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, 7,000, and 10,000 feet (and Anywhere in Between).

I moved from the east coast of Florida to southern New Mexico just over two years ago, but although I did quite a bit of baking in Florida, I hadn't really gotten back into it while in NM in most of that time. I baked a couple of cakes and brownies from mix (mixes tend to be pretty well adjusted for altitude variations, and brownies are basically a cake gone bad anyway), but had a little trouble getting the cake to come cleanly out of the pan and ice without breaking apart. I thought I'd try it from scratch and see if I could do any better, so I pulled out  BakeWise: The Hows and Whys of Successful Baking with Over 200 Magnificent Recipes  by food scientist Shirly Cooriher, a book from which I had great success in the past. The cake expanded nicely in the oven and looked great, only to fall flat. Urgh. So I tried the blueberry muffins. Twice. They expanded nicely and fell into a gooey mess. I was aware that altitude could make a difference, but it wasn't in the front of my mind until I started to read more from Bakewise to attempt to diagnose the problem, and found a half-page outtake talking about altitude problems. My problems were classic altitude sickness. As I recently added to my review of Bakewise, I was kind of disappointed that Cooriher's book, which I expected to the the end-all of baking books, didn't do more to address altitude, but rather suggested the reader purchase Pie in the Sky if they lived at altitude.Finding no other good solutions, I somewhat grudgingly ordered Pie in the Sky. I am so glad now that I did. However, just after ordering the book, I took a relocation with my company back home to Florida. Thus I began a frantic rush to bake as many recipes from the book as I could in the next two months before moving. I have managed to bake the Red Door Pecan Pie, biscochitos, Alpine angel cake, Mom's Blueberry Muffins, Blueberry Scones, Old-Fashioned Sugar Cookies, Celestial Challah, baguettes, Honey Whole-Wheat Bread, Breckenridge Biscuits and Sour Cream Streusel Coffee Cake. I have posted most of the photos to the Amazon product listing. All of these were baked in Las Cruces, NM at 4510' above the EGM96 geoid (e.g., above equivalent sea level) using the 5000' recipes, and most came out fabulously with very little trouble.I had the most difficulty with the pecan pie, the first of which never set. I compared the recipe against a recipe my wife had successfully baked here, and the ingredients were similar. The cooking time, however, was not. I noticed that at all of the altitudes other than 5000', a cooking time of 30 to 35 minutes was prescribed, but the 5000' called for 20-25. On the second attempt, I bake for 35 minutes, following the guidelines for checking for doneness by inserting a knife, and it came out perfectly. So I really think this baking time was a typo. I am also having difficult folding the dough as described without really wetting the dough without the crust just falling apart.Other minor problems involved the baguettes overbaking according to internal temperature before gaining any external color, a lack of browning on the biscuits, and an a strange shape with my honey whole wheat bread. Very little bread dough shaping instructions are given, and I need to review  The Bread Baker's Apprentice: Mastering the Art of Extraordinary Bread  for instruction. Some of the more complicated recipes such as the angel food cake and coffee cake came out flawlessly on the first attempt and were a huge hit with family and friends.Of course, the key to this book is providing the recipes with columns for sea level, 3000 feet, 5000 feet, 7000 feet and 10,000 feet. One other feature I liked about this book was a description with illustrations of different pans and utensils. Not everyone picking up a baking book may know what a tube pan is. Additional chapters on altitude baking myths, baking science and general adjustment guidelines for commercial mixes and other recipes round out the book. I actually enjoyed Purdy's introductory chapter on her adventures in creating this book.One thing I REALLY like about Purdy's book is that it doesn't call upon a lot of ingredients that most people I know don't normally keep around in their house and have to make a special trip to the store to get, like whipping cream. This is a negative criticism I have for Bakewise. About the only "odd" ingredient that regularly appears is buttermilk, but that is because the additional acidity quickens setting of the protein structures. (And Alton Brown has a substitution - one cup milk plus one tablespoon of lemon juice for each cup of buttermilk.) Oh yeah...Dutch process cocoa shows up in place. Food show hosts and cookbook writers keep calling for Dutch process cocoa, but I rue the day I actually see Dutch process cocoa in a store!I have a couple of negative comments other than the pecan pie baking times and lack of bread forming instructions that keep from giving the book five stars. Hopefully, these can be easily addressed before another printing. The most glaring omission was a list of the recipes in the table of contents. This addition would not take much additional effort or pages and would proved eminently useful when scanning for something to bake. The index is pretty thorough, but you have to know that the recipe for which you are looking already exists in the book to find it. There is more than one place, I believe, than just the biscochitos recipe where the oven rack and temperature simply say, "Divide the oven into thirds," rather than saying where to place the rack. I don't know if the rack should go one-third from the top or one-third from the bottom. In addition, I felt that book was bit expensive for one of its kind.When I get settled in Florida, I suspect that I will continue to use this book, since it does include sea level measurements as well, and the recipes I tried have turned out so well at 4510'.

There are like 4 pages of photos in the entire book. I’m very visual so a cookbook appeals to me with many photos! I will use it as a high altitude reference but I’m really disappointed! The gorgeous cover made me think it would be full of photos.

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/BranQuick Breads/Scones/Bisquits/Popovers: Soda, Corn, Apricot/Almond, Lemon/Poppy Seed Breads; Current, Blueberry Scones; 1 Recipe each for Bisquits and PopoversYeast Breads: White, Challah, French Baguette, MultigrainCakes: 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 BarsPies: Apple, Pecan (with variations), Cobbler, Plum Crumb, Peach Crisp, Pumpkin, Lemon Meringue, Mocha Mousse, Fig TartSouffles: Orange w/Grand Marnier, ChocolateThere 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 Ovens and Bread Machines...If I were to state any negative, it would be that I would have liked a finished picture for EACH Recipe and, even more than that, EACH Recipe listed under the Chapter Headings in the Table Of Contents, (instead of just the Chapter Headings themselves: Muffins, Cakes, Pies, etc.)... There are only 100 Recipes in this book, so it wouldn't have taken too much more space to list them by Page Number for quick reference...All-in-All, I'm VERY impressed with this book, and recommend it to anyone who lives in a High-Altitude... Indeed, it is a perfect take-along baking book, as well, for those who live at Sea-Level but perhaps vacation, or visit with friends/family, at higher altitudes and find themselves wanting to bake something... A paperback version of this book would be most welcome in such cases...p.s. Yes, there's a mistake on the Brownie Recipe calling for Brown Sugar instead of the White Sugar required, but nothing to get too crazed about... just swap the White for the Brown.

Recently gave a copy to a dear friend. My own copy is well worn, with middle columns for alternate elevations at which I've lived. This book is indispensable if you bake at altitude. Not just the recipes but the information.

I bought this book because I have moved to Nairobi which is 5,450ft above sea level. I consider myself to be a competent baker from the UK but baking for me in Nairobi is like I've never mastered the art in any shape or form. I bought this book as a result of the reviews and although the science of more or less fat/eggs/sugar/temperature etc is very useful I am disappointed in the recipes and how American centric it is. All the recipes have been tried and tested in various altitudes in the USA but I find it difficult / impossible to create many of the dishes using ingredients from my local supermarket.I appreciate that is my problem and not the authors but if other reviews had mad it clear that this book was written for the American market then I would have understood that it was probably not relevant to me.I'll keep looking as I love baking and hope that I can find something with more globally understood text.

Going self catering (first time) for a skiing holiday at 1850m with 12 others we had to get the cakes right. With little more than a lead from a previous high altitude ski holiday(use yoghurt to stop the cakes sinking) my internet searches revealed lots of tips about reducing sugar and increasing eggs etc- too many calculations that could go wrong when we didnt have time to experiment and have failures. An amazon search and a review of the reviews indicated this book might be the one to get our cakes to rise reliably. They were right. We followed Mrs Purdy to the letter- 6 risen cakes and 2 succesful puddings later - we congratulate her on her persistence. It certainly paid off for our holiday and the cakes were the highlight of the return in the afternoon.What would I have liked to be different?:a paperback version would have been lighter to have trekked across europe by trainher tube tins must be wider than the european ones one of my cakes in a tube tin rose up and expanded at the top - half quantities for the carrot cake would have better fitted a uk tin(but made less cake and the full quantity cake got demolished anyway!)I cooked many of the cakes in one round 9" tin(rather than two) so they took longer to cook than she said but they still rose and didnt sink and tasted greatWe're all just waiting for the next high altitude holiday to work our way through the rest of the book - or may be we'll just use them any way at our near sea level home before then!- after all, all the amounts required are in the book for all altitudes.

I took this book with me to a village at 4000 feet in the eastern Himalayas. We had no oven, so had to build one from mud. But then we started making cakes from this wonderful book. So far have made the honey cake, the apple cake and a chocolate cake - all with great success.Highly recommended!.

This was a present for my sister in law for Christmas, she is moving to Colorado in August and wanted to try some altitude cooking, she was very pleased with it.

I bought this book because I was going to Santa Fe, New Mexico to make a wedding cake for my brother & sister in law. I had never been anywhere at high altitude, let alone baked anything, and I was very worried. This book saved my life! It's written for the home cook, not for the serious home cook or semi-professional like Rose Beranbaum's books, but it has a lot of useful info and the recipes are very clear. I was able to make the cake with perfect success and it was genuinely delicious.