High Altitude Baking with Chocolate Chip Cookies

Basic, Great Chocolate Chip Cookies at 4500 feet - made dough January 19, 2019

Original recipe not adapted for high altitude baking

Original recipe not adapted for high altitude bakng

When I moved to Reno, one of the things that belatedly occurred to me is I would have to adjust to high altitude baking. Reno is at 4500 feet above sea level. My old baking ground? 72 feet. Yeah, that's different. Plus I had the added incentive that my niece is getting married in Colorado and I promised to bake her wedding dessert bar. Ack, what if my recipes didn't turn out because I'd never baked in high altitude before?

Original recipe not adapted for high altitude baking

Original recipe not adapted for high altitude baking

Obviously, it was time to try my hand at baking in the new location so I could prep and adjust as needed when it was game time for the wedding. Bad enough I wouldn't be able to bake in my own kitchen and oven. I wasn't even going to be able to bake at my own elevation.

Recipe adapted for high altitude baking

When I did some research on the differences with high altitude baking, here's the wisdom from Google and Betty Crocker:

• Air pressure at higher elevation is lower so foods take longer to bake. Temperature and/or bake times may need to be increased.
• Liquids evaporate faster so amounts of flour, sugar and liquids may need to be changed to prevent batter that is too moist, dry or gummy.
• Gases expand more so doughs rise faster.

Even more helpful than these generalized statements were the recommended general adjustments for high altitude baking:

• Baking powder: for every 1 teaspoon in the original recipe, reduce by 1/8 teaspoon to 1/4 teaspoon
• Sugar: for each cup, reduce by 0 to 2 tablespoons
• Liquid: for each cup, add 2 to 4 tablespoons
• Oven temperature: increase by 25 degrees F.

Armed with that knowledge, I started with the last chocolate chip cookie recipe I'd made and adjusted accordingly. The modified recipe is below. And, being a curious cat whose baking life has been at sea level, I did wonder whether it would really make a difference or not. Would my original recipe cookies come out flat? Dry? Rise then collapse?

Left cookie is non-adapted recipe, right cookie recipe adapted for high altitude baking

I made a half recipe of the original and a half recipe of the one modified for high altitude baking. Guess what? My original recipe turned out just fine. Not dry, didn't spread too thin, was just as good as when I baked it back in the Bay Area. Ironically, the modified recipe also turned out just fine. It didn't taste all that different from the original and it also didn't spread that much and wasn't dry. I'm not sure that in a blind taste test, anyone could really taste the difference. So maybe I just created a new chocolate chip recipe by accident.

Only slight differences in appearances, almost none in taste (Original - L, Modified - R)

I want to try out a few more of my recipes without modifying them and see if I just got lucky with this one or if it's only applicable for cookies. And, with Denver being up to a thousand feet above sea level than Reno, maybe there might be a difference there? Who knows. But it'll be an interesting experiment to conduct over the next few months.

Modified 1/2 recipe
1/2 cup + 2 tablespoons unsalted butter
1 5/8 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
scant 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
3/4 teaspoon salt
3/4 cup MINUS 1 tablespoon dark brown sugar
1/4 cup MINUS 1 1/2 teaspoons granulated sugar
1 egg
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
6 ounces milk chocolate chip cookies

1. Melt butter and let cool slightly.
2. Whisk together flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt.
3. Add brown sugar and granulated sugar to melted butter; stir to combine. Add egg and vanilla; stir until blended.
4. Add dry ingredients and stir until just combined. Fold in chocolate chips.
5. Portion into golf-ball-size dough balls, cover and chill or freeze for several hours or overnight.
6. When ready to bake, preheat oven to 375 degrees F. Line baking sheets with parchment paper and evenly space frozen dough balls.
7. Bake 10 to 12 minutes or until edges are golden and middles are just barely past the raw stage. Do not overbake.

Bakery Review: Perenn Bakery

Perenn Bakery - visited January 13, 2019

What would we do without yelp to guide us to the best places to go? I don't know and I don't want to find out. Still making my bakery rounds of what Reno has to offer and I homed in on Perenn Bakery because one of the yelp reviews mentioned the magic words "kouign amann". Like a moth to flame, off I went.

I arrived mid-morning on a Sunday and there were a few people inside the modest bakery. It had very clean lines with a minimalist look. I don't know if there was a rush on baked goods earlier or if they keep more of the stock in the back or if they only bake a little at a time. In any case, the shelves behind the counter weren't exactly overflowing with bread loaves.

But that didn't matter because there was a nice selection of pastries, from croissants to pain au chocolat (they called them chocolate croissants but I know a pain au chocolat when I see one), almond croissants, savory croissants and - woot - yes, kouign amanns.

Each was $3.75 plus tax (I was surprised on the tax). I still had a mini pie left from Mix Bakeshop so I limited myself to one kouign amann for this visit. I figured I could always come back to try other items.

As kouign amanns go, this was a great choice. The outside had the perfect caramelized exterior that marks a good kouign amann and why I like them so much in the first place. The inside was also beautifully layered, not as flaky as a croissant but with more substance, which I prefer. It was not as buttery as the ones from Arsicault Bakery or b patisserie in San Francisco but still delicious nonetheless.

I'm so glad I'm finding all of these "best of" that make my new city feel a little more like home.

Bakery Review: Mix Bakeshop

Mix Bakeshop - visited January 12, 2019

In case you can't tell by now, I haven't really been baking this month. I'm still working remote and flying back and forth from Reno to the Bay Area. I only take a small hand carry which does not fit any baked goods and honestly, I'm not ready to tackle high altitude baking just yet. For now, I'm sticking to the professionals who've already mastered it.

Mix Bakeshop was my next place to explore. From the yelp reviews, they were initially known for their cupcakes then they bought a pie business and now they're known for that too. So I knew what I was pre-disposed to get.

There was no one in the shop when I walked in around the middle of the day which was a little surprising. And sometimes worrying. As you know, I'm a big believer in supporting small businesses and go out of my way to seek them out. Hopefully they have busy times and I just didn't happen to be there during one of them. Or I need to step up my bakery-patronage game and help them out.

For this first visit, I decided to go with a couple of mini pies - Salted Caramel Apple and Coconut Chess Pie. At first I was also going to try a slice of quiche but the only flavor they had was Spinach and Feta. I wanted something with a little more protein so I skipped the quiche and settled on a German Chocolate cupcake instead. Yeah, I know, we all make our own choices. That was mine. #dontjudge

So....let's talk about the cupcake first. I was on my way to a hair appointment after I left Mix Bakeshop and I hadn't had lunch yet. I had planned on the quiche but you know how that choice went. So I ate the cupcake for lunch instead.

You're going to judge me, aren't you? Well, before you do, let me tell you - go ahead! Because this cupcake was delicious and worth every bad choice I've ever made in favor of my sweet tooth. The cake was moist and had a tender crumb.

German Chocolate Cupcake $3.75

I love coconut so the traditional German Chocolate part of the cupcake was a win-win. Heck, I even liked the chocolate buttercream frosting between the cupcake and the German chocolate frosting. I mean, hello, not a frosting person and I liked this frosting. Not too sweet, not oily, perfect mouthfeel and flavor. I'm going to need to have this again. No joke.

Salted Caramel Apple cutie pie $5

Now, let's turn to the pies. I had the cupcake for lunch and no lie, I had the salted caramel mini pie for dinner. Yeah, I know, my A1C levels probably gave me the stink eye that day. Usually, I try to limit myself to one decadence a day but, well, I didn't this time.

I warmed up the little pie slightly in my toaster oven and it was perfect. I loved this pie. It was the perfect size for one person although I have to admit I felt a little full of pie by the time I finished it and I did have to give myself an hour break between the first half and the second had. It was rich, particularly because of the salted caramel blanketing the top. But oh so good.

I have slightly more mixed (ha, get it?) feelings about the coconut chess pie. But I think that's also my fault because I translated "chess pie" to "coconut cream" or "coconut custard" pie. Which this was not.

For the record, I don't think I've ever had a real chess pie so I can't compare this to what a chess pie is supposed to be. On the plus side, the crust was amazing. Like shortbread-amazing. The ganache was good, the creamy custard part was great, the coconut was delicious.

But there was also a liquidy corn-syrup-like layer as part of the filling. I didn't care for the sweetness or texture of that. That might be part of a real chess pie so I miscalculated there. I think I would have preferred an actual coconut cream pie. But with their amazing crust.

Bakery Review: Honey Bakery

Honey Bakery - visited January 11, 2019

One of the things I was concerned about missing when I moved from the Bay Area was good dim sum. Or any dim sum, for that matter as my sister told me there aren't any dim sum restaurants in Reno. Eek. Really? It's not even that I *have* to have dim sum all the time. When I was surrounded by it, I had it maybe once every few months, if that. But that's when I had the luxury of having dim sum everywhere I turned, including one down the street from my office.

Fortunately, yelp to the rescue. When I was still hunting down "top bakeries in Reno" I came across the 4 1/2 star-reviews for Honey Bakery. And whaddaya know, they mention it was a dim sum bakery. Say wha??

I was working from home that day but since Honey Bakery was less than 10 minutes from my house, it was a quick lunch time break to go check it out. It's set in a strip mall with a Save Mart and was empty when I walked in so I had time to peruse the display case.

There were the traditional Chinese-bakery items like pork buns, egg custard tarts, wife cake and coconut tarts. I'm fond of a good baked pork bun so that's what I ordered plus the coconut tart.

Thanks to the yelp reviews, I also knew enough to ask for an order of siu mai. The bakery will steam it for you if you wanted to wait 15 minutes.

I had to get back to work so I opted to buy it frozen and to steam them myself at home. As an aside, one thing I still can't get used to in Nevada is that they give takeout in styrofoam containers. And the stores give out plastic bags without charging you. At least for now.

Anyways, steaming the siu mai was easy. I had to create a makeshift steamer by boiling water in a large pot, placing the siu mai pieces in a round baking pan that fit at the top of the pan and covering it. Let it steam with the water boiling for 10 minutes and voila - delicious, fresh siu mai. Now I know where to go for the good stuff.

The pork bun was also tasty. It could've used a little more filling but the bread was really good. Standard traditional good Asian bakery bread.

Almost surprisingly, the coconut tart was also delicious. I normally don't "do" Asian desserts because I have the walloping sweet tooth born from Western culture but the tart was good. More like a cakey coconut sweet muffin baked inside a tart shell but good nonetheless. So glad I found this place and I'll be back.