Best High-altitude Snickerdoodles (so far)

A surprisingly reliable recipe for smiles

These cookies once fetched $50/plate at a charity bake sale. That may speak better of the donor than the cookie, but trust me, this is a worthwhile cookie. A crunch on the outside, a chewy softness on the inside. (For those of you who bake at sea level, just know that those are not givens with snickerdoodles at high altitudes.)

I have to thank Owl, who has never complained at all the taste-testing involved in getting this recipe right.

These cookies freeze very well after being baked. It is always nice to have something in the freezer for a last-minute get-together. Thaw at room temperature for an hour. Then be prepared for compliments.

Youngest owl-cat said, "Smile, cookie!"

High-altitude Snickerdoodles
Note: You can chill the dough or bake right away. I haven't noticed a great difference in flavor or texture, but sometimes it is convenient to chill the dough. The dough is a bit wetter when baking right away, but it tastes the same after baking.

Dry stuff:
3 cups flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
3/4 teaspoon soda
2 teaspoons cream of tartar

Other stuff:
1/2 cup butter
1/2 cup shortening (helps with the softness)
1 1/2 cups sugar
2 large eggs
3 tablespoons milk

Sugar-cinnamon stuff:
1-3 tablespoons cinnamon, depending on your taste buds (I really like 3 tablespoons.)
3 tablespoons sugar

0. If baking right away, preheat oven to 375 degrees.
1. Mix dry stuff and set aside. Mix cinnamon-sugar stuff and set aside.
2. Cream butter, shortening, and sugar.
3. Add eggs to butter, then the vanilla, then the milk.
4. Mix well.
5. Add the dry stuff slowly. Mix until it all comes together.
6. Optional: Wrap dough in plastic wrap and chill.
7. Roll dough into balls (2 tablespoons is a good starting place. Adjust when you find your preferred size. I have even made big 1/4-cup dough balls. Big cookies make Owl feel special.)
8. Roll dough balls in sugar-cinnamon stuff.
9. Bake. In my oven, it is about 8 minutes for 1-tablespoon balls, about 10 minutes for 2-tablespoon balls. Bake until puffy and the dough still looks a little wet in the creases.  The edges will be firm and slightly golden, but they may not look quite done to you. (See picture below.)
10. Cool on sheets for 2-5 minutes. Remove to a wire rack.
11. Enjoy while warm. Share if you must.

Puffy cookies right out of the oven. They will deflate a bit.

Cooking with kids: Quick pizza dough

Friday night dinners are made by the oldest owl-cat (10 years old). Owl and I have been surprised at how able he is in the kitchen. I think most kids like to get into the kitchen and feel independent, but maybe that is because I did. The funny thing is, my mother hated to cook, so instead of believing me that I liked to cook, she did most of the cooking as a service to me. I am guessing that she thought I would have to do enough of that later. (I love you, Mom.)

Owl had his own night to cook from age 8. He remembers making cinnamon rolls and jambalaya. Owl had a lot of siblings (10). They all learned to cook well with that much experience, and now family dinners are very tasty events.

Kids will need supervision making pizza at first (especially with the oven), but the patience required will come easily as you think forward to all those great meals they are going to cook for you in your old age.

Quick Pizza Dough

Dry stuff:

2 1/2 cups flour

1 teaspoon salt

Wet stuff:

1 cup warm water

2 teaspoons yeast*

1 teaspoon sugar

2 tablespoons oil

0. Heat oven to 425 degrees

1. Mix wet stuff.

2. Mix dry stuff.

3. Add wet stuff to dry stuff and mix very well. You can use a mixer like a KitchenAid or Bosch, but hands work well too. It just takes longer (and then you have crazy dough hands you can chase your little brother with).

4. Let rest 5 minutes.

5. Oil your pan. 

6. Press into pan with oiled hands (pictured below). If there are a few flour lumps, just massage them as you press out the dough. If the dough doesn't want to stretch out, just let it rest a few minutes and then go back to pressing it.

6. Add pizza ingredients (Owl-cats like spaghetti sauce, mozzarella cheese, and pepperoni.)

7. Bake at 425 degrees for 15-20 minutes.

8. Enjoy!

*I am baking at high altitude. If this doesn't rise nicely for you sea-level devils, try 2 1/2 teaspoons of yeast.

Pressing out the pizza dough.

And for the grownups--deep dish veggie pizza with alfredo

Coffee Cake (High Altitude)

I grew up calling this breakfast cake, since it’s eaten for Sunday breakfast (or, if church is late enough, brunch). But then Cat didn’t want to make dessert for Sunday evening, since we’d already had cake for breakfast. I’ve taken to calling it a pan-muffin, since it bears the same relationship to a muffin as a cake does to a cupcake. (The name isn’t perfect, but I can’t think of anything better. Ideas?) In any case, it makes for a perfect Sunday breakfast with an omelette and a bowl of fresh fruit.

It really is just a giant muffin. You make your favorite muffin batter and pour it into one pan instead of little cups. And, just as muffins can be anything from sawdust-and-glue bricks to poundcake monsters, so too can a pan-muffin be a “health food” or a millstone of trans fat and refined carbohydrates. Or it can be good.

There are many different ways to make this. You can fill it with fruit—blueberries, mandarin oranges, apple slices; you can mix in applesauce or overripe bananas; you can top it with pecans and butterscotch. (I like to mix an apple chopped into small pieces. If you do this, it may take a little longer to cook.) You can do any of the muffin variations in your cookbook. But the quintessential pan-muffin is a streusel topping over a not-too-sweet cake.

The streusel is tricky. If the clumps are too thick, they’ll sink into the cake (which makes a nice marbled effect, but leaves the top naked). The trick is to make a fine layer; the finely chopped nuts help with that. (If they’re chopped finely, they don’t overwhelm the texture.)

This recipe was developed at 4,000 feet. I know it works here. Let me know if it works where you live.

Pan-muffin

The perfect Sunday breakfast.

Dry stuff:
2 cups flour (I use 1 cup pastry wheat flour and 1 cup all-purpose)
¼ cups sugar
½ t salt
½ t soda

Wet stuff:
¼ cup oil (or, better, melted butter)
2 eggs
1¼ cups buttermilk

Streusel:
2 T melted butter
½ cup brown sugar
¼ cup oats or blended nuts

0. Preheat the oven to 375.
1. Mix the dry stuff together.
2. Mix the wet stuff together.
3. Stir the wet stuff into the dry stuff.
4. Pour the batter into a greased 8x8 pan.
5. Mix the streusel together.
6. Sprinkle the streusel on top.
7. Bake for 30 minutes.

Best Chocolate Cake for High Altitudes Yet

This year I decided to perfect the high-altitude from-scratch cake. Owl was very supportive of this New Year's Resolution. (He likes baking goals better than my occasional threat to ban sugar.)

Today I hesitated as to whether I wanted to make a cake. He said, "I don't think you're all that serious about this food blog."

What?!?

Ah...then I realized he was playing with my mind. Well, it worked. He got his cake.

This is a very good chocolate cake for high altitudes--the best I've found yet. Those of you who bake way up here know that often (even with the best of intentions) you end up with frisbee cakes or sucken centers that require some serious frosting action in the middle to cover it up. Or if they don't fall, they can be dry.

Unless you use a cake mix. But I'll get to discussing that later.

Hershey's High Altitude Chocolate Cake

Hershey's has adjustments at the bottom of their recipe, which made me feel singled out as abnormal. High-altitude bakers can be very sensitive. If you are blessed to bake at sea level, see the recipe here.

1-3/4 cups sugar
1-3/4 cups plus 2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
3/4 cup cocoa
1-1/4 teaspoons baking powder
1-1/4 teaspoons baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
2 eggs
1 cup plus 2 tablespoons milk
1/2 cup vegetable oil
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1 cup boiling water

1. Heat oven to 375°F. (Vital temperature change.) Grease and flour two 9-inch round pans or one 13x9x2-inch baking pan.

2. Stir together sugar, flour, cocoa, baking powder, baking soda and salt in large bowl. Add eggs, milk, oil and vanilla; beat on medium speed of electric mixer 2 minutes. Stir in boiling water (batter will be thin). Pour batter into prepared pans.

3. Bake 30 to 35 minutes or until wooden pick or handy-dandy cake thermometer inserted in center comes out clean. Cool 10 minutes, then remove from pans to wire racks. Cool completely. (Cake may be left in rectangular pan, if desired.)

4. Frost if desired. I used this recipe, also from Hershey's, but for a different cake.

What we thought: This cake was very easy to make and required only the most basic ingredients, which is what I want for my go-to cake. It was very moist. It had the perfect domed top that did not fall. The chocolate flavor was very good. Owl did fault it that it wasn't as moist as carrot cake, but the man (or bird, I guess) could live on carrot cake. I mean, he faults my lasagna that it doesn't taste like carrot cake.

I have also tried Susan Purdy's recipe, a high altitude recipe from a state extension, and a Pillsbury recipe with adjustments. This was by far the best. Let me say, that this is, again, in competition with basic chocolate cakes.

And no, Hershey didn't give me the old payola here. They don't even know I exist.