before you move on to the stretch and folds. This will give you an opportunity to add more water if necessary.

You may need to add up to 50g more water.

Lower Air Pressure Means Faster Fermentation

Higher altitude locations will have lower air pressure than locations at sea level.

Lower air pressure causes gasses to expand much faster than they would at sea level.

This is pertinent to sourdough because the wild yeast in your dough are releasing gasses as they feed on the starches in the flour. Bulk fermentation will happen much more quickly at high altitude because of these fast expanding gasses.

Now that we understand the effect of low air pressure on sourdough, you can see how easily sourdough bread can be over fermented at higher altitudes.

Temperature will play a part of course, as it does for bulk fermentation at any altitude. But even in cooler temperatures, the air pressure will make a difference to your dough.

To combat this problem, you can decrease the amount of starter you use in your dough.

Best Tips for Baking Sourdough Bread At High Altitude

As you can see there are definitely some easy fixes for baking sourdough bread at high altitude.

It's really just a matter of understanding what is causing the over fermentation of your bread and putting solutions in place to overcome them.

Here's an easy to follow table for how to overcome sourdough bread problems at high altitude:

ELEMENTS AFFECTED BY HIGHER ALTITUDES	HOW TO ADJUST SOURDOUGH RECIPE FOR HIGH ALTITUDE
Hydration	Increase hydration (after autolyse if necessary)
Amount of starter	Decrease amount of starter (to stop over fermentation)
Stretches & Folds	Increase to strengthen gluten network
Bulk Fermentation	Decrease bulk fermentation time (or amount of starter)
Covered Dough	Use plastic cover for resting dough on counter and in fridge to stop it drying out.
Baking Temperature	Increase baking temp (or baking time)
Baking Time	Increase baking time (or baking temp)

Like all sourdough baking, you will find that a little experimentation is necessary to get a better bake. For example, you might prefer to increase the baking time rather than the baking temperature.

In any case, there are definitely solutions for the causes of over fermentation of sourdough at higher altitudes.

Increase Hydration for High Altitude

You will find that you'll need to increase the hydration of your sourdough to accomodate for the lack of moisture in the air at higher elevations.

This will be particularly important if you are using whole wheat and whole grain flours, as they typically require more water anyway.

The best tip I can give you here is to not increase the hydration straight off the bat. Conduct the autolyse or fermentolyse period and then assess the dough after that.

If the flour does not feel hydrated enough after the autolyse period, add up to 50g more water.

My easy sourdough recipe sits at 71% hydration. Adding an extra 50g of water would bring it up to 81%. This is quite high hydration bread, but may be an essential addition to the success of your bread at higher altitudes.

You can read a guide to sourdough hydration here.

Amount of Sourdough Starter At High Altitude

The amount of sourdough starter can be important when baking at higher elevations because of the speed in which fermentation can happen.

Reducing the amount of starter in your dough can help to slow the fermentation down.

You could reduce the amount of starter in the dough down to 25g to help with this.

You can read more about the amount of starter to use and why it matters here.

Stretches & Folds

Stretching and folding is a common technique used to develop a strong gluten network in sourdough bread.

The gluten also strengthens during the bulk fermentation period.

Because you need to shorten the bulk fermentation period when baking sourdough at high altitude, it can be helpful to perform extra stretch and folds to ensure the gluten network is strong enough.

This will also help with the structure of your sourdough, making for easy shaping. It will also help your dough not spread out when you tip it out of the banneton.

Shorter Bulk Fermentation Time

Given the lower air pressure at higher altitudes, you'll need to decrease the bulk fermentation time you give your sourdough. In short, fermentation time decreases as altitude increases.

The only way to get around this, is to reduce the amount of sourdough starter, as discussed above.

It's best to keep a close eye on your dough during bulk fermentation, at least until you are confident with timing.

Covering Your Sourdough

We know that the air is drier above sea level due to the reduced humidity. This will not only dry out your flour before you mix your dough, it can also dry out the dough while it's fermenting and proving.

You should cover your dough with a plastic cover while it's in bulk fermentation and especially during proofing.

Elasticised plastic food covers are great for this purpose. They will ensure that your dough does not develop a dry and tough skin, which is is detrimental to good sourdough oven spring.

A plastic bag, like the type you get your fruit and vege in at the supermarket, is also a good option.

Baking Time and Temperature at Altitude

You will need to increase the temperature at which you bake at altitude. This can be difficult for sourdough though, because it's already baked at high temperatures.

The general advice is to increase the baking temperature by about 25C. The alternative is to increase the baking time to ensure your sourdough is baked through.

While it's not essential, you can use a thermometer to check for doneness. You're looking for an internal temperature between 90.5 - 96C (195 - 205F).

Does Altitude Affect Sourdough Starter?

Altitude does not have a profound affect on your sourdough starter. While there are many adjustments you'll need to make for a successful loaf of sourdough bread, your sourdough starter is more forgiving.

If anything, you'll need to add slightly more water to compensate for the lower humidity levels and drier flour. If you are using whole wheat or whole grain flours, you may notice this more. In that case, a little more water will be necessary.

You many notice that your starter peaks quite quickly - this will be due to the lower air pressure. It's not a problem, however, if you want to extend the rise, you can feed the starter at a higher ration (1:2:2 for example).

If you don't already have a sourdough starter, you can use this easy guide to create your own sourdough starter from scratch.

Frequently Asked Questions

Want More Info?

If you found this article on Baking Sourdough At High Altitude helpful, you might enjoy these:

• Why is my dough so wet and sticky?
  
• How to Know When Bulk Fermentation has finished
  
• How To Make Sourdough Taste More Sour
  
• How To Reduce The Amount of Starter You Use
  
• Weirdest Sourdough Questions Answered

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