High Altitude Adjustments…

I’ve made five cakes since moving from sea level (or “1” as elevation at the Potomac River is designated) to over 7,000 feet.

All five recipes were from the “Cake Doctor” cookbook, in which all of her recipes begin with a boxed cake mix as the base.

The first four cakes, which I’ve documented in previous posts, turned out beautifully, as did this recent coffee cake...



from Ina Garten’s Parties cookbook.

I made it for my new gal pals who stopped in for morning coffee last week.

I’ve yet to make a cake from scratch.

This week I’ll be making Passover rolls, from Matzo meal, and I have no idea how they will turn out.

I’ll be using my father-in-law’s recipe, which in some respects reminds me of Pâte à choux.

Also, at some point (and clearly after Passover), I’d like to try a yeast bread recipe, but I’ve heard tell that bread and rolls can be difficult at high altitudes.

Recently I saw these bags of “High Altitude” flour at the Safeway and not knowing better, thought…hmm.


[Walmart Website]

I have since found this comment on several of the high altitude baking sites…

“The name confuses everyone. Many people living in Gunnison, CO (where I assume the writer is from) at an altitude of 7,700 feet (2,346 meters) above sea level, think the flour is good to use at high altitudes. Actually, it's no better than any other flour at high altitudes.

The "Hungarian" part of the name comes from the process used to mill the flour, which was developed in Hungary in the 1800's. The process was brought to Colorado by J.K. Mullen in 1875 and is still used today. The flour is milled from hard wheat from Colorado, the Dakotas, and Montana, so the "high altitude" refers to where the grain is grown."

Oh well. Onward and forward in my reading about high altitude baking…