'Pie in the Sky: Successful Baking at High Altitudes' — by Susan G. Purdy

Best book title of the year.

A good title is critical to a book's success.

This book becomes an instant classic because it is the first and only one of its kind.

The author, a baking teacher and cookbook author, had found that the conventional wisdom and formulas for modifying recipes to allow for altitude were "full of hot air," said a story by Jerry Shriver in last Friday's USA Today.

Purdy told Shriver, "Those rules were set up by someone with a slide rule."

So there you are.

Most cookbooks deal with the challenges of baking at altitude with platitudes like "substitute bigger eggs" or "raise the oven temperature."

Purdy's book, which contains 100 classic recipes for cakes, pies, cookies, breads and pastries, retails for $29.95 ($19.77 at amazon).

In it are charts showing not only the sea level recipes but also variations for heights of 3,000, 5,000, 7,000 and 10,000 feet and anywhere in between.

Purdy spent five years on the road testing each recipe at each height, in home kitchens around the U.S.

Here's a link to a good in–depth interview with the author which appeared on June 16 in her hometown paper, the Litchfield [Connecticut] County Times.

Here's a link to the author's website.

[via Jerry Shriver and USA Today]