Ich Bin Bake!

I am baking!  One of my favorite hobbies and one which I can semi-prepared to do while here.  When selecting what to bring from my kitchen at home, my mind immediately went to my must-have baking tools such as silicone scrapers, measuring cups and spoons, muffin tins, a small rolling pin, and silicone rolling mat.  I brought three baking books: my hefty King Arthur Bakers Companion (only1 of 3), Scandinavian Baking Book, and an old Danish cookbook.  I brought the two Scandinavian books with the reasoning that some of the recipes and ingrediets would be similar to what I could find here in Northern Germany.  I made sure that one of my measuring cups had an ample marking of metric measurements.  These are my basic of basic tools, many others didn't make the cut (like my Kitchen Aide mixer)

Additionally, after reading some blogs by Americans living in Germany, and other references, to see what people miss or made sure to bring with/have sent to them in Germany, I brought a few baking ingredients: baking powder and soda, brown sugar, and chocolate chips (mostly for the kids).  I had learned that the leavening ingredients here were a little different formulations and that the product labeled here as "braun sugar" was more like what we call turbinado or unrefined sugar and drier than the US version.  I had been told that the wheat flour here is also different, but I couldn't justify bringing 10 pounds of flour!

It has taken me a while to have time or energy to bake since we got here.  With all the walking and our kitchen's ceramic tile floor, standing for any length in the kitchen has not been appealing. Also, O requires a lot of my FOCUSED attention these days ("mommy do this"  "mommy watch me") and after attempting Halloween sugar cookies last fall, I have decided to wait until he is three before cooking anything with more than 3 ingredients with his "help".  Also, my usual naptime respite from kid duties has been cut short or nonexistent since arriving here since the girls can begin arriving home from school as early as 12:15!

I decided to start my baking with something very familar, simple, and comforting to my kids: chocolate chip cookies! Cookies are not easy to come by here - most of the store-bought cookies are variations of the English vanilla biscuit/tea time cookies with chocolate or fruit fillings/coating and the bakeries only have the bland spritz type cookies (blech).  So, we were craving some American-style cookies.

I was actually all set to bake two days ago, but, after opening the cookbook, realized I had overlooked several ingredients I am simply used to always having "on hand". Just run to the store you say?  Not so fast...another German adventure is in store (ha!)!

I tried out a different store yesterday one we happened upon during some local exploring, which turned out to be the largest one I have found with a nice selection.  I could write a whole blog on grocery shopping here, so I will save that for another day and just describe some of the ingredients pertaining to baking today.  First, the flour: nearly everything comes in smaller packaging and flour is no exception.  The largest package I could find is 1000 g (or 1 kg) about 1/2 the size (mass) of the smallest package I buy at home.  This will do for now and is easier to carry home, but wouldn't normally last long in our house.  Then, reading the label beyond just "wheat flour"; I am a pretty avid baker, so I know several types and uses for flour, but I was not prepared for them to be labeled with type numbers.  I had no idea of the difference, but some showed pictures of breads and some showed pictures of pastries, so I took a chance on type 405.

Next, vanilla extract.  The baking aisle is pretty extensive with all kinds of decorating (fun!) ingredients like marzipan shapes and chocolate sprinkles, fruit and custard fillings, more marzipan, oodles of baking mixe,s and several "essences" of enticing flavors I must take home with me, but the only vanilla I found was bean, sugar, and a very expensive small bottle of essence.  After much debate, I went with the vanilla sugar since it was cheap and I was curious.

Now, shortening.  Not in the baking aisle.  Not in the section with the oils - which took a long time to locate, right next to the ketchup.  Not with the lard in the "cultured milk" and soft cheeses section of the dairy case.  Ah, finally, in the vast selection of margarine and "butter-like" spreads!  I think.  There were two choices: one seemed like it came in sticks, similar to American butter, but smaller and quite hard (even more than would be expected in the refrigerated case) and another in a small tub container like the margarine (which are more rectangular than round here).  My limited language skills were telling me I was as close as I was likely to get and I couldn't bring myself to open the lid in the store.  The only thing I was concerned about was what kind of "pflanzfett", or plant fat, I would be getting.  The name brand was "Palmin" and I was really hoping it wasn't palm oil.

The only ingredient I couldn't find was corn syrup (an optional ingredient anyway).  Germans don't seem to have any kind of syrup, but I was hoping maybe Golden Syrup from the UK would make an appearance. Nope - I'll have to keep my eyes open for that one elsewhere.

So, today I sat down to do a little research before I started.  I found that Vanilla sugar contains real vanilla and can be used as a substitute for extract, 1 tsp sugar for each 1/4 tsp, but the information was varied as to whether one should also decrease the sugar.

I also found a great source giving the equivalents of German four grading and American flour categories: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flour.  Turns out I bought the equivalent of American "pastry" flour rather than "all-purpose".  This makes sense that it would be prevelant here (I can usually only find limited selection of pastry flour in the US) since German baking involves more pastries rather than cookies or quick breads.  I'd have to see what it would do for cookies.

I had to pull out my big German-English dictionary to read the "shortening" label.  Fortunately, it was a fairly limited lable and ingredients.  Pure plant oil it said, but I am not exactly sure what kind.  It will have to do.

A note about the oven:  It uses Celsius, of course, which is easy to convert (with charts), but the baking dial has several symbols which I have yet to know if I understand.  It seems to show that I can choose between top heat, bottom heat, or both-we have used the "both" symbol with success so far in other cooking.  I believe there is also a broil feature, but one I'm very unsure about it the fan symbol.  It could be convection, but it seems that the fan is always on!  One of my favorite features of the oven is that, rather than having racks to adjust, the pans themselves fit into rails on the inside of the oven!  It comes with two baking sheets, a broiling pan, and a conventional rack.

I am a pretty good baker, but it has more to do with experience and careful following of technique, rather than a good working knowledge of the specifics of how certain ingredients work. Additionally, I follow directions really well, but don't venture too far beyond the written recipe. This could be the time to learn more about the ingredients and experiment to see what works best.  I am sure my family won't complain!

The cookies turned out to be pretty good.  They were flatter than I like, which can indicate an overly warm batter or too hot oven, but it could be the leavening and flour interactions.  However, A was ecstatic when she came home from school and said they were just the way she likes!