American Chocolate Chip Cookie Recipe with German Measurements

Ingredients

• 270 g flour
• 1 tsp baking soda
• 1 tsp salt
• 227 g butter (softened)
• 150g white sugar
• 165g brown sugar
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 2 large eggs
• 340 g choc chips

How to do the cookie making

If you’re German, I’ll add some note below (and probably later just write a whole extra page about) what you need to know about baking soda, brown sugar, and vanilla extract. Or if you’re another foreigner like me, you might be happy for some tips on these elusive ingredients and where to find them in good ole Deutschland. But first the recipe how-to part:

Step one to choco chip cookie baking: turn dat oven on

Preheat oven to 190 °C

Step two for chocolate chip cookies: segregation

The dry ingredients/wet ingredients part – aka flour, baking soda, and salt get their own cozy bowl, and butter, sugar, brown sugar, and vanilla get a separate bowl.

Step 3 – mix it all up – yummy yum chocolate chip cookie dough

You gotta cream the sugar into the butter good. Then you beat the eggs into the wet mixture one at a time. When all the wet stuff’s good and mixed, add the dry mixture and beat in a bit at a time.

Step 2-3 alternate for my mom’s chocolate chip cookies

If you’re like my mom and don’t want to have to clean two bowls then like, it also more or less works to just dump all the dry ingredients on top of the wet ingredients. I don’t personally recommend it cuz your eight year old might bite into a big ole chunk of baking soda and that’s no fun. But if you’re careful it’s technically possible

Step four – where your cookie dough becomes chocolate chip cookie dough

So you got yourself a workable dough – congrats! Now it’s time to add the chocolate chips. And nuts I guess if you’re into that sorta thing

Step five: dough goes in, cookies come out

Plop your dough on the pan. I like to use parchment paper for easier cleanup (aka just backpapier here in Germany), but you do you. Greasing pans is also an option.

Anyways leave some room in between otherwise you get megacookie. Then pan in preheated oven, and timing depends on preference. I think the chocolate chip bag always said 9-11 minutes, I tend to take mine out at like 7-8 minutes tho cuz I like mine nice and soft and gooey.

Step the epilogue: cooling your choco chip cookies

You gotta leave the cookies alone for a sec (I know it’s hard and you want that good good gooey chocolate chip cookie now but trust me). If you try and snitch too soon you just smoosh it all, so wait 2 minutes, and then ideally you put them on a wire rack and let them cool there a bit longer. But like, I’m not your dad, if you wanna eat em while the chocolate’s still liquid then go for it. Just try to avoid the molten chocolate stage.

American chocolate chip cookies in Germany – getting your hands on the ingredients

So if you’re like the me of 2019, there are three things on this list that are bumming you out right now: brown sugar, baking soda, and vanilla extract. The good news is, there are easy solutions to two of the three. (And I’ve got two options for the third as well).

Of course if you’re German, it’s almost more important that you read this part. Because there definitely is some confusion about what these ingredients really mean in an American recipe context.

Brown Sugar – the backbone of American Cookies

I was literally crushed when I put brown sugar on the shopping list in 2019 and my partner came home with turbinado sugar. Not that I dislike turbinado/raw sugar, but it just behaves very differently in baking.

Brauner Zucker ≠ Brown sugar

The direct translation will lead you astray. But luckily DM is here to save the day. What you’re actually looking for is called “Vollrohr Zucker” here. I have found it at Asian supermarkets and at the drugstore DM.

Your other option is to make your own brown sugar by mixing white sugar and molasses. The one drawback is that actual real molasses is harder to find than brown sugar. You can substitute Goldensaft, which is the closest German equivalent. Just be careful because it’s sweeter. It does add a sort of carmelly taste to your cookies though which can be nice if you’re into that sorta thing.

Baking Soda so your cookies know how to rise

At first I thought Backpulver (baking powder but actually not it’s a whole other story) was all they had here (and it’s in those lil satchels too which still annoys me but anyways). But nah man, baking soda is also here. It’s just called Natron. And Aldi never has it. I’ve gotten it at Kaufland, but it’s never where I expect it to be. And it comes in satchels too which is wild.

Or you can just go to an Asian grocery store. Every time I go down to Düsseldorf to pick up the next prescription for my meds, I drop into the big one on the way back to the train station for some ramen and another box of good ole Arm&Hammer. (The Asian grocery store is also where I get my meager supply of Mexican food ingredients).

Vanilla extract – no chocolate chip cookie is complete without it

Yeah so I got bad news for ya here. And maybe I’m wrong, and if so I’ll come back and fix this. But there is no vanilla extract to be had for love nor money in Germany. It’s almost as bad as the saltines situation.

My partner assures me that there is vanilla extract, but so far all I’ve found is like… a thick vanilla syrup?

So you gotta make your own if you want the real deal. Because sorry, the syrup does not have enough flavor compared to the sugar content to be worth its salt.

Luckily vanilla beans are super easy to find here. Aldi has them constantly. So you just need some high quality vodka – at least 40%, some of those Aldi vanilla beans, and at least 3 months.

So yeah you gotta plan ahead. But at least making your own vanilla extract is relatively easy. Just slice up a bean and soak it in some alcohol and wait.

Or you can just get your sister to smuggle you some winco vanilla extract when she visits. Works like a charm.