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Cookies in Colorado

Your Grandma's Recipe Won't Work Here

By Kelly RisleyPublished 3 years ago 4 min read
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I have been baking for as long as I can remember. In fourth grade I won a pie baking contest with a homemade crust and a recipe I adapted on m own. My kitchen is my happy place. Taking ingredients and turning them into something that others will enjoy brings me pleasure!

Then I moved to Denver. People talk about how wonderful the Mile High City is and I have to agree. Denver is beautiful. It has the right mix of city and mountain life for me. I can be downtown shopping in a matter of minutes, or I can be on a mountain top within a couple hours. Over 300 days of sunshine a year and one of the healthiest places in the United States makes Denver a place I am happy to call home. But...

Did anyone warn me that my cookies would turn into bricks? No! At first, even cooking rice was a challenge! How hard is it to boil water? Until I moved to Colorado I would have thought that was a rhetorical question.

Needless to say, my first Christmas was a baking bust! Dinner turned out fine but the holiday treats left a lot to be desired. Several pound cakes later, I found a few tricks that worked. The real secret was buying the right sugar and flour. Cheap, store brand sugar is great for sweet tea, but hit or miss for baking. I didn't realize that not all granules are created equal, but a little research led me to the realization that name brand sugar is the only way to get consistent results because the size of the granules is consistent.

I found in my google searches that there are at least eleven different types of sugars, from granulated (what we normally bake with) to extra fine sugar that dissolves more easily and coarse sugars that are used in Scandinavian pastries. High school home economics would have taken years instead of a semester if we had to learn all of this stuff!

Flour, of course, can be specific for bread, cake, pastry, and a whole host of other purposes. All-purpose is usually my flour of choice, but finding the right brand helps. Right now my favorite is King Arthur High Altitude Flour. I got it thinking it was a magical formula for baking at high altitude, but the truth is, it is wheat grown at high altitude and apparently contains no magic.

Once I figured out the right ingredients, it was time to figure out the special techniques and quantities for this elevation. Colorado State University has a great website with lots of tips and tricks about high altitude baking. I tried ingredient by ingredient, making small adjustments until I got things just right...or as close to "mom's" as I could. For the most part, my baking became edible again.

Cookies were yet another challenge. Too much liquid and they turn into chewy pancakes. Not enough liquid and they are great straight out of the oven, but the minute they cool, I could use them as weapons...or building blocks for a storm shelter. Add a piece of bread to the storage container and they freshen right up, though! The bread trick came in really handy for the care packages I sent overseas, but it looked a little odd for the cookie exchange at work. My coworkers just nodded and said things like, "Baking is different here, isn't it?" They knew the bread trick for outsiders and they knew the real recipes that work here, but they didn't want to share that knowledge.

I was beginning to think there was an exclusive native Coloradan club that I couldn't be part of, maybe a secret baking society where all the recipes had been converted and turn out perfectly every time. I just wanted to be part of the in crowd where cookies were soft and fresh for more than 20 seconds!

Then I stumbled upon a website called "Butter & Air" where Robyn bestows her baking knowledge on natives and outsiders alike! This is my year to shine! I have a sugar cookie recipe that puts all of my attempts to shame.

I wanted to do something fun with a few girlfriends. I wanted to get together and decorate cookies. It would be a fun time and a chance to see some decorating talent with friends. Before the big day though, I wanted to test the recipe. I couldn't send my friends home with bricks and bread so I set aside a day to find the perfect cookie. Thanks to Robyn and her willingness to share, I only tried one recipe. Here is the link to the best sugar cookies I've had in 10 years.

The day came and my friends showed up. We had mimosas and snacks and sugar cookies to decorate. My dog even got in on the action with a sprinkling of powdered sugar!

He didn't need to be any sweeter

All in all, baking with friends was a great way to connect and remember what we are really celebrating. We talked about life and relationships and the trivial and mundane of our everyday lives. We laughed and realized that none of us would make it on Cake Boss, or any of the baking shows for that matter.

Where we did shine though, was in our connection and support of one another. Different walks of life, different ages, but common ground in celebrating sisterhood. I have found a new tradition and I don't need a secret society of high altitude bakers to feel like I fit in. The cookies gave a reason to get together, but the friendship will keep us coming back for years to come.

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