A friend and I want to make a train ride to Amsterdam in hopes of buying baking supplies. I can not find any type of flavorings like vanilla or brown sugar,things like that. I know there are alot of posts about where people go but we are going on a one day trip and I would love to know a place that will for sure and have baking supplies. Thanks for all the help!

Sonya

I'm not a highly knowledgeable chef or anything, so it could be that I just don't know the difference, but I don't see why you'd need to go to Amsterdam to get brown sugar. There's a bag of 'Donkere Basterd-suiker' in our closet that looks a hell of lot like brown sugar to me, and it just came from a normal Dutch supermarket... Probably either Albert Hein or Super DeBoer...

Well for starters I have yet to find that in mine..lol All Im saying is if Im going there I would lvoe to find a shop that carries all that stuff

Sonya

I found the brown sugar but would still love to know where the best store there would be to get other baking items.

What exactly are you looking for?

I just get all of my baking supplies from the supermarket. The vanilla comes in a little bottle and is clear (I suspect you could find real extract at a heath food store or possibly one of the little higher end cooking stores like Hoying). Same with brown sugar and flour. Chocolate chips are a little more tricky, but you can buy the big puur chocolate bars and chop them into pieces.

I bake a lot and haven't had any problem making my favorite recipes from back home...you can get baking soda at Etos or a pharmacy, it's called zouveringszout and it comes in a little box. sometimes Jumbo supermarket carries it in the foreign foods section.

Brown sugar is called bastardsuiker, you can get light and dark brown sugar, just look with the rest of the sugar at the supermarket.

Baking powder is called bakpoeder it comes in little envelope packages from Dr. Oetker.

Vanilla extract you can get that at any health food store or at the supermarket they have the Vanilla Aroma also from Dr. Oetker.

Chocolate chips - chocolate bar and a hammer.

It seems strange that you have to shop around so much for baking powder, baking soda, vanilla extract etc - things that I would normally expect literally every supermarket to stock! I have 2 big supermarkets near me (Dirk & Albert H) and the only things to be found in the baking isle are sugar and white flour! I haven't come across whole wheat flour or fast action yeast yet - anyone got any ideas?
Do Dutch people not bake much at home? I had the urge to make banana sour cream cake but am now going to have to mission around looking for baking powder!

I found great whole wheat flour at a couple of mills not too far from my home. One is in Meeuwen and one in Woudrichem. They have lots of great stuff for baking all kinds of goodies...and they have the yeast you are looking for.

They probably have that yeast in the Albert Hein store you shop at. It takes a while to find some things because of the way it is packaged here. I have found the women in the bakery department or the ones in the area where they are preparing and packaging all the tapas stuff to be very helpful in finding things I need.

Beyond that, where I live we have winkels called "toko's". These are supermarkets that specialize in items you need to cook Asian food. Also we have Turkish grocery stores which also stock some very cool things for cooking.

You end up learning how to use your data base of "how to cook" informational items. And, the longer you are here, the more you will find.

American Book Center used to stock some American goodies like Duncan Hines Brownies and Cake Mixes...but not online. You have to go to the actual store and see what they have.

Chocolate chips seem to be a seasonal item here...and I found that Puur chocolate bars don't work as well as good old chocolate chips. So...I have people send them to me from the USA.

Basically, unless you ring ahead and check, I very much doubt you'll find 'everything' you want. Luckily, you are in Europe and not the middle of Africa, so you will be able to get your hands on most of the items if not branded under the same names, or even known by the same names (which is what other people here are trying to help you with).

I've been to two 'British' expat shops in Amsterdam, but of course, it's only daytrip away to England when they need supplies - for this reason I don't think there is an exclusively American expat store, but I could be wrong? Links to these shops, although it's mainly English/Irish ingredients and brands:
Arkwrights
British Store
Thomas Green

The Kingsalmarkt Delicatessen is carries a lot of American items I think, but it's a short busride out of Amsterdam, in Amstelveen. website link - if you click on Producten in the left menu, it shows you some of it's Amerikaans/Engels range.


So will and some won't, just like every country: I don't bake. Baking is an interest or hobby (these days) and not one shared by everyone Most Dutch cooking is done on the hob, not in an oven - hence the lack of good roasting joints of beef

I've recently had the baking bug (must be winter) and get things like Baking Soda, Bisquick and Nestle chocolate chips at Kingsalmarkt, which also has other supplies (Splenda baking sugar & Brown Sugar Splenda is handy for less-sugary cookies)....I also get corn masa there so I can make fresh corn tortillas - and pie crusts/mixes/etc.

Vanille aroma/Basterd zuiker (brown sugar) is readily available at Albert Heijn.

If you can get a Makro membership, they have lots of supplies there too.

Good cooking supplies (pans/presses/etc) are available at=
http://www.duikelman.nl/

You can also get more diverse baking ingredients online at one of the many British/American expat online shops.

I am going to pick up some US measurement spoons and cups next week in the States as most recipes we use are from the US and it gets a bit difficult to convert everything ;-)

Cooking supplies (good quality pots & pans) cost a small fortune here.

My two indispensable cast iron skillets and one grill pan (Lodge) I imported in my suitcase. That goes for my knives as well (Cutco).

Also good is the supermarket at Schiphol.

I do read a lot about the chocolat chips that you're missing here in Holland.
Do you mean the little "curly" cookies with chocolat around it?

No, there little eurocent sized "drops" of chocolate that you mix with cookie dough to make chocolate chip cookies. They come in a bag. Kind of like mini Hersheys Kisses, if you've heard of those.

OK thanks I understand what you want, I will have a look for it when I go shopping, so I can tell you here

they have chocolate chips at the albert heijn in amstelveen binnenhof. i haven't tried them, so i'm not sure if they ar the same, but they look like the ones from home (ie not flat)

I love love love Duikelmans. I wondered, however, if there wasn't some sort of Restaurant Supply store in Amsterdam or Belgium or Germany. You know, where you can get professional grade things to bake and cook. I know the kitchens are small in the city and most people utilize all of the pre chopped veg and such and that bread meal bullshit is pretty common - but I love to cook and cook with a million pans and such. It would be nice to know where to go when I get a windfall to buy a new pan or tart tin or what have you that would be more reasonable.

Suggestions?

There's a couple of kitchen stores in Haarlem and I'm sure I've seen one near Albert Cuyp Markt. But I don't think there's like a "superstore" or whatever.

I don't usually rely on the pre-chopped stuff and have been able to recreate most recipes in my puny kitchen...my only real problem is with meat cuts, especially beef and lamb.

I don't bake though (much faster to glue the lard to my ass rather than wait for the entire digestive process to run its course ) so I can't really comment on that.

Sooooo glad to know this...Thank YOU!! I just went back to the States a few weeks ago, and brought some baking soda and baking powder back with me. I was a bit nervous that they were going to think I was a drug smuggler. But...Yipee! Both made it back successfully! I'm glad to know where I can find them in the future!

Meesh, if you have a toko nearby, baking soda is a LOT less expensive than buying it from the Etos or a pharmacy.

Thanks, mub!!

Vomar ( http://www.vomar.nl ) has a lot of items that are considered "american" you can get duncan hines cakes mix & frosting. Also "american" mac & cheese.

As for cooking implements...I have found cupcake pans and such at Xenos. But you could also try Ikea. They have a lot of everything there.