"Susan G. Purdy's Pie in the Sky should be standard NASA equipment." -- Astronaut Buzz Aldrin, Apollo 11 Lunar Module Pilot
"Finally, someone has undertaken the task of baking lots of cakes and pies at lots of different altitudes. Thank you Susan! Pie in the Sky will be a great help to high, medium, and low-altitude cooks everywhere. Finally, we can give up the guesswork in favor of the tried, tested, and true." -- Deborah Madison, prize-winning author of Vegetarian Cooking for Everyone
"Pie in the Sky...is a delightful and informative cookbook that serves as the only foolproof guide to high altitude baking...With its engaging storytelling and unpretentious style, Pie in the Sky is a pleasure to read...Purdy provides countless valuable tips that make baking in [high altitude] regions as easy as pie. If baking in high altitudes has been a nightmare for you in the past, fear no more. The sky's the limit with Pie in the Sky." -- Chocolatier, June 2005
Crestfallen cakes? Slumped soufflés? Do you have an altitude problem?
When Susan G. Purdy began traveling across the country to teach baking, she soon discovered that the recipes she'd perfected at home in Connecticut (altitude 540 feet) wouldn't fly in high-altitude venues. The more she asked for advice, the more she realized how little information existed for adapting recipes to suit kitchens in higher elevations. So she packed a suitcase with her favorite recipes, enlisted the help of a few engineers, and began testing variations in home kitchens across the country, from North Carolina to Colorado.
The delectable results of her extensive testing are reported in Pie in the Sky: 100 Cakes, Pies, Cookies, Breads, and Pastries Home-Tested for Baking at Sea Level, 3,000, 5,000, 7,000, and 10,000 Feet (and Anywhere in Between) (Morrow Cookbooks; $29.95; ISBN 0-06-052258-5; on sale May 31, 2005).
Presenting each recipe five ways -- from standard sea level to 10,000 feet -- Pie in the Sky is the first book to adequately address the atmospheric obstacles experienced by bakers in the thirty-four states that have high elevations. She begins by debunking the myths about cooking in the clouds. (Add an extra egg to every recipe? Always use higher baking temperatures at high altitudes? Not so, not so!) She also includes precise charts for adjusting ingredient quantities and predicting boiling points. No matter where you're baking, from sea-level to 10,000 feet, dozens of classic and innovative marvels are now a joy to bake, such as:
- Summit Orange Souffle, A dramatic finale after a heavy meal, Click here to see the recipe.
- Durango Popovers, which puff perfectly thanks to Susan's easy instructions.
- Pike's Peak Apple Pie with Flaky Pastry, with advice for choosing just the right variety of apple depending on your location.
- Alpine Angel Cake with 7-to-15-Minute Icing, guaranteed to rise like the Alps, even in an Alpine oven.
- Cranberry Pecan Streusel Muffins, topped with cinnamon and nuts, a treat any time of the day.
- Buckhorn Baguettes, long loaves with a crunchy crust and chewy-tender crumb, made with just the right amount of yeast.
Sprinkled with engaging stories of baking on the road, the author vividly recounts her travels to extraordinary places at extraordinary heights, and the colorful characters she met along the way, including the "Accidental Baker" of Ashe County, North Carolina. In addition, the book offers high altitude tips and recollections from celebrated chefs, including Jacques Pépin recounting his altitude adjustment for soufflé in Bogotá and genoise cake at the Food & Wine Classic in Aspen. Brimming with expert advice, from Santa Fe to San Francisco, this is the book that will have cooks everywhere flying high in the kitchen.
About the Author: Susan G. Purdy is a well-known baking teacher, culinary journalist, and the author of 30 books -- 12 of them cookbooks, including The Perfect Cake, The Perfect Pie, and the IACP Award-winning Have Your Cake and Eat It, Too. When she's not on the road baking, she lives in Litchfield County, Connecticut.
Contact the author: susan@susangpurdy.com
Contact the publisher:
William Morrow/HarperCollins
10 E. 53rd St., New York, NY 10022-5299
