To wrap up my first round of courses, I wanted to present my teacher and classmates with a gift. While talking with one of my friends, Jun, during a class break, the topic of American pies came up, and I realized she had never had one. Granted, she is from Japan, but that's beside the point. I spent the next few minutes explaining pies, my favorite kinds and one of my American classmates jumped in too, talking about how great pies were. Jun was very excited to try one, but I doubted we could get anything "authentic" here in Germany. When we got back to class, I asked our teacher, Quentin, if he had ever had an American pie. To my surprise, he hadn't either. I knew we had a class party coming up, and my plan started forming. I was going to make two pies, pumpkin and pecan, for two reasons. 1. to indoctrinate non-Americans into loving American desserts, and 2. to give us homesick Americans a taste of Fall! My first challenge was the German grocery store, which was not well equipped for baking, much less American baking. I had a list of things that would be easy to find in the US, but I was sure a few things would be hard to find here. I knew that pie tins, and corn syrup were going to be scant. If most Germans I talked to hadn't tried a pie, much less baked one, it was unlikely the pan I needed would be readily available in Marburg. Corn syrup is a uniquely American substance that was invented specifically because of the government subsidy on corn. I already had a recipe on hand ready with a maple syrup substitution if I couldn't find any. When I asked the store clerk at Tegut, she actually asked me what it was. What I wasn't expecting was being unable to find plain vanilla extract and a can of pumpkin puree. I made do and ended up making both pies from scratch. Thanks to a gifted pumpkin, and a borrowed immersion blender from my teacher. It ended up taking me about 5 hours per pie, and I had many curious onlookers (my building has a shared kitchen) who had many questions about the process. There were no huge roadblocks, but it was new to me that all my ingredients were marked in metric measurements. Here, to measure out butter they'd use a scale. I'm used to American (east coast) butter that comes in pre-marked sticks. Since I didn't have a scale, I eyeballed the butter, and it still ended up ok! The pies were a big hit at the party! Those who had never tried pie were delighted, and had a few slices! Those that already like pie said that I did a good job, and enjoyed themselves also. My teacher even asked for the recipes I used, so that he and his friend can recreate them! Overall, a huge success. I loved sharing my food, and one of my favorite hobbies is baking treats for others!
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About LaurenHi! I'm a senior at SU and I'm studying abroad in Marburg, Germany during the fall 2022 semester. I'm an art history major, a museum studies minor and I'm super excited to share my experiences on my blog! Please follow along to learn all about this incredible experience! Archives
October 2022
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