Baking in Australia

It's only day three for us in Melbourne, but I've been itching to bake something to satisfy my sweet tooth. Of course, there are a few barriers to my normal baking routine. First, I don't have my usual supply of flour, sugar, vanilla, butter, etc. Second, while the place we're staying has a full community kitchen with lots of utensils, I don't have my beloved Kitchen Aid mixer (Brandon jokes it would be the first thing I'd rescue in a fire). Third, Australia uses the metric system and Celsius. But, I decided I was up for the challenge and forged ahead. 

I walked the block to the grocery store (once again, so awesome how close it is!), and found the baking aisle. Flour and cocoa powder were straight forward, but there were at least a dozen sugar options to choose from. The baking soda and baking powder were on a shelf with other powders I had never used, like citric acid. Chocolate chips were called chocolate buttons (so cute!). The butter was in grams, not sticks. Buying these items took me at least four times longer than in the US, but I thoroughly enjoyed examining the options. 

Australian baking products. Notice the "chocolate buttons" and grams listed on top of the butter. 

Armed with supplies I took over the kitchen and started to work my way thru the recipe. I preheated the oven to 160 ish degrees Celcius (325 degrees Fahrenheit). I specifically chose my triple chocolate espresso cookie recipe, because you melt the butter. Melted butter is easier to mix by hand, since I didn't have access to my mixer. *Tear*. As aforementioned the butter was in grams, but thanks to Google I determined that 1/2 stick  of butter is 56.7 grams. I used the 50 gram hatch marks on the butter to guesstimate the amount. The rest of the recipe was easy as all the measuring spoons and cups in the kitchen had metric and english measurements. Yay! 

Well stocked kitchen sans Kitchen Aid mixer

What was the cost? Well, it would have been cheaper to just satisfy my sweet tooth with ice cream for $4 AUD ($2.81 USD), but then I wouldn't have had the satisfaction of baking in Australia. Plus, I have enough ingredients left over to make these cookies a couple more times. The total was $19.62 AUD ($13.78 USD), not including eggs, which we had already bought, and salt and espresso powder that our host had. 

Baking ingredient receipt

How did the cookie turn out? Perfect. Just like at home. Test subject Brandon agrees. 

Triple chocolate espresso cookies. Yum!