Making Cookies.

The other day (Monday to be exact) I decided I was going to make cookies. I am an American girl and I love me a good cookie. My host mom is not much of a cook so I knew I was obligated to go out and buy supplies, but before I left I double checked the kitchen to see what other things I might be in need of. 

EVERYTHING was the answer. I needed to buy everything. My host mom does not own the basic items I consider necessary for living, such as, oh I don't know, a BOWL. She honestly did not have a mixing bowl before I so generously bought one for our survival. She also did not own a wooden spoon, a spatula, a cookie sheet, a measuring cup of any sort. It's like living with a bunch of bachelors, only there's less frozen burritos (because we're in France). 

So I got myself a hefty shopping bag and proceeded to the largest grocery store in town. Flour and sugar were relatively easy to find, sold in 1 kg bags, which is, like, enough to feed my family breakfast. Brown sugar did not exist. At least I couldn't find it hiding between the midget-sized bags of flour and sugar. I did fine cane sugar, which looks brown. And even though I knew cane sugar is not brown sugar, I was desperate, so my cookies had brown-colored, large-grained sugar plus the normal kind. 

I got distracted from the baking supplies and wandered to the kitchen supplies and I was shocked at their selection of bowls. This Casino is like the French equivalent of a super Wal-Mart and they offered 3 different kind of bowls: Small, small metal, not-as-small. I then went to the tupperware section and bought a bigger, plastic one. Then wooden spoon, then back to the tupperware to get containers for flour and sugar. 

Measuring cups are a different story. I have heard it said before that the French don't really measure their ingredients, and for several reasons I believed this to be true. And now I know it to be true. I found 3 different styles of measuring cups, all for liquid, 1 small glass in grams, one large glass in grams, one large plastic in not grams. C'est tout. No cups, just cup. And measuring spoons, non-existent. 

Back in the baking supplies aisle, I consternated greatly to understand if the packet I was holding was baking soda, baking powder, or something else entirely. After returning home I discovered that it was baking powder. It's sold in little individual packets, rather like instant-yeast packets. I bought two different kinds, thinking one was baking soda, but no, they're both the same. And sold in packets of 11 grams. 

Chocolate chips, there were three bags in total and the cost per bag averaged about $5. And the bags were tiny, like half a 12 oz bag (which some people say is 6 oz). So my cookies did not have chocolate chips. Butter was easy, it was somewhere between the yogurt and the cheese (which take up a surprising amount of space here). 

After all the difficulty I have concluded that most French people do not bake. Really there's no need to with so many pastry stores around, and all of them doing their job so well. Therefore the average house does not bake. They need a lot of sugar cubes for their tea and coffee, but no marshmallows, no raisins, no cocoa powder, so baking soda. 

Then after the tortuous trip the the giant Casino I went home and had to transcribe the measurements to weight measurements without a scale. Then adjust for no baking soda and brown sugar. They did have oats, which, apparently is a rarity here. My teacher was surprised that I was able to get oats. And I just wanted to shout at her, "But where's the cocoa powder??!!" 

Sometimes this is a strange place in a way that does not please me. My cookies were actually quite yummy. Everybody took seconds. Cookies are rare is. Some patisseries sell them, but usually only 1 flavor (chocolate chip) and they're very standard. My teacher said she had never had a homemade cookie, or knew someone to make cookies. I guess the French croissant fills many holes.