The majority of the world’s population lives at or near sea level. Thus, most of the world’s bakers live near sea level. Thus, most of the world’s cookbooks and recipes were written near sea level. Turns out, this actually matters.
Since there is going to be a whole lotta baking going on in this next week I thought it timely to sound a warning to those of you in towns and cities at higher altitudes. Beware the air pressure. Low air pressure will result in overly bubbly batter, coarse texture, or worse… collapsing cakes!
Not only that, baking near the mountains means you’re cookies will dry out faster, and be your squares more likely to stick in the pan. Really, it’s amazing that us mountain-folk manage to appease our collective sweet-teeth at all.
The quick scientific explanation for all this trouble goes back to the boiling point of water. (which I have written a song about) When you are standing there is a column of air above you that is stacked on top of you. The weight of this air pushing down on your head is called air pressure. The higher up you go, the less air between you and the top of the atmosphere. When there is less weight to hold down the water, it will evaporate more quickly. There’s also less weight on your cake batter itself, so it can rise to greater heights.
The high altitude baker needs to compensate, and there are several options. You can give your cakes more structural stability by adding an extra egg or flour. Subtract a little bit of sugar or fat, not enough to make it healthy, but enough to change the chemistry. Add extra water to make up for the quicker evaporation, or simply take it out of the oven sooner.
If your are in an affected area, please consult the source article for more specific recommendations. My job is to merely inform you of the issues. I also offer a complimentary brownie testing service. Please contact me for the shipping address of my…uh… laboratory.
2 Comments
You’re talking to a family who were stationed in Denver for almost ten years, another five years in Alaska, and then worked for Novell in the Rockies for four or five years. Cherie is an expert at baking at way above sea level. And now you’ve made me hungry.
That is so weird that altitude has such an influence on baking, I remember when we would go up to the mountains and the chip bags would puff up, so I guess naturally the air pressure would do the same when baking.
John