If you’re going to the mountains you’ll have to decrease your water, down here you’ll have to add more because it’s so dry,” said Chef Jackson. “Every recipe I make I have to keep our elevation in mind. Because of how complex the interactions are between each recipe and their environment, it’s best to feel out what adjustments you need to make based on what your final product looks like,” said Chef Chloe Jackson, a recent honours graduate of the Southern Alberta Institute of Technology (SAIT) Baking & Pastry Arts program. “Altitude adjustments are one of the things we actually didn’t learn through school. Not only is there a chance that it won’t fail, but you’re also able to see how your environment is affecting each individual recipe. First, liquids will boil at lower temperatures, causing them to evaporate faster, and more noticeably, the gasses created by your leavening agents (think baking powder/soda, yeast, etc.) will be able to expand with less resistance and rise quicker than at sea level.ĭata Source: 'High Altitude Food Preparation' by Colodaro State University įirst and foremost, no matter how high up you are, trying the “sea level” recipe exactly how it was written out when first starting is still highly recommended. In a world with Michelin star pastry chefs at just 115ft above sea level in France, and home-bakers up in the 6,000-foot peaks of the Colorado mountains, finding a way to counteract mother nature is a must.Īs we get further away from sea level, air-pressure decreases and starts to affect your food preparation in two ways. At altitudes above 3,000ft, the effects are so apparent that altitude-based adjustments are commonly a necessity. With the help of Food Scientist Tristin Thompson from the University of Georgia, and Chef Chloe Jackson, we hope to take away any confusion surrounding high-altitude baking in your kitchen.Īt just 1,000ft above sea level we start to see different results when baking ordinary recipes, with the severity depending on each recipe’s ingredient make-up. How Baking Works: Exploring the Fundamentals of Baking Science by Paula I.Whether it’s your first time stepping into the kitchen or your thousandth batch of macaroons, taking time to calibrate your recipes for your own environment can do wonders to affect your final product.Pie in the Sky: Successful Baking at High Altitudesby Susan Purdy.Bear in mind that each ingredient in a recipe is intended to provide a unique, necessary step in the baking’s chemical process or the structure of the final product, so one set of adjustments does not fit all recipes.įor further in-depth reading about the changes in high-altitude baking and cooking, I recommend the following books and websites: When these leavening gases expand quickly, cakes rise far too quickly and proceed to sink in the oven or during the cooling process.Īgain, this is just a short summary of the differences between sea-level baking and high-altitude baking. Leavening gases like air, carbon dioxide, and water vapor expand faster in higher elevations.īaking powder and baking soda provide the principal leaveners for most baked goods, creating air, steam, and carbon dioxide gas in mixture/batter.Baked goods also dry out and go stale at a faster rate, so invest in some good tupperware! When moisture evaporates faster, the ratio of liquids to solids in your recipes change and can potentially weaken the overall structure of whatever you’re baking. Moisture evaporates faster in higher elevations.

This also means that it takes longer to cook foods that are in or over that liquid: batters will often crust over on top or on the sides (where they are touching the metal pan) before the interior gets hot enough to bake through. When water boils at lower temperatures, it takes longer for foods to cook in water since the water isn’t as hot when it’s boiling. That is, the higher the elevation, the lower the boiling point of water. Most of this information was taken from ’s High-Altitude Baking Guide: What follows is a quick summary of what happens when altitude begins to affect cooking and baking. Note that most changes start to occur at 2,500 to 3,000 ft above sea-level. Almost all recipes are developed for use at sea level and, when used at or above 2,500 to 3,000 feet in elevation they will require adjustments for optimal results. The higher you climb (that is, the more elevation you gain above sea-level), the thinner the air, and the lower the atmospheric pressure. Therefore, like all chemical reactions, the entire baking process is dependent on a number of factors like atmospheric pressure, climate, and elevation.

A lot of people forget that baking is a chemical reaction.

High altitude baking