Ways to Bake With a High Altitudes

How to Bake at High Altitudes

Because the air pressure is lower at higher altitudes, baking at altitudes 3,500 feet or higher above sea level can be challenging. Baking involves a number of chemical interactions, such as leavening and evaporating, among several different ingredients that are complicated by the effects of the climate in high altitudes. With a few adjustments, however, you can create baked goods at high altitudes that are just as successfully done and delicious as if they were baked at sea level.

Oven Temperature and Baking Times

Because evaporation and leavening occur more quickly in high altitudes, you need to set the oven temperature between 15 and 25 degrees higher to prevent drying out or overexpansion.

Now that you've set the oven at a higher temperature, your baked product will be done sooner. Decrease the baking time between 5 and 8 minutes for every half hour.

Ingredients

Use extra liquid to prevent your baked product from drying out due to the faster evaporation rate and higher oven temperature. You can use extra-large eggs or additional smaller eggs to increase the total amount of liquid. Also, because fewer liquid molecules can carry less flavoring, add between 1/2 and 1 additional teaspoon of flavoring for a tastier product. Underbeating egg whites will keep the batter from rising too much and collapsing.

Additional flour, especially that containing a higher amount of protein, can help strengthen the structure of the baked product.

Sugar becomes more concentrated with increased evaporation, thus weakening the structure of the baked product and resulting in flat cookies and fallen cakes. For each cup of sugar, decrease the amount by 1 tablespoon.

Decrease leavening, such as baking powder and baking soda, to prevent the product from rising too much. If the recipe calls for both baking powder or soda plus sour cream or buttermilk, use all baking powder with sweet milk. Yeast doughs rise faster, so decrease the time you allow them to rise. In addition, you could use less yeast. You should also "punch down" the dough twice during rising.

Cakes

To prevent an underbaked "inside" or overbaked "outside" of your shortening-type cake, increase the liquid by 1 to 4 tablespoons or use extra eggs.

Fill the cake pans only one-half full to prevent overflowing. Also, be sure to grease and flour or line your pans with parchment paper to keep your cake from sticking.

Decrease oil or shortening by 1 to 2 tablespoons to assure your cake is moist. To prevent an overly moist top or bottom, increase the flour between 1 tablespoon and 1/2 cup.

Be sure to bake the cake long enough. This way you won't end up with a "fallen" cake.

For angel food cakes, beat egg whites just enough to form soft peaks to avoid over-rising. You don't want your angel food cake to have a coarse texture, so increase the flour between 1 tablespoon and 1/2 cup. An increase in water up to 1/3 cup and oven temperature by 25 degrees will keep the cake from falling out of the pan as you're letting it cool upside down.

Breads

Because it takes less time for dough to rise in high altitudes, use a larger bowl so you're not caught with dough that rises out of the bowl! To slow down the first rise, cover the dough and refrigerate it to allow the dough to develop. To prevent the dough from overexpanding, decrease the flour or increase the liquid. You can avoid "holey" bread by punching down and letting the dough rise twice.

Cookies

Cookies have relatively less water and more fat content than breads or cakes, so baking them at high altitudes isn't quite so complicated. Because cookies bake for a shorter time, you only need to decrease the time in the oven between 5 and 8 minutes for every half hour of baking time. To prevent overspreading, decrease the shortening 2 tablespoons for each 1/4 cup, decrease the sugar a bit or increase the flour. If the cookies don't spread enough, increase the liquid to keep the dough from drying out.