August 14, 2026 • 6 mins
HIGH ALTITUDE BAKING WILL BREAK YOU I was not a great baker when I moved here and what little skill I had flew out the window at high altitude. Today I’ve got a guest who is sharing her journey baking in high altitude and you can follow along. Chef Liz Thompson joins me at 12:30 to talk about her Truckee High Altitude Baking Club and you can join too! Find the website here and the Facebook group here.
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Listen
Watch
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
One of the things that I can't do well is bake,
and when I moved to high altitude, it got even worse.
Speaker 2 (00:06):
And joining me now is a woman.
Speaker 1 (00:08):
Who could bake very well out at sea level as
a pastry chef in Los Angeles, and then she too,
moved to the mountains and discovered that the mountains hate baking. Chef,
Liz Thompson, Welcome to the show.
Speaker 3 (00:22):
Thank you, nice to have, nice to be here.
Speaker 1 (00:24):
So I want to find out you decide you're going
to leave the big city, You're going to move up
to the beautiful mountains, and just what assumed that everything
would work the way it was supposed to work. What
was that first baking experience like for you? When I
realized it was not the same.
Speaker 3 (00:38):
I never knew anything about high altitude.
Speaker 4 (00:40):
And I made my shortbread cookies that I've been making
for thirty years and open the oven and they all
spread and knocked into each other, and I had no
idea what was on. First I thought it was the
oven temperature, but then I realized from talking to other
people that regular sea level recipes, not all of them,
but most of them need some kind kind of adaptation.
Speaker 3 (01:01):
So that's the journey. I went on recipe by recipe.
Speaker 1 (01:04):
And how many recipes have you been worked? Have you
worked out thus far?
Speaker 3 (01:09):
I've worked out about twenty.
Speaker 4 (01:12):
But each time takes and you could take me three
to four different tries until I get it just the
way I want it.
Speaker 3 (01:17):
So what you might used to be?
Speaker 1 (01:19):
So when you talk to people, do you think most
people are like us? Like the people at Hi altitude?
You keep it a secret. You don't tell us how impossible.
Speaker 2 (01:27):
It is to cook. It's like you get down walk what.
Speaker 4 (01:30):
Is going on, and it's very funny. But some of
my neighbors did share. You know, they have trouble too
with certain recipes and their brownies always collapse and the
cake collapses and things are dry. And then I realized
that unless you've lived up here for a long time
and you're used to living up here and you have
the recipes, you can't just take your family your grandmother's chocolate.
Speaker 3 (01:47):
Cake and make it. So I learned it basically what
you have to do for most recipes.
Speaker 4 (01:53):
You have to increase the flower because you need more structure.
There's lower air pressure here, which you mean things were
really quickly, so you put your cake in it looks
like it's rising, rising and rising, but without the additional
sugar flour, the structure hasn't set and then it collapses.
And because there's low air pressure, you have to reduce
your leavening agents otherwise things over run.
Speaker 3 (02:14):
And I'll show you a perfect example. So made my
pound cake. Made it for years. Love it? You're looking
at it?
Speaker 2 (02:21):
Yeah, and let me describe it. It's got activate.
Speaker 4 (02:25):
So after several tries, I added, here's here's what it's
supposed to look like.
Speaker 3 (02:30):
It's supposed to have a nice domee and a crack
in the middle. So basically what I had to do
is I had to.
Speaker 4 (02:35):
Lower the amount of baking powder that I use and
increase the flour.
Speaker 3 (02:40):
But it took me a couple of times. And then
I also infuse my sugars. So I made a lavender
pound cake.
Speaker 1 (02:45):
So this is how Trucky High Altitude Baking Club came
to be.
Speaker 3 (02:50):
Well why did it started?
Speaker 2 (02:52):
Yeah?
Speaker 4 (02:52):
It started because I realized I wasn't the only one,
and even though I was, I had a goal of
transferring all of my recipes.
Speaker 3 (02:59):
All the other people said, Hey, can you look at
my recipe?
Speaker 4 (03:01):
This is my grandmother's whatever, and I just can't make it.
Speaker 3 (03:05):
And I realized that there was really.
Speaker 4 (03:07):
A need, and that's why I started experimenting, and you know,
effort by effort, I got.
Speaker 3 (03:11):
My short bread cookies back. I got my Piscott Piscott.
It was a very interesting journey.
Speaker 4 (03:17):
To Scotti cookies have a tendency to spread up here
just because of the low atmosphere and the other conditions
of you know, just living in high altitude. And I
experimented with butter, and then butter and vegetable oil, and
then I found that vegetable oil one hundred percent fat
works better at high altitude because there's less spread. And
also with butter, because there's low air pressure, water evaporates.
(03:42):
So by using butter, which can be up to fifteen
percent water, the water evaporates. So my piscotti kept coming
out hard as the rock. So I just realized that
the perfect combination was.
Speaker 3 (03:51):
I just use I just use vegetable oil. I could
I could talk about breads? Should I talk about breads?
Speaker 2 (03:58):
Well, let me know.
Speaker 1 (03:58):
I want to talk about what you're doing with this information,
because this is where it gets really interesting.
Speaker 3 (04:03):
Oh okay, So.
Speaker 4 (04:05):
I am taking I'm going recipe by recipe, and I'm
documenting my learning almost like the Julia and Julia.
Speaker 3 (04:13):
And I'm blogging on it.
Speaker 4 (04:14):
And I'm also in the process of writing a book
explaining here's my sea level recipe, and on the right
side of the page is the high altitude, so the
reader is actually able to see the changes that need
to be made and then the scientific basis for the changes,
so that I'm actually teaching the reader how to take
their own sea level recipes, family recipes, cookbooks from lives before,
(04:37):
and actually understand how.
Speaker 3 (04:38):
They can convert their own recipes. So I'm not just
throwing recipes at them.
Speaker 4 (04:42):
I'm teaching them how to learn the process of converting
the recipes themselves.
Speaker 1 (04:46):
Say that for me is super interesting because off the air,
I said, Liz, I'm sure you have your Pie in
the Sky cookbook.
Speaker 2 (04:51):
There are certain cookbooks.
Speaker 1 (04:52):
That everybody who lives at iil to Do have, and
Pie and the Sky will never let you down in
terms of if you make her recipes. They're all phenomenal,
but they don't teach you how to make those adjustments
on your own recipes, which is something I would like.
I would like to know how to go back and
figure out how to take the recipes from you know.
Speaker 2 (05:10):
Florida, where I'm from.
Speaker 1 (05:12):
I make them into recipes that I can make here
because they've been a massive failure multiple times here.
Speaker 2 (05:17):
So that is what I'm looking forward to.
Speaker 4 (05:20):
Right Like I've had people complain a lot of times
about their brownies and I made my recipe and it
was just dry and crackly, doesn't look very nice. And
then I added in many, many more egg yolks and
it came out really nice and chewy, gorgeous. So it's
a playing with the recipes and really understanding the science
behind it, which is I don't my book will not
(05:41):
be technical, very very user friendly because I'm walking myself
through the process.
Speaker 1 (05:46):
Well, you can sign up at Trucky High Altitude Baking
Club or I also put a link on the blog
today at mandyblog dot com. She's got a group on Facebook.
I've already joined it, so I will see you there, Liz.
I'm looking forward to following along with this because I
will be buying your cookbook when it comes out for sure,
like like I'm already gonna do that. If you had
it on Amazon, I would buy it right now.
Speaker 4 (06:08):
So thanks, But yeah, everybody sign up Chucky High Altitude
Bakingclub dot com and I'll send you my recipes through
the newsletter as I create them.
Speaker 1 (06:15):
Excellent, and that's t r u c k e E
High Altitude Baking Club. And I put all of this
on the blog at dot com, Yes, dot com. I
put all of this on the blog at mandyblog dot com. Liz,
it's so nice to chat with you. I appreciate the
time today.
Speaker 3 (06:28):
Thank you. All right, all right, take care of the night.
Speaker 4 (06:32):
Day.
Speaker 2 (06:32):
I actually already did send her a recipe
One of the things that I can't do well is bake,
and when I moved to high altitude, it got even worse.
Speaker 2 (00:06):
And joining me now is a woman.
Speaker 1 (00:08):
Who could bake very well out at sea level as
a pastry chef in Los Angeles, and then she too,
moved to the mountains and discovered that the mountains hate baking. Chef,
Liz Thompson, Welcome to the show.
Speaker 3 (00:22):
Thank you, nice to have, nice to be here.
Speaker 1 (00:24):
So I want to find out you decide you're going
to leave the big city, You're going to move up
to the beautiful mountains, and just what assumed that everything
would work the way it was supposed to work. What
was that first baking experience like for you? When I
realized it was not the same.
Speaker 3 (00:38):
I never knew anything about high altitude.
Speaker 4 (00:40):
And I made my shortbread cookies that I've been making
for thirty years and open the oven and they all
spread and knocked into each other, and I had no
idea what was on. First I thought it was the
oven temperature, but then I realized from talking to other
people that regular sea level recipes, not all of them,
but most of them need some kind kind of adaptation.
Speaker 3 (01:01):
So that's the journey. I went on recipe by recipe.
Speaker 1 (01:04):
And how many recipes have you been worked? Have you
worked out thus far?
Speaker 3 (01:09):
I've worked out about twenty.
Speaker 4 (01:12):
But each time takes and you could take me three
to four different tries until I get it just the
way I want it.
Speaker 3 (01:17):
So what you might used to be?
Speaker 1 (01:19):
So when you talk to people, do you think most
people are like us? Like the people at Hi altitude?
You keep it a secret. You don't tell us how impossible.
Speaker 2 (01:27):
It is to cook. It's like you get down walk what.
Speaker 4 (01:30):
Is going on, and it's very funny. But some of
my neighbors did share. You know, they have trouble too
with certain recipes and their brownies always collapse and the
cake collapses and things are dry. And then I realized
that unless you've lived up here for a long time
and you're used to living up here and you have
the recipes, you can't just take your family your grandmother's chocolate.
Speaker 3 (01:47):
Cake and make it. So I learned it basically what
you have to do for most recipes.
Speaker 4 (01:53):
You have to increase the flower because you need more structure.
There's lower air pressure here, which you mean things were
really quickly, so you put your cake in it looks
like it's rising, rising and rising, but without the additional
sugar flour, the structure hasn't set and then it collapses.
And because there's low air pressure, you have to reduce
your leavening agents otherwise things over run.
Speaker 3 (02:14):
And I'll show you a perfect example. So made my
pound cake. Made it for years. Love it? You're looking
at it?
Speaker 2 (02:21):
Yeah, and let me describe it. It's got activate.
Speaker 4 (02:25):
So after several tries, I added, here's here's what it's
supposed to look like.
Speaker 3 (02:30):
It's supposed to have a nice domee and a crack
in the middle. So basically what I had to do
is I had to.
Speaker 4 (02:35):
Lower the amount of baking powder that I use and
increase the flour.
Speaker 3 (02:40):
But it took me a couple of times. And then
I also infuse my sugars. So I made a lavender
pound cake.
Speaker 1 (02:45):
So this is how Trucky High Altitude Baking Club came
to be.
Speaker 3 (02:50):
Well why did it started?
Speaker 2 (02:52):
Yeah?
Speaker 4 (02:52):
It started because I realized I wasn't the only one,
and even though I was, I had a goal of
transferring all of my recipes.
Speaker 3 (02:59):
All the other people said, Hey, can you look at
my recipe?
Speaker 4 (03:01):
This is my grandmother's whatever, and I just can't make it.
Speaker 3 (03:05):
And I realized that there was really.
Speaker 4 (03:07):
A need, and that's why I started experimenting, and you know,
effort by effort, I got.
Speaker 3 (03:11):
My short bread cookies back. I got my Piscott Piscott.
It was a very interesting journey.
Speaker 4 (03:17):
To Scotti cookies have a tendency to spread up here
just because of the low atmosphere and the other conditions
of you know, just living in high altitude. And I
experimented with butter, and then butter and vegetable oil, and
then I found that vegetable oil one hundred percent fat
works better at high altitude because there's less spread. And
also with butter, because there's low air pressure, water evaporates.
(03:42):
So by using butter, which can be up to fifteen
percent water, the water evaporates. So my piscotti kept coming
out hard as the rock. So I just realized that
the perfect combination was.
Speaker 3 (03:51):
I just use I just use vegetable oil. I could
I could talk about breads? Should I talk about breads?
Speaker 2 (03:58):
Well, let me know.
Speaker 1 (03:58):
I want to talk about what you're doing with this information,
because this is where it gets really interesting.
Speaker 3 (04:03):
Oh okay, So.
Speaker 4 (04:05):
I am taking I'm going recipe by recipe, and I'm
documenting my learning almost like the Julia and Julia.
Speaker 3 (04:13):
And I'm blogging on it.
Speaker 4 (04:14):
And I'm also in the process of writing a book
explaining here's my sea level recipe, and on the right
side of the page is the high altitude, so the
reader is actually able to see the changes that need
to be made and then the scientific basis for the changes,
so that I'm actually teaching the reader how to take
their own sea level recipes, family recipes, cookbooks from lives before,
(04:37):
and actually understand how.
Speaker 3 (04:38):
They can convert their own recipes. So I'm not just
throwing recipes at them.
Speaker 4 (04:42):
I'm teaching them how to learn the process of converting
the recipes themselves.
Speaker 1 (04:46):
Say that for me is super interesting because off the air,
I said, Liz, I'm sure you have your Pie in
the Sky cookbook.
Speaker 2 (04:51):
There are certain cookbooks.
Speaker 1 (04:52):
That everybody who lives at iil to Do have, and
Pie and the Sky will never let you down in
terms of if you make her recipes. They're all phenomenal,
but they don't teach you how to make those adjustments
on your own recipes, which is something I would like.
I would like to know how to go back and
figure out how to take the recipes from you know.
Speaker 2 (05:10):
Florida, where I'm from.
Speaker 1 (05:12):
I make them into recipes that I can make here
because they've been a massive failure multiple times here.
Speaker 2 (05:17):
So that is what I'm looking forward to.
Speaker 4 (05:20):
Right Like I've had people complain a lot of times
about their brownies and I made my recipe and it
was just dry and crackly, doesn't look very nice. And
then I added in many, many more egg yolks and
it came out really nice and chewy, gorgeous. So it's
a playing with the recipes and really understanding the science
behind it, which is I don't my book will not
(05:41):
be technical, very very user friendly because I'm walking myself
through the process.
Speaker 1 (05:46):
Well, you can sign up at Trucky High Altitude Baking
Club or I also put a link on the blog
today at mandyblog dot com. She's got a group on Facebook.
I've already joined it, so I will see you there, Liz.
I'm looking forward to following along with this because I
will be buying your cookbook when it comes out for sure,
like like I'm already gonna do that. If you had
it on Amazon, I would buy it right now.
Speaker 4 (06:08):
So thanks, But yeah, everybody sign up Chucky High Altitude
Bakingclub dot com and I'll send you my recipes through
the newsletter as I create them.
Speaker 1 (06:15):
Excellent, and that's t r u c k e E
High Altitude Baking Club. And I put all of this
on the blog at dot com, Yes, dot com. I
put all of this on the blog at mandyblog dot com. Liz,
it's so nice to chat with you. I appreciate the
time today.
Speaker 3 (06:28):
Thank you. All right, all right, take care of the night.
Speaker 4 (06:32):
Day.
Speaker 2 (06:32):
I actually already did send her a recipe
The Mandy Connell Podcast News
Popular Podcasts
Stuff You Should Know
If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.
Betrayal Weekly
Betrayal Weekly is back for a new season. Every Thursday, Betrayal Weekly shares first-hand accounts of broken trust, shocking deceptions, and the trail of destruction they leave behind. Hosted by Andrea Gunning, this weekly ongoing series digs into real-life stories of betrayal and the aftermath. From stories of double lives to dark discoveries, these are cautionary tales and accounts of resilience against all odds. From the producers of the critically acclaimed Betrayal series, Betrayal Weekly drops new episodes every Thursday. If you would like to share your story, you can reach out to the Betrayal Team by emailing them at betrayalpod@gmail.com and follow us on Instagram at @betrayalpod and @glasspodcasts. Please join our Substack for additional exclusive content, curated book recommendations, and community discussions. Sign up FREE by clicking this link Beyond Betrayal Substack. Join our community dedicated to truth, resilience, and healing. Your voice matters! Be a part of our Betrayal journey on Substack.
Dateline NBC
Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations. Follow now to get the latest episodes of Dateline NBC completely free, or subscribe to Dateline Premium for ad-free listening and exclusive bonus content: DatelinePremium.com