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Shaving the Yak*

As I mentioned in an earlier post, I am planning to make chocolate chip cookies for Christmas here in Paris. Very American, chocolatey, how can I go wrong? "And," I think, "I have always made everything from scratch, so I will have no problems getting my ingredients." I even think I have put in some safeguards and bought some items in NYC, just to be sure. Baking soda? Check. Baking powder? check. The oven is celsius, but armed with a browser and Google, I'm good to go, right?Here are the ingredients: flour (all purpose), baking soda, salt, unsalted butter, granulated sugar, brown sugar, corn syrup, egg yolk milk vanilla extract, chocolate chips.

My first inkling that things may not be as easy was the chocolate chips. I was planning on buying them, but Helmut told me the chips can easily be found in Paris ("of course they are.") and he was right. BUT... they are tiny. If I used these, they would melt, and would turn the cookie into a chocolate cookie. Not exactly what I was going for. Even this I discounted, because I can always buy a large bar of chocolate and cut it up. So, good to go.

BUT. Do you know that brown sugar does not exist in Paris? Oh, sure, you can probably buy it in an "American" store, but, really, do I want to do that? Well, maybe. They do have a brown sugar, but it is the granulated, slightly-off-white stuff sometimes referred to as "raw." Does not have that slightly moist texture. I am running from one store to the next looking for it. Now, in Paris, there are really only about four different food stores: the Monoprix, the FranPrix, Dia and Lidl. The last two are a very small percentage (and the Lidl is a German store, so...). But just like the US, each one starts to look like the other in its merchandise. So, no brown sugar. Hmmm.

BUT, do you know you can use molasses and white sugar to make brown sugar? Yep, just a tablespoon of molasses in a cup of sugar. Stir it around with a fork and voila! Brown sugar. Helmut assures me I can get molasses (mélasse) here. At the grocery store. So, I begin again. I now go to the same stores, looking this time for mélasse. Nope, nope and nope. Hmmm. 

Now this has become my quest. I find a "specialty" store (on Google Maps, my friend and guide here in Paris) and head there, stopping in at every Monoprix and FranPrix along the way. After a 30 minute walk I arrive. It is a baking specialty store (which is good), but it seems to specialise in cake pans and muffin papers. Ugh. Wrong type of specialty. So, I go to the counter and say in French, "I think I may be in the wrong store, but perhaps you can help me. Do you have mélasse or know where I can find it here in Paris?" The woman there answers me in English (with an American accent), yes, she knows about molasses. It is sold here in natural food stores, but also there is an American/English specialty food store around the corner, Epicerie Anglaise. They will probably have it.

And in fact, they do. It was kind of fun to be greeted by familiar food stuffs: molasses, Kyro syrup, Bosco. So I quickly buy my molasses. Ritorna Vincitor! Sort of. Remember that my objective is to make cookies. So, back home, make the brown sugar, and ready to rock. Again.

At least I think.

Post mortem: This is concluded in the post Cookies... the final act

*For those who don't know, "Shaving the Yak" refers to the endless chain of tasks you have to do to get an original task done. For instance, you want to walk the dog, but he smells too bad, so you decide to wash him, but you don't have any shampoo so you go out to buy the shampoo but find out you need gas but you don't have your credit card so you go to the bank to get cash with your debit card, but the card says you have to see a teller because there is possible fraud and you have to fill out some forms and they will send you a new card....

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