Europe 2012-Day 6: Making Cookies

Making cookies is usually pretty easy. If you’re in need of supplies you just drive to the nearest supermarket and get whatever you need, in Holland though it’s not that easy.  One thing we needed to find was baking powder or baking soda. Nate took us to the Albert Hijns XL which is probably 10 times bigger than the stores in town. We looked in the spice aisle and in the baking aisle but we didn’t really know what it was called. We even tried asking a couple different people that were stocking shelves but they didn’t understand what we wanted. After we got home I tried looking online. I guess they don’t really sell baking soda here. You can get a large bag in the cleaning aisle, or you might be able to find it at a pharmacy but I decided to try find baking powder instead.

As our apartment is stocked with very limited items I set out to try find a cookie sheet of some kind that would work for making cookies, or baking chicken and such in the oven. The first place I looked was at a store that sells all kitchen stuff. After looking throughout almost the whole store I did come upon an adjustable cookie sheet, but it was 16 euros. I didn’t really want to pay that much since I might end up leaving it here when I leave if I don’t have room for it, so I kept looking.

I went in and out of several stores that you can find some cheaper kitchen supplies but I couldn’t find anything like that. Finally I found a store that had an adjustable cookie sheet for only 8 euros, so I bought it.

You wouldn’t think that chocolate chips would be hard to find, but they don’t sell them in the grocery store. I did see them in a candy shop but I decided to just cut up a chocolate bar instead. I finally found baking powder in a smaller grocery store. 

Now that I had all I needed I set out to make cookies. 

Left to right: Brown Sugar, Crystal Sugar, Baking Powder, Flour, Eggs, Butter, Peanut Butter

It’s amazing how most things are the same and yet so different from the US. The brown and white sugars are coarsely ground. Butter is sold in one big brick instead of individually wrapped smaller bricks. Eggs are not refrigerated, and vanilla is a powder.

The kettle I used as a mixing bowl

As I didn’t have a very big bowl I used a large kettle to hand mix the dough with a wooden spatula. Due to the coarse sugars the cookie dough didn’t seem as smooth as it does at home, but after being baked I would say they are pretty comparable . . . sweet success.

My Plate of cookies and my adjustable cookie sheet