Baking Stress

Back home in the U.S., I like to bake occasionally. I didn't think I would do much baking in Finland, though, so I didn't ship any pans, ingredients or a mixer. If I had only known...

Tom works with a lot of French expats, of course. And lately, some of them have been bringing in delicious French goodies to share -- croissants, crepes,  financiers (little cakes). I finally got him to bring me one of the treats -- the unbelievably tasty chocolate financier. It was so perfect -- crusty on the outside, moist on the inside. Even after sitting on Tom's desk all day wrapped up in nothing but a paper towel, by the time I got it, it still was terrific.

The bad part of all this is that the French kept asking Tom when he was going to bring in some "American" goodies. Talk about pressure! How do you compete with financiers??

The closest thing I found to chocolate chips

I decided to make chocolate chip cookies. Not totally American, but I would put M&Ms in them, which is totally an American candy.

Baking in Europe obviously is an art. But for an American trying to make an American recipe, it's not easy. First, I had to buy a mixer. Thirty-four Euros. Spatula. Pans. Parchment paper. And finding ingredients? Very difficult. There are about 60 different kinds of flour in the grocery stores here. You can't find "American" ingredients like chocolate chips, decent marshmallows (the no-name ones on the American aisle at the City Market are nasty), sweetened condensed milk, cocoa powder.

Then there are the measurements. I had to convert my American recipes to European measurements. For example, the package of butter I bought was 500 grams. I needed one cup of butter for my cookies. I calculated that one cup of butter would be a little less than 240 grams, then just cut the slab of butter a little less than half. See what I mean -- not exact. Had to do the same thing with the flour and the sugars. I was really worried the batter would be a disaster. By the way, after all this, I found some measuring cups at the Pic 'n Pay that list U.S. measurements as well as European. What a lifesaver!

As for chocolate chips, forget those. They don't exist here. I could either chop up a bar of chocolate -- not a bad idea, really -- or use a bag of crushed up chocolate that I found. I used that and M&Ms.

The oven is set to centigrade, which is not that difficult to convert. But our oven is really weird, with settings we still haven't figured out, even after six months here. I baked the cookies and kept an eye on them the entire time.

Fortunately, they turned out okay. Not perfect, but they were acceptable. Best of all, Tom said they disappeared minutes after he put them out.

But now, everyone at the office says this needs to be a regular thing -- so what am I going to bake next? Financiers? I actually have made those before with a pan I bought at the famous cookware store, E. Dehillerin, in Paris. But that pan is back in North Carolina. Besides, I need to make something else "American." My daughter suggested Lemon Bars, which only uses normal things like lemon, eggs, flour, and sugar.

Anyway, here's the recipe for the M&M cookies, if you would like to try them. But note the recipe lists U.S. measurements.

M&M/Chocolate Bit Cookies

1 cup butter, softened
1 cup white sugar
1 cup packed light brown sugar
2 eggs
2 tsp. vanilla extract

1 tsp. baking soda
1 tsp. hot water
3 cups baking flour
About a cup of chocolate chips, chopped up chocolate or chocolate bits
As many M&Ms as you want

Cream butter and sugars with electric mixer. Add eggs, one at a time, beating well after each. Add vanilla flavoring. Dissolve baking soda in hot water and add to mixture. Add flour, beating just until mixed (do not overmix). Stir in chocolate bits and M&Ms.

Put layer of parchment paper on baking sheet and drop large tablespoons of dough onto paper. Top with additional M&Ms. Bake at 350 for about 10 minutes, but watch carefully. Do not overbake. Cool on rack or plate. The number of cookies depends on what size you make them.