Brauner Zucker

In Germany as in most other parts Europe, American-style brown sugar (moist, tasty and of course brown) is unavailable or at least perceived as unavailable at the average German grocery store. Of course, you can always substitute it for white sugar with molasses (1 cup white sugar to 2 tablespoons molasses). While it is more or less a usable equivalent, there are some limitations. One such example is that it is easy to put slightly too much molasses giving the baked good a strong molasses taste.

For those of us Americans who are addicted to American-style baking, this presents a challenge. However, while browsing the local supermarket, my fiancé and I discovered "Brauner Zucker" that had the potential to be similar, if not equivalent to American brown sugar. For starters, it was not raw sugar which is the typical German brown sugar. The outside of the package had a photo of muffins and brownies. The sugar felt moist. Could this be it?

A few days later, I opened up the brown sugar to make my all-time favorite cookie recipe (see below). I was only slightly disappointed. While very close to brown sugar, the consistency is just a little too dry and the grains of sugar too large. However, I still decided to use this brown sugar in the recipe along with 1 teaspoon of molasses to make up for the lack of moisture. The results were fabulous.

If you want to try it for yourself, here is the recipe along with some useful German vocabulary:

Oatmeal Walnut Chocolate Chunk Cookies
1/2 C whole wheat flour (Weizen-Vollkorn-Mehl)
3/4 tsp cinnamon
1/4 tsp nutmeg
1/2 tsp baking soda, American
1/2 tsp salt
2 C rolled oats (Haferflocken)
3/4 C chopped walnuts
1/2 C butter, softened
1/2 C brauner zucker
1 tsp molasses
1/4 C granulated sugar
1 egg
3 T water
2 tsp vanilla
1 bar bittersweet chocolate (60-70% cocoa), chopped (Zartbitter)

1. Preheat oven to 175 C.
2. Grease baking sheet or cover with backpapier.
3. In a small bowl, combine dry ingredients (flour, cinnamon, nutmeg, baking soda, salt, oats and walnuts).
4. In a large bowl, cream butter. Add sugar and beat. Then, beat in egg, water, and vanilla.
5. Stir dry ingredients into wet ones.
6. Add chocolate chunks.
7. Bake 12 to 15 minutes or until the cookies are brown on the bottom. Do not let cookies brown on top. When chocolate is melted, they should be close.
8. Cool and eat.