Friday, September 16, 2011

High Altitude Cooking

Living a mile higher than I used to, I know there needs to be adjustment in some cooking.  Stuff needs to boil longer, etc.  But figuring it out is a process of trial and error.

Enter my long saga with recreating the whoopie pies of my youth and early marriage.
Mixing up well
It was mixing up ok.


They were looking ok, not as thick as I like, but getting there..
a few more that look good

Something I can't pinpoint yet, but they are more crumbly than they used to be.  I did find my original recipe, but still not sure what it is...
looks pretty good


However, when all was said and done, they weren't too bad.  I did add a bit more baking soda and powder, so hoping the next batch in my new home will be even better.
Whoopie pie yummyness!
They were still good ;)

Enter my used to be awesome peanut butter fudge....
Z-0, AZ - 2

First batch looks good....if you want to eat it with a spoon...
too soft

2nd batch....?? what happened....
not supposed to do this...
um...er...not supposed to look like this when it's all mixed up.

Peanut butter fudge fail
Or this...it was going so good and I smiled and thought yes....ha...the fates...I did something wrong again.  I've never had it look like this before though...

So...trial and error it'll be.  I'm going to make sure I don't double the batches until I've come up with the right mix.  In about a week I'll be cooking on a gas stove for the first time in years....more trial and error ;)

PS.  If any of my readers has a good, tried and true whoopie pie recipe, please share...I need to compare it with mine, something is...well...just missing and I can't figure it out.  My father in law and I will be forever grateful! :)

9 comments:

Anonymous said...

Oh yum ... whoopie pies!!!! Good luck with the tweaking. I think you'll love cooking with gas.

dianne said...

I'll dig out my recipe and email it to you. Mmmm Whoopie Pies, I was just thinking about some the other day and contemplating traditional chocolate or pumpkin? :-)I still haven't decided...

knottygnome said...

you're making me hungry. mmm, dessert.

Sarah Jackson said...

I have a thought on the baking issues - you do have an altitude thing, but you're also in a WAY drier climate. Your flour is going to hold much less moisture than it did in NC. You'll need to adjust for that when using wet ingredients - you'll need more than you did before. So says that peanut butter fudge.

Kaye said...

I'll be honest, I never had a problem with baking in Colorado (we were at 4200' I think). Could it be your oven? I find every oven takes some "get to know you" time. They're like men, they're all so different!

Karen said...

Wow, I never really thought about how the altitude could mess up your cooking and baking. (Well, because I've been in Connecticut all my life, except for college in Massachusetts - which is almost Connecticut anyway!!). Good lucking figuring things out. I will say after leaving my Mom's home and electric stove and cooking for the first time in my own house on a gas stove, I don't EVER want to go back to electric!! :)

LaBean said...

Yikes! I never fully understood until I was an adult in my 30s what 'High Altitudes' did to cooking. As a kid I thought it meant living above a certain floor! LOL

Seriously though, I hope you can figure out what went wrong with the fudge. That had to be soo irritating.

Alison said...

I don't have too many baking problems after moving a mile up, but I own Pie in the Sky nevertheless. I haven't actually made any recipes from it, but I have used this chart to make minor adjustments to a few recipes:
http://www.highaltitudebaking.com/adj_recipes.htm

Lucas Kain said...

Agh! The stuff you baked looks awesome. :x Just like some .. things sold in the shops, just homemade and waaaay better! Thanks. :)

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