One of the biggest frustrations people face on arrival is how to cook their favorite dishes from home. Here are some helpful hints to get you started.
For any Americans needing to learn how to make some basics like pie crusts and pumpkin puree, the Fannie Farmer Cookbook is a great source of how to make all traditional dishes from scratch and you can order it from Amazon.de.
Baking Powder=Backpulver or Backin
Available in just about every shop. However, it comes in annoying little packets, so if you want a larger quantity, I suggest getting some from 'the van down by the river' a.k.a. Food From Home or from the English Shop in downtown Bonn. You can pick up from one of their mobile locations, or pay for them to ship to your home.
Baking Soda
Goes by many names in German: Natriumhydrogencarbonat, doppeltkohlensaures Natron, (Natrium-) Bicarbonat or Kaisor Natron. It is available everywhere but usually in small packets. The Turkish shop behind Obi has bigger containers, or large tubs can be bought on Amazon.de (make sure you are getting baking soda NOT washing soda as washing soda would be toxic to eat)
Cream of Tartar=Weinstein Backpulver
A little more difficult to find. It is on www.Amazon.de, the Food from Home van and some bio shops.
Flour- Mehl
Flour is sold by density in Germany, and 550 is the closest to the all-purpose sold in the US. The higher the number, the closer to a full grain. The 'Weizen' means it is from wheat. Another name on the front means a different kind of flour (Spelt and Rye are common in Germany). For a complete breakdown of flour types in Germany, check out the German Food Guide to flour.
Brown Sugar
Yes it IS available at places like the van down by the river, the Turkish grocer behind Obi in Bad Godesburg, and from the English Shop . HOWEVER, there are more natural options that are more widely available. Brown sugar is usually made by separating the refined sugar from molasses and then adding the molasses back in. If you buy Rapadura or Muscovada, you are buying sugars that have not gone through this process and are much more natural. Rapadura is always organic and usually only at bio shops, but Muscovada is available practically everywhere (i.e. Rewe, Kaisers). You should look for 'Vollrohrohrzucker' which is the unprocessed sugar.
Chocolate Chips
You can find these locally, but it is in small and expensive packages (usually less than a cup in a package and between 2-3 euros). Food from Home used to have them, but lately they have not been in supply. The English Shop in Cologne seems to keep them in stock for 5+ euros/bag. Amazon.de carries them for almost 6 euros/bag and another 5 euros shipping.
As a side note, many American recipes calls for the 'chips' when they are not really necessary. So any time you will be melting chocolate, just buy the baking chocolate, called 'Zartbitter Kuverture" available in the baking section of all German grocery stores. You can then weigh it out or buy appropriate sized packages. 1 cup/6 ounces equals approximately 150 grams and 2 cups/12 ounces (the standard sized US bag) is approximately 300 grams.
Vanilla Extract
Occasionally small, expensive bottles can be found in the area, but it is actually quite easy to make on your own. The easiest way is to just put a couple of beans in a bottle of vodka (or other alcohol of choice), store in a dark place and wait a week or so. The longer you wait, the better. Some people insist on 6 months! Alternatively, you can buy whole vanilla beans or ground up vanilla.
Molasses
Every-man's sugar cane molasses
You can actually find this in just about every German grocery store, but it may not be where you would look for it. The most common brand says 'GoldSirup' and it is usually found with the jams, nutella and peanut butter as something you might spread on your breakfast bread. As molasses is a by-product of refining sugar and most sugar in Germany comes from sugar beets (or Zuckerrubben), you may find it as 'Zuckerrübensirup'. Now, if you want sugar cane syrup, you will have to look much harder. In this case, you need to look for Zuckerrohr (or sugar cane). You will usually find these in bio shops in the baking section with baking powder, vanilla and the like.
Organic Sugar Cane Molasses
