High Altitude Cooking and Baking

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High Altitude Cooking and Baking
« on: May 25, 2009, 10:31:29 PM » by Mamatoto

I'm still somewhat new to the Mile High City and am wondering if someone can explain what changes (if any) I need to make to recipes when cooking/baking at a high altitude. Thanks in advance!!

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Re: High Altitude Cooking and Baking
« Reply #1 on: May 25, 2009, 11:27:00 PM » by maceoghain

For the most part, baking tends to rise more at higher altitudes. Therefore:
* In a yeast bread, less yeast is required.
* In a cake recipe, more flour (and sometimes water or oil) is called for and we generally put less batter in each pan/cup. Such as filling the two cake pans with less and making 6 cupcakes with the remaining batter. This prevents messy spills.
* In a quick bread recipe (like biscuits), less baking powder is needed. Biscuits rise beautifully at a high altitude.

I'll stop here and let some of the more experienced high-altitude bakers share their wisdom. Cool

HTH! kate

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Re: High Altitude Cooking and Baking
« Reply #2 on: May 27, 2009, 11:42:34 PM » by Mamatoto

Thanks so much for the overview (and the hint on filling the pans less full)! How do you know how much more flour/less yeast/less baking powder to use? And do you need to adjust the baking time or the oven temperature at all? Or just the ingredients? (I've noticed things are done quicker in my dehydrator here than in DC, but am guessing that's more related to the humidity change than the altitude change...??)

« Last Edit: May 28, 2009, 12:29:51 AM by Mamatoto »
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Re: High Altitude Cooking and Baking
« Reply #3 on: May 28, 2009, 12:55:17 AM » by maceoghain

Again, I am not an expert here, but I will try to answer as best I can! Cheesy

(Um, that's the cue for you other experienced homemakers to step in here!)

As for the dehydrating question, yes, I believe it would be relative to humidity. I have even dried herbs on a clean sheet in the sunshine. Grin

And the baking questions:
1. For the extra flour bit, check a cake mix box or your cookbook. They generally have instructions for "high altitude".

2. For the baking powder adjustment, a little goes a long way. If your original recipe calls for 1 Tbs. of baking powder, try using 1/2 to 1 tsp. less. If that doesn't change things enough, eliminate more the next time.

3. Same with the yeast. My 3-loaf bread recipe calls for 4 1/2 tsp. of yeast. My mom (who lives 2500 ft. lower than me) uses about 1 tsp. more in her recipe.

You might find more helpful information at these sites as well:
http://highaltitudebaking.com/index.htm
I briefly glanced at it and the "Altitude Science" link on the right seems to have good tips.
http://www.themuffinlady.com/highaltitudebaking.php
She has high altitude recipes too!

If you would like, I'd be happy to send you some of my tested recipes. Just PM me if you do. (I'm at almost 8000 ft., BTW.)

kate

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Re: High Altitude Cooking and Baking
« Reply #4 on: May 28, 2009, 11:43:14 PM » by Mamatoto

Great information on the websites you provided - thanks!!

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