Sugar High: Sweet & Savory Baking in Your High-Altitude Kitchen

by Nicole Hampton

Nicole Hampton of the popular food blog Dough-Eyed, featured on Buzzfeed and DiningOut.com, reveals her secrets to high-altitude baking in her very first cookbook.Those who live at high elevation are probably well acquainted with the baking challenges that come with it, from deflated cakes to overflowing batters to failed pies. Enter Sugar High! With helpful tips and tricks that Nicole learned from personal experience from her kitchen in the heights of Colorado, Sugar High contains more than 100 specially created recipes for high-altitude bakers to make sure those breads and cakes come out perfect each time. Bring into your home such delicious comforts as Cheddar, Bacon & Herb Biscuits, Tomato-Garlic Focaccia, Cappuccino Streusel Cake, Triple-Berry & Apple Galettes, and more.

Genres: Cookbooks, Nonfiction, Food and Drink

240 pages, Kindle Edition

Published October 9, 2018

Reviews

[lisa · Rating 3 out of 5]

As someone who has grown up in high altitude, and baked my whole life, I am alternately frustrated, and fascinated by high altitude baking. My favorite baking book (and the only book I really trust) is Pie in the Sky by Susan Purdy. I was bookselling in Santa Fe at the time this book was released, and the excitement it caused was quite a revelation. A woman showed up to a book signing crying actual tears because she was able to successfully make some family heirloom cake for the first time in Santa Fe based on tips from Pie in the Sky. Pie in the Sky was carefully researched, and the recipes were tested at different high altitudes, with variations for each altitude, and notes on those variations. So even if you had a recipe that wasn't included in the book (like a family heirloom cake) you could use the notes, and adjust your recipes to fit. It is a stark cookbook though, by which I mean it has some colored photos in the center of the book, but not much else in the way of design.

Which I was excited to find this book on the cart of reshelves at my library. High altitude baking, with beautiful pictures for every baked yummy? Yes, please! But while this book has the style that Pie in the Sky was lacking, it doesn't have Pie in the Sky's substance. I have no idea how Nicole Hampton made her adjustments for high altitude. I don't know how her recipe for cake is any different from any other recipe for cake. There are no helpful general tips for baking at high altitude (there is some myth busting, but those aren't explained very well.) I baked the Salted Caramel bars, and they were OK, but my husband and I didn't fight to eat them. This is just another baking book. It's fine, but in no way is especially helpful to a high altitude baker.

[Merrie Garner · Rating 5 out of 5]

I loved this! I've been baking at high altitude most of my adult life and this weekend I made the best chocolate cake I've ever made from one recipe, and solid vanilla cupcakes from another. My favorite thing about this book was learning more about the science behind the high-altitude baking hacks we have relied on for years, and discovering real alternatives. I've got a lot of baking to do from this book!

[Theenemytoad · Rating 4 out of 5]

I recently moved to Denver so I borrowed this book from my public library. What a gem! I made the 'Cozy Cinnamon Rolls' and they turned out surprisingly well considering they were my first ever attempt. My one criticism is that they are too sweet for my taste. Even if you end up not trying any of the recipes, just the pictures are beautiful.

[Jo · Rating 5 out of 5]

One of the first books that has all adjusted recipes for high altitude. I have had had a difficult time adjusting 'sea level' recipes myself, this one takes all that work away. Much appreciated that Nicole wrote this one

[Matt Aldrete · Rating 5 out of 5]

Everything in this book is pure perfection