Baking cookies, cakes, breads at these elevations! (house, construction)

[lizmyer]

Awww, sadface. I guess I'll just have to keep experimenting. I know COS is on the verge of being "high altitude" so maybe it is only certain recipes that are affected. Thanks to everyone for their helpful comments.

If anyone else is having these troubles, here is some good news. I asked a friend at work and she said I need to add more flour and less sugar, something about the over-abundant sugar carmelizing (my doom) and the extra flour holding everything together. Also to bake a little longer, a little hotter, and refridgerate the dough at least 4 hours, overnight is best. I'll be trying that straight away to see if it works. Hopefully I don't have any more disasters. I used to bake bread, but I'm not going to try that any time soon; that really is a science. Thanks everyone!

[Trinity Florida]

I am from the east coast a well and have issues baking here. nothing tastes right. trust me you have not lost your touch its just hard to cook here at all and no matter hat you do it will never tatse the same as they used to sorry

[livecontent]

I have to tell you that this thread made me laugh. Yes, there are some issues in cooking and baking in Colorado but it is not all altitude---it is attitude; it is how you approach the issue.

I have lived in Colorado for 30 years; I am originally from New York. Oh, I did graduate, many, many years ago from The Culinary Institute of America in Hyde Park, NY. Now, I do not want to pretend that I know all because over the years I have learned much from home cooks, my mother, my neighbors and just observing how people cook over many, many years. Of course I had professional colleagues and teachers. I have also learned to appreciate well versed cooks, man and woman, who can cook a certain food; bake a specific cake; and perfect a special recipe. I have learned to observe in awe, cooking of East Europeans, Asians and Hispanics who bring their special love and generational expertise to cooking. The most important teachers has been who I cook for, and what they like. Children are great honest instructors...” I don't like that”

So after all this preface, what I have learned about cooking in Colorado:

The air is very dry; it drys your skin. Well, it also absorbs moisture from Flour, Sugar and many dry ingredients---which are not all really dry but have some moisture. Sugar is an ingredient that has much moisture, and that is why you when you heat it for different stages to make candy, you are evaporating the moisture. What does this all mean. It means that the recipes you use may need a little more/less flour, a little more/less sugar; and in many case more liquid to account for the less moisture in dry ingredients.

All this has very little to do with altitude but more to do with humidity. Humidity changes from day to day. Dry ingredients can readily loose moisture but also can gain moisture from the air. I would suggest storing you ingredients in a tightly sealed container, especially flour. This will give you a material that is consistent from day to day.

This is what you can control. You cannot control ingredients in where it was grown; what variety; how it was formulated; how it was handled and stored before it reaches you. So there will always be variations is the ingredients you use. Commercial Operators have precise specifications and methods to measure and control these variations, but you do not.

Yes, there are some issues for altitude but they are not that so severe and restrictive for home cooks in normal everyday cooking. Certainly in canning and preservation; it is a serious issue and I would not use a water bath method for canning for low acid foods, and pressure canning is essential. Any who does this type of cooking should be aware of the temperatures that must be reached to preserve foods in cans. Also, there is issues in candy making, certain fabricated doughs such as puff pastry, danish etc, I am not talking about these very specific problems because the everyday cook does not deal with them.

Using a manufacturer mix is easy, follow the directions for high altitude. But, this is the start where attitude come in the play. Your attitude toward the product, you experience with the product, your feel, your wants and your needs.

When I use these products, I adjust to my experience and I add/subtract oil, water, eggs which is all these ingredients that these mixes usually require. Most importantly, I feel the mix, if it is too tight, I add more liquid, if it is too loose, I add more flour. If I prefer, a more rise, I add more eggs and sometimes baking soda or baking powder or both. It really comes from experience.

I vary the oven temperature, time and placement in the oven depending on what other products I am baking; my experience with this oven; the type of pan I am using and what I want to accomplish.

Certainly, an experienced cook can look at a brownie baking and tell when is the right time to take it out of the oven. You cannot always follow the recipe on the box that is because there are so many variables. One problems I have notice with inexperienced cooks is that they open the oven constantly to check the product. It reduces the temperature; just let it bake.

For recipes you read in newspapers, magazines and cookbooks; you need to use some sense and have experience to know that the ingredients and the methods may be incorrect, not appropriate and needs some adjustment. I have many cookbooks; I have the world wide web of wasting time. When I cook something different, I look at many different recipes and I combine ingredients and methods.

Altitude Baking for cookies and breads are not that severe. A little variation here and there makes very little difference because I feel and know what I want I am making. For example pie crust which is known as 321 dough in trade, because it take 3 parts flour, 2 parts fat and 1 part liquid. There is your basic recipe and you adjust as needed.

Many cooks can make a bread without a recipe. I am sure many of you can make a pizza dough without thinking but just by the feel in your hands. How many times have you made chocolate chip cookies or a pumpkin or zucchini bread. You start to recognize the same ingredients and the same methods and you vary it with what you have on hand.

I grew up in an ethnic neighborhood where people made pies, noodles, dumplings and had no books, no TV, no web and their recipes were in their heads with memories of their mothers, grandmothers (in a different language). You do not need a recipe; you need an attitude to experiment and try and most of all relax.

When, I went to the CIA, the approach was not based on recipes but on understanding, even in baking. In all the professional kitchens and bakeries that I worked, written recipes were rare.

If you observe these TV chefs, you will see that a little here a little there and it works out fine. Try doing without your measuring spoons, cups; try making a recipe just by sight or feel---you will be surprised how well it comes out and how great you feel. After all, when we were children, we made mud pies and we did not need a recipe.

What I do I adjust, well, a little here and a little there; it all comes from experience; it comes from a trust in your own abilities; it comes from the fun and the love of cooking; it comes from learning that mistakes are just small paths in the scheme of life---it all comes from ATTITUDE. So when I cook, I relax, enjoy and I
Livecontent

[treedonkey]

That is possibly the longest non-ranting post I've ever seen. Since I know there's probably some helpful info in there so perhaps you could condense it down to a few sentences so that short attention people (like me) can get the main points?

[Dorthy]

For cookies I always increase the flour by 1/4 cup and decrease the sugar by 1/4 cup. Works every time.

[livecontent]

Originally Posted by treedonkey

That is possibly the longest non-ranting post I've ever seen. Since I know there's probably some helpful info in there so perhaps you could condense it down to a few sentences so that short attention people (like me) can get the main points?

Yea, I did got a little verbose and carried away. Yodi, in the previous post, said what I should have said, simply to the point, to the OP.

The simple answer is that the problem with cooking and baking at high altitude, for the home, is that there is not a simple answer for every situation; for almost all situations, you do not need to worry.
Just cook and cook and cook and bake and bake and bake, get experience and learn. Most importantly, let your inner muse come out, enjoy the experience and get away from the strict implementation of recipes.

Livecontent

[treedonkey]

Originally Posted by livecontent

enjoy the experience and get away from the strict implementation of recipes.

Yes, that makes sense. if we're not so stuck on what the recipe says in regards to time and temp, then we won;t be surprised when it takes longer or requires more heat. Thanks!

[CAtoCO]

Alright, finally moved here after a long time trying, and my only complaint is that my cookies won't bake properly! I am known for my chocolate chip cookies and I cannot for the life of me get them right. Are there any secrets anyone would share with me? Add extra blank, bake at higher or lower temp? Less baking time? I have tried at least 6 different variations of these things and nada has worked! Maybe a silly ?, but man I really want a good cookie!

Thanks!

[otowi]

Usually just adding 1-2 tbsp more water will do the trick, at least that has worked for me.

Try these things, mentioned here:

1. Start by increasing the liquid of a baking recipe by 1-2 tablespoons to counteract the faster evaporation that occurs at high altitudes.


2. Faster evaporation also means the sugars becomes condensed in baking recipes, so decrease the sugar in a baking recipe by 1-2 tablespoons per cup.


3. Increase the baking temperature of a recipe by 25 degrees.


4. If your baking recipes are rising too much or too quickly, reduce the amount of [COLOR=#444444 ! important][COLOR=#444444 ! important]baking [COLOR=#444444 ! important]powder[/color][/color][/color] and/or baking soda by 1/8 of a teaspoon.

Don't do them all at once, start with one, and if that doesn't fix it, try the next, and so on. But one or some combination of these really should work!

[Arrby]

I'm not a trained cook, nor do I play one on t.v., but here is my experience - from 8,600 ft.

I see three problems: lower boiling point of water, dry air, and lower air pressure.

The lower boiling point of water means that water (liquid, for all intents and purposes in baking - water, milk, wine, etc.; but not oils) is simply not going to get as hot. To the extent that the cooking is done by the liquid in the recipie it will take longer to cook.

The issues with the dry air are covered pretty well in earlier posts, but keep in mind that with a lower boiling point and potentially longer cooking times you will lose more liquid at altitude during the cooking process - maybe a lot more.

The lower air pressure affects how foods rise. With lower air pressures levened foods tend to rise to greater heights - and then sometimes collapse. This is true even with cookies which, while they don't rise very much rise to a certain extent. If they fail to rise, or collapse from over-rising, you have a mess. There are several tricks to prevent too much of a rise including reducing the leven (baking powder, baking soda), reducing the acids which react with the leven - milk usually, or maybe cream of tartar - increasing the fat content (I assume this just makes the product heavier and makes it harder to rise) by adding more oil/butter/cream or an additional egg yoke or two. Or you can raise the temperature so that cooking proceeds faster and everything sets up before it collapses. There are likely other approaches as well.

As noted above, you really have to experiment because what works with one recipie - say increasing the oven temperature for your oatmeal cookies - may not work with your chocolate brownies.

I am thinking of the pancakes I make every weekend by folding in whipped egg whites. In the lowlands I use about a teaspoon of leven per cup of flour. Up here it has got to the point where I simply show the batter a photo of a can of baking powder.

Yeast breads have not been too bad as long as I make sure the rising dough is not allowed to balloon all over everywhere.