Pie in the Sky Successful Baking at High Altitudes: 100 Cakes, Pies, Cookies, Breads, and Pastries Home-Tested for Baking at Sea Level, 3,000, 5,000,

by Susan G. Purdy

Book Overview

Do your cakes collapse, souffl s slump, cookies crumble, and fruit pies fail? For those living at high altitude, baking can be a challenge at best, or a total disaster. More than thirty-four of the fifty United States, plus many Canadian regions, have cities and towns at altitudes of more than 2,500 feet, yet there are hardly any cookbooks that address the special needs of these local bakers. Until now. Award-winning cookbook author Susan...

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0060522585
• ISBN13: 9780060522582
• Release Date: May 2005
• Publisher: William Morrow & Company
• Length: 352 Pages
• Weight: 2.68 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.2" x 8.3" x 10.2"

Customer Reviews

Author's typo corrections -Pie in the Sky

PIE IN THE SKY by Susan G. Purdy (HarperCollins Publishers) Thanks you for your interest in my book. CORRECTIONS below for typographical errors in first edition. Corrections are made in reprints; I want you to have celestial results, so please check your book. Have fun baking! pg. 119,Chocolate Buttermilk Cake, step #3:Baking SODA is correct! NOT baking powder. pg. 196, Lemon Sponge Cake, step 6, add: ...fold in flour... "along with previously whipped whites." pg. 250, Brownies, introduction: cross out reference to brown sugar in first line, only white sugar is used. Pg. 123, Mocha Buttercream: Use 6(six) cups confectioners' sugar and only 5 to 6 tablespoons coffee instead of 1/2 cup . Also, make these adjustments on pg. 124 in procedure. Note that volume of frosting varies slightly depending on whether made with processor or mixer. pg. 192, at 7,000 feet, bake coffee cake at 350 degrees not 375. pg. 176, step #3: at sea level use 1/2 cup sugar , not 1/3 cup.

THE Reference Book for Baking at High-Altitude

Finally, a book of Baking Recipes for elevations of Sea-Level/3,000/5,000/7,000/10,000 ft, with each of the Recipes collated for all the elevations in a very neat Table format... You really can't get any handier than that... This book has turned out to be a godsend for this 'everything from scratch' successful baker, who moved from So Calif sea-level to 7,000 ft mountains, and hasn't been able to bake a thing (and have it come out right) in three years, ugh... Failing, repeatedly, in what used to be a sort-of calling card for me, (my baked goods), has robbed me of a much-too-much taken-for-granted Joy... Well, as they say, you don't know what you've got 'til it's gone... Truer words were never spoken in this case... Alas, the only (and meager-at-that) consolation has been that I'm not the only one whose 'Joy of Baking' became as thin as the less-oxgenated air up here, *lol*, as this book, and my discussions with other High-Altitude folk, have proven... There is a wealth of explanation just on the 'chemistry' of High-Altitude alone in this book... And I found Susan's biographical musings, (as she endeavored to perfect these Recipes), enjoyable as well... The book doesn't contain a lot of Recipes... or 'fancy' Recipes... just your typical baked-goods fare that is pretty standard across the nation: Muffins: Blueberry, Cranberry/Pecan, Apple/Oat, Raisin/Bran Quick Breads/Scones/Bisquits/Popovers: Soda, Corn, Apricot/Almond, Lemon/Poppy Seed Breads; Current, Blueberry Scones; 1 Recipe each for Bisquits and Popovers Yeast Breads: White, Challah, French Baguette, Multigrain Cakes: 1-2-3-4 (with both Spice & Coconut variations}, Chocolate Buttermilk, Devil's Food, Butter, Apple, Gingerbread, Applesauce, Honey, Upside-Down Apricot, a variation on Pound Cake, Ginger Bundt, Pumpkin Bundt, Carrot, Cheesecake, Angel Food, Chocolate Sponge, Orange Sponge, Walnut Torte, Streusel Coffee Cake, Lemon, Mocha Chiffon, and a Flourless Chocolate Truffle Cake (Cake Recipes include, on each page, Icing/Glazing/Sauce recipes to go with them as well: Honey Cream, Coconut, Bittersweet Chocolate, Mocha Buttercream, Rum/Lemon Sauce, Sugar Glaze, Cardamom Honey Sauce, Raspberry Sauce, Ginger/Honey Glaze, Snow White Glaze, Cream Cheese, Mango Glaze, 7-Minute Icing that takes 15 minutes at high-altitude, Hazelnut Toffee Cream, Tangerine Mousse Filling, Lemon Curd Filling, Sabayon) Cookies: Sugar, Peanut Butter, Gingersnaps, Oat, Oatmeal/Raisin, Chocolate Chip, Mexican Wedding, Shortbread, Biscottis, Brownies, Rugelach, Trail Bars Pies: Apple, Pecan (with variations), Cobbler, Plum Crumb, Peach Crisp, Pumpkin, Lemon Meringue, Mocha Mousse, Fig Tart Souffles: Orange w/Grand Marnier, Chocolate There are also sections about Ingredients, Equipment/Utensils, and Method... Nothing exhaustive, just 'good, must-know' things for High-Altitude... I found the tid-bits of information on Buttermilk in high-altitude baking a blessing... as well as the bit about Convection Ov

There aren't Enough Stars for this "Pie in the Sky"!

I love to bake - plain and simple - I just love to bake! I never had a problem with it when I was growing up in Upstate New York or at sea level in Washington DC where I spent most of my adult life. It wasn't until I moved to New Mexico that I ever had a problem baking anything. My cakes would rise and fall like the Roman empire and my nut breads would still be undercooked after spending extra time in the oven. To my frustration, the only source of information were a few state extension service publications and that information was meager at best. Then... along came Susan Purdy's "Pie in the Sky - Successful Baking at High Altitudes." Susan spent an amazing amount of time researching and testing scores of recipes at altitudes from sea level to 10,000 feet and everywhere in between. The result of her extensive efforts is a book that I would consider the single best reference on high altitude baking that has ever been written. She includes a wide variety of recipes including cakes, breads, pies, cookies and pastries. All are mouth watering and very tempting such as her Daredevil's Food Cake with Mocha Buttercream Icing or the El Dorado Cheesecake with Glazed Mango Topping. The recipes are clear, concise and easy to follow. The book goes far beyond being just a collection of recipes. Each recipe begins with a story about it. She follows with a general discussion with tips on how to bake that type of item. She also includes any special notes and considerations. Aside from the discussions, the best part of the book is that it includes the differences in ingredients and techniques for baking at sea level as well as 3,000 - 5,000 - 7,000 - and 10,000 feet for each recipe! So, if you live in mountains of New Mexico or on the beach in Florida, you can use and enjoy this book. To rate this book with only 5 stars just isn't high enough. It's clearly the high altitude baker's bible. The information is very informative, the recipes are wonderful and the theories she explains can be applied to successfully adapt your favorite baking recipes. If you love to bake and live in a high altitude this is a book that you MUST have. If you're in a lower altitude you can still find this to be a wonderful book to add to your library and enjoy using.

It really works!!

The amount of baking I did decreased when I moved from 7,300' to 9,300'. Then I quit altogether when I moved to 11,000'. Now I can bake again!!! The recipes cover everything, from baked goods that come out wrong to things sticking to the pan to ajustments you think should work, but don't. The format of showing the recipes for various altitudes is easy to follow and it's interesting to see the various changes. It's not just a nice linear progression! But it gives you ideas so you can attempt adjusting some of your own recipes. I applaud Susan for having the creativity, drive, patience, and knowledge to perservere with this book. Anyone who has experienced frustration baking at altitude should own this.

High Flying Cookbook A Winner

Susan Purdy, "America's Julia Child," has come up with her best idea yet. I'm sure everyone knows that baking at high altitudes sometimes leads to embarrassing and tasteless flops in the oven. Nobody except the top physicists knows why this is true, but it's one of those things many home bakers try to compensate for. Finally, a recipe book which tells you exactly what to do, no matter if you're cooking at sea level, or ten thousand feet, or five thousand feet or two. Even experienced chefs sometimes come a cropper when trying to calculate how much or how little baking soda or sugar to include in a new oven. Purdy quotes Ross Parsons, LA Times food columnist, to the amusing effect that so frequent were his culinary screwups in Albuquerque (New Mexico--5,000 feet above sea level) that he pretty much swore off baking. "Early trauma made me a reluctant baker. I'm still afraid to bake and hardly ever try, even though I have moved to sea level in Long Beach, California." Ross, I'm sure you will be the first to purchase a copy of PIE IN THE SKY, but you won't be the only one. Susan Purdy and her staff have cooked every one of one hundred dishes at all four altitudes and have provided a flaw-proof recipe for each one. Handy charts show you the way. At last, no matter where you live in the USA (and remember, there are 37 states which have high altutude locations), you can cook the Susan Purdy way--without a glitch or a fallen souffle. And oh, the recipes themselves! All our favorite pies, cakes and brownies, and more! Anna's Butter Cake--a traditional Swedish favorite. All the butterfied goodness of Scandinavia in one cake. Colorado Carrot Cake with Cream Cheese Forsting--two ways to go wrong and Susan deftly avoids each one! And she even tells you the best way to fly with this cake in your lap! For when sending desserts UPS it's often not the jostling that spoils the surprise it's the altitudes of the cargo planes they send to ship your sweets with! Susan's own favorite out of all the recipes here is her version of Flourless Chocolate Espresso Trufffle Cake. "I love it warm from the ooven," writes Piurdy, "when it is soft as a just-set pudding, and I like it even better chilled--or straight from the freezer--when it has the consistency of a velvety truffle." She reminds us all that the quality of the chocolate is essential to the success of the dessert. And finally, if you're into biscotti, and want to make perfect biscotti every time, even though you live in Boulder or Aspen, just step this way. The "Pie in the Sky" (don't you just love that title, shared by at least fifteen other books over the years according to my copy of BOOKS IN PRINT) has the answer and the solution to all your altitude problems.