fail

I love to bake. I gave a passing thought to high altitude baking as we were moving in here (we currently live at 6239 feet), but not much. The other night I decided to make banana bread, and while it turned out ok it was "wetter" than it normally is. I vaguely remembered someone telling me to add more flour to compensate, so today when I tackled chocolate chip cookies I made a special point to add more flour than the recipe called for.

I took the first batch out of the oven and they looked like this:


Eek. They appeared to rise, and collapse onto themselves. They looked terrible. I googled "high altitude baking" and discovered that while you're generally supposed to add additional flour, you also cut back on sugar and the leavening agent. While I couldn't subtract baking soda, I could add more flour, so I did. The second batch looked better,


but still were, in my words, a fail. Steve is eating both batches right now and says "they don't taste that bad." Sigh.

I think I'll order a high altitude baking book from Amazon, and in the meantime I'll be experimenting with our favorite recipes. This will require some math on my part--wish me luck.

Like me, this elk looks like she had a rough day in the kitchen. Hey, I know how ya feel...