More High Altitude Baking

Well I've had a few more (successful) baking adventures.  I took a few pictures, wrote down a few recipes, played some practical jokes with the results, and I thought I'd blog about them all in one post.  The first was a blueberry pie for the fourth of July..which was actually made and eaten on the third.. but that's beside the point. I got the crust recipe from use real butter, which is a blog that has been my go-to for baking recipes since the blogger lives in the rockies! 

As soon as I made the crust and put it in the fridge to chill, my replacement coffee maker arrived with this "Gizmo" ..

What happened was I bought a coffee maker off of craigs list when I first arrived in Boulder. However, when I was looking for an instruction manual online, I found that the model I bought was recalled..something about a fire hazard...BUT I could go through a process and end up with a new, non-threatening coffee maker PLUS   this Black and Decker 3 in 1 Gizmo beater wisker..thing. The new coffee maker is great. This new gizmo is alright, but since I don't have my kitchen aid mixer, I am THRILLED. Anyways, here's the rest of the blueberry pie pictures.  The filling had no real recipe, just frozen blueberries, sugar, cornstarch, and cinnamon.

Since it was the fourth..er..third of July, I couldn't just do a lattice or something plain and while it didn't turn out perfectly, I think I got the point across. I brought it over to Britt's place for a grill out where we had her delicious spinach and artichoke dip and red, white and blue layered drinks that (for the most part) ended up purple. yum. It was a great Third of July, especially considering the torrential downpour and thunderstorms on the Fourth.

In between the pie and these next brownies I made my own birthday cake (chocolate and banana bread cake with chocolate chips). I took it to work where it was eaten before I could take pictures. But more importantly, I recently finally succeeded in making brownies! And here's the one picture I took of these delicious, fudgy, rich brownies:

The Recipe (altered for high-altitude from My Baking Addiction's post of Pamela Anderson's recipe from "The Perfect Recipe")

2/3 cup whole-wheat flour

1/2 tsp salt

1/2 tsp baking powder

2 oz. unsweetened chocolate

4 oz. semisweet chocolate

9 tablespoons unsalted butter

1 1/8 cup sugar

2 tsp vanilla

3 eggs

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees

2. Whisk flour, salt, and baking powder in a small bowl and set aside. Cover an 8-inch baking pan with aluminum foil and grease ( I used a random baking pan that was definitely not an 8-inch square but worked all the same). 

3. Melt chocolates and butter in a double boiler (or a pan over a pot of simmering water). Remove from heat; whisk in sugar and vanilla. Whisk in eggs, one at a time, fully incorporating each one before adding the next. Continue to whisk until mixture is completely smooth and glossy. Add dry ingredients, whisk until just incorporated.

4. Pour batter into prepared pan; bake until a toothpick comes out with wet crumbs (38-40 minutes).

5. Cool brownies in pan on a wire rack for five minutes. Pull brownies from the pan using the foil and let them completely cool on the wire rack (at least 3 hours, HAH!). 

The website says this makes 16 brownies. I'll trust that but since I made it in a different sized pan and never cut them in squares, I wouldn't know. 

Optional 6th step: after consuming half of the pan yourself before they ever come close to cooling, shape into "turds" and place on a friend's driveway. 

High Altitude Cappuccino Muffins

Greetings from Boulder, Colorado! At an elevation above 5000 ft, I considered baking a daunting task. My first baking attempt was boxed brownies and, though I followed the directions for high-altitude, there was something not quite right about them. So a combination of that failure and my lack of kitchen-aid mixer has kept me from baking/updating this blog. But after what seemed like a never-ending week at work and not being able to fall asleep last night, I decided to give baking another try (since it's a stress reliever, not because it puts me to sleep..).

I opted for muffins so I could bring them to co-workers in the morning to get us through another field trip friday. Also, after reading some information about high-altitude baking, muffins seemed to require the fewest amount of adjustments since they are more stable. Muffins ALSO don't require me to cream butter or whip egg whites. I don't have a kitchen-aid mixer or hand mixer and after Kundalini yoga, I also didn't have the arm strength..
So I made cappuccino muffins.. they gave my instant coffee a purpose other than providing me coffee while I wait for my coffee maker to be mailed to me. The cinnamon sugar topping was a plus too.
These pictures were taken by my iphone since I don't have a camera. I took a picture of the oven as soon as I started smelling the deliciousness of the muffins baking because I figured there must be an app for being able to smell pictures. Turns out there's not an app for that.
But the final product was tasty and successful even though it was baked at high altitude and in the wee hours of the morning. The recipe claims to make 15.. I think I ended up making 12 larger muffins. quality not quantity, right? size matters. I also left out the chocolate chips so that might have allowed for 15 substantial muffins.

Cappuccino Muffins

• INGREDIENTS:
• 2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1/2 cup sugar minus ~ 1 tbsp
• 1/2 cup packed brown sugar minus ~ 1 tbsp (removing some sugar was my only adjustment in the ingredients list)
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• 2 teaspoons instant coffee granules
• 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1 egg
• 1 cup milk
• 1/2 cup butter, melted
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 
  
• TOPPING:
• 6 tablespoons all-purpose flour
• 1/4 cup packed brown sugar
• 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1/4 cup cold butter

Directions

1. In a large mixing bowl, combine the flour, sugars, baking powder, coffee granules, cinnamon and salt. Whisk the egg, milk, butter and vanilla; stir into dry ingredients just until moistened. At this point, fold in a cup of chocolate chips or whatever extras you may be adding. Fill greased muffin cups three-fourths full.
2. For topping, combine the flour, brown sugar and cinnamon in a small bowl. Cut in butter until mixture resembles coarse crumbs. Sprinkle over batter. Bake at 375 degrees F for 22-24 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean

* after removing them from the oven, I let them cool for about 2 minutes, moved them into a baking dish, and covered them with aluminum foil in an attempt to keep them from drying out while they sat for a few hours.. i think it worked.

Adapted from AllRecipes