Baking in translation

Adjusting to a new kitchen, new tools and a new oven is always a challenge when settling into a new home. Add in the difficulties of a new language and new ingredients in a different country and things get even more complicated! The various measuring systems also throw in another dimension of complexity…

Fahrenheit or Celsius? Or whatever ‘gas mark‘ means? Metric or imperial? Grams or cups or ounces? Is a kitchen scale required? Or a set of measuring cups?

A few years ago my sister-in-law knocked me for a loop with the revelation that there are American and metric cups (a US cup is 240ml and a UK/Australian cup is 250ml) and now I take an extra moment to determine the nationality of a recipe author before blindly following their proportions.

While I grew up using volume measurements (cups and tablespoons) for dry ingredients, the system of weighing ingredients (using grams and a digital kitchen scale) now seems much simpler. I love the ease of plopping a bowl on the scale and zero-ing out the scale with every new ingredient I add. Although teaspoons and pinches still rule for smaller increments – measuring out a gram and a half just seems impossible!

Conversions between grams and ounces and cups (I use UK cups, being a Danish-based Canadian the commonwealth still holds sway) are inexact at best (these Cooking Equivalent Measurements can help), so I like it when recipe authors indicate what consistency or texture the dough or batter should have before baking. That way I know if I should adjust with a bit more flour or an extra shot of liquid.

Sometimes translating between languages for ingredients is a bit of work, too. Rest assured that caster sugar is the same as white, granulated sugar regardless of whether it’s spelled (or is that spelt?) with an ‘e’ or an ‘o’ (caster or castor) and most oatmeal (large-flake, rolled, Irish, Scottish or instant) will work in the majority of baked goods.

Here’s a super-simple recipe for several dozen delicious cookies using multiple systems of measurements. The batter is very sticky before it chills in the fridge, so don’t worry if it seems like the proportion of liquid to dry ingredients isn’t quite right. The melted butter (or margarine if you want to make the recipe dairy-free) cools quickly in the fridge and yields a much firmer dough.

Happy baking – and translating!

Cinnamon almond oat cookies

Ingredients

• 85g (3oz or a heaped 1/2 cup) almonds
• 100g (3 1/2oz or just under 1/2 pound) unsalted butter or margarine
• 100ml (3 1/2oz or just shy of 1/2 cup) maple syrup
• 140g (4 1/2oz or 1 cup + 1 tbsp) all purpose flour (regular white flour)
• 1/4 tsp (1/25oz or 1.5g) baking soda (also known as bicarbonate of soda or sodium bicarb)
• 110g (4oz or 1/2 cup) white sugar (also known caster/castor sugar or berry sugar)
• 1 1/2 tsp (1/2oz or 6g) ground cinnamon
• 1/4 tsp (1/25oz or 1 1/2g) fine sea salt
• 140g (5oz or 1 1/2 cups) rolled oats (the kind you’d make porridge with – not oat flour)
• 1 egg
• A small spoonful of cinnamon & a large spoonful sugar for rolling, if desired

Method

• Toast the almonds in a pan over medium-low heat; when they are fragrant, but before they brown (about 8 minutes), remove from the heat and cool slightly before chopping
• Preheat your oven to 180°C/350°F, using the convection setting if your oven has it, and line a couple of baking sheets with parchment paper
• Place the butter and maple syrup in saucepan over medium heat until the butter has melted; stir together and set the mixture aside to cool slightly
• In a mixing bowl, stir together the dry ingredients: flour, baking soda, sugar, cinnamon, salt and oats
• Crack the egg into a small bowl and whisk with a fork; add a tablespoon of the butter/syrup mixture to the egg while stirring
  • This raises the temperature of the egg and ensures that it won’t turn into scrambled eggs when mixed with the warm butter and syrup – also known as tempering
• Mix the tempered egg into saucepan with the remaining butter and maple syrup, stirring continuously until well-combined
• Pour egg/butter/syrup mixture into the bowl with the dry ingredients and gently combine
• Stir in the chopped almonds until evenly distributed; the dough will be soft and sticky
• Refrigerate the cookie dough for about 10 minutes to allow the mixture to firm up and become easier to handle
• Roll teaspoons of the batter into balls (they should be about the size of unshelled walnuts) and roll in the cinnamon sugar mixture if you want
  • I like the extra cinnamon sugar, but the cookies are good without the extra step (and additional dirty dish!) of rolling them in addition spice and sweetness
• Place the balls on baking sheets at least 2cm (1 inch) apart and gently flatten with a spoon or your finger
• Bake in the preheated oven for about 12 minutes (15 minutes if not using a convection setting) until the cookies spread out and the edges are firm
• After the cookies come out of the oven, allow them to cool on the baking sheet for a couple minutes before transferring to a wire rack to cool
• Makes about three dozen, two-bite-size cookies