How Altitude Can Affect Baking

How Altitude Can Affect Baking 

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Are you a baker in Mancos, Colorado, or another high-altitude town? If you are, I’m sure you have gone insane at some point since something is up with your baking outputs. That’s because high altitude affects baked items and this is how.

Altitude has a varying impact on baked products mostly through the level of air pressure. When altitude increases, air pressure decreases and this cause baking to take much longer, and baked foods to rise more readily and lose moisture a lot more quickly.

Baking at lowland implies using greater air pressure, which is the standard for baking exceptional baked items. In this post, we’ll look at how high altitude affects baking. I’ll also provide some noteworthy advice for baking at high altitudes, specifically adjusting recommendations. 

Effects of High Altitudes on Baking

How Altitude Can Affect Baking

The key aspect influencing baking at high altitudes is the level of air pressure. Essentially, the higher you go, the lower the atmospheric pressure is. And with decreasing air pressure, water boils at a considerably lower temperature, making baking take significantly more time, and can result in very dry baked products. 

According to the Utah State University, gasses are more prone to over-expand at a significantly greater altitude, which can have a significant impact on your baked products. This is simply because baked goods rely largely on leavening gasses like air, carbon dioxide, and steam to maintain their shape and texture.

Apart from that, reduced air pressure causes protein and carbohydrates to take significantly longer to set, causing continually expanding bubbles to rupture and combine. These persistently forming bubbles can cause baked foods to have a gritty texture and possibly collapse. 

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Tips When Baking at High Altitudes

If you’re a baker who lives in high-altitude areas, you might expect fluctuations or discrepancies in your baked goods for the reasons described above. Fortunately, you can still bake at high elevations and do so successfully by making little adjustments. 

Here are a few examples: 

1. Cakes 

  • Increase the amount of liquid. When baking at 3000 feet, add 1 to 2 tablespoons to each cup of water to avoid producing overly dry cakes.
  • Add more flour, ideally the kind with more protein. For example, 1 tablespoon of flour for every 1500 feet can be added.  
  • Reduce the sugar you use. When you bake at 3000 feet, reduce each cup of sugar by 1 tablespoon.
  • Simply use less baking powder or baking soda to reduce the leavening.
  • Reduce the amount of oil or shortening in your recipe by 1 to 2 teaspoons per cup of fat.
  • Add another egg, especially if the cake is rich. This will assist in strengthening the cell structure and preventing the cake from dropping.
  • Finally, keep the oven door shut. Never, for example, open the oven door during the first 20 minutes of baking because the vibration caused by the sensitive cake structure may cause it to topple.

2. Brownies 

  • Lower the oven temperature by 25°F.
  • Reduce the amount of oil, for instance, 1 tbsp-1/2 cup. 
  • Increase the flour, say a tablespoon to 1/3 cup. 
  • Add more water; 1 tablespoon to 1/3 cup would suffice. 
  • Add about 10 minutes to your baking time. 

3. Fried Dough 

How Altitude Can Affect Baking
  • Because dough cooks quickly at high altitudes, it is best to reduce the cooking temperature by 3°F every 1,000 feet of height and extend the cooking time.

4. Pie Crusts 

  • Slightly increase the amount of water. Start with 1 tablespoon and work your way up until the dough holds together well and is malleable. This will assist you in avoiding producing pie crusts with a particularly dry texture.
5.  Bread with Yeast
  • As a solution to overexpansion, reduce the flour or increase the liquid until the dough is soft and elastic.
  • Allow dough to rise only until doubled in size to avoid a dry texture. 
  • To prevent the formation of large holes, I highly suggest punching down the dough and allowing it to rise twice.  
Conclusions
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Ultimately, altitude can have various effects on baking, mostly through the level of air pressure. Essentially, the higher the altitude, the lower the air pressure, which can have a variety of effects on baking, such as longer baking times, over-expansion of gasses, rapid creation of bubbles, resulting in gritty, dry baked items, and so on. These facts do not suggest that baking at high elevations is impossible although some adjustments need to be made to bake good bread and cakes.

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Frequently Asked Questions

Does elevation impact a cake’s rising?

Yes, it does. This is simply because reduced air pressure at higher elevations causes air bubbles trapped in the batter to rise quickly. When this happens, cakes rise extremely quickly and very high, then collapse. As a consequence, you wind up with a thick, dry cake.

What effect does altitude have on cooking?

The main effect is the decrease in air pressure at greater elevations. For every 500 feet of elevation gain, falling air pressure reduces the boiling point of water by a little under 1 degree Fahrenheit. Because of the lower boiling point, water will evaporate faster and at a lower temperature.

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This blog post is provided for informational purposes only. The information contained is not intended to constitute legal advice or to substitute for obtaining legal advice from a qualified attorney.