A few weeks ago, we came across a hand-me-down counter top oven on www.unclutterer.com and decided to test it. Not a toaster oven. Not a microwave oven. An oven oven. The kind that can, like, bake stuff and roast stuff and grill stuff. But I knew I was better off grilling in one of those wood pellet smoker grills, for ovens aren’t usually specialized for that. For those of you in fully developed, non-Asian countries, you may not realize the significance of this fact. I haven’t had a usable oven since I left home back in 1994 (and then left again in 1997, in 2002, etc). Big burner+oven built-in thingies are not standard kitchen appliances in most of the world.
In Turkey, in my first flat in Kayseri in 2002, I shared a tiny toaster oven with my flat mate Elsa. We made toast. In my second year there, my next flatmate used it to melt the cheese on her crackers. We may have reheated a crappy frozen pizza once or twice.
My otantik Anadolu mutfağı. Note large bag of tea.
When I moved to Istanbul in 2004, I was ovenless for most of my first year until I accidentally invested in what I thought was a full-on counter-top oven but which turned out to be a handy storage unit for extra plates and cutlery. It held heat like an open window in winter. I kept it for the next four years though, carting it from flat to flat to flat to flat (yes,Virginia, I did move every single freaking year— I’m restless, ok?) I roasted a few rounds of root vegetables in it (took hours) and near the end I attempted a few skewers of relatively successful tandoori chicken (the yogurt tenderized it enough to endure the looooooooong cooking time required). I left it behind when I left Turkey, along with 85% of my other worldly possessions.
My last Turkish kitchen. You can almost see the oven in front of me. Yes, I had no counter.
When I first moved to Shanghai and lived over in deepest, darkest Pudong, my flat had a 2-burner stove fit for woks and, well, that’s about it. Doug’s flat in Puxi came with a device I initially mistook for an oven of some sort but it turned out to be a dish sanitizer (don’t ask), and a small microwave oven that we used for heating up milk for cappuccinos (the espresso for which was very carefully made on a massively expansive burner built for a huge wok, using a carefully bent bit of wire to keep it from plunging into the flame).
Over the past two and a half years, over the space of three different flats, we have invested in a proper rice cooker, an awesome clay crock pot, a well-seasoned enormous wok, and now, thanks to one of Doug’s colleagues who is being blessed with a BRAND NEW OVEN from her landlord, a hand-me-down counter-top oven that is most definitely not a toaster oven nor a storage unit for extra plates.
In the past week or so, I have roasted a whole pumpkin, a ton of garlic (both of which were mashed down into a lovely soup), and baked two rounds of scones a.k.a buttermilk biscuits a.k.a remarkably good improvised lumps of quickbread using available ingredients (yogurt! olive oil!).
Things I don’t have: baking sheets, affordable butter, cocoa powder or baking chocolate, mixing bowls, sieve for sifting, measuring cups (though I do have a rice scoop that claims to be one cup), a wooden spoon, granulated white sugar, spices.
Assemble possible ingredients. Note that inventory incomplete for 98% of recipes found in hand-penned cookbook.
One must make do, however. Especially when one is tasked with producing an appropriate Yay For Deciding To Stay in China gift for Unbrave Girl who made the brave decision to stay another term, against her better judgment. I knew I had to make cookies.
So I started googling cookie recipes to find something I could feasibly make with what I had scrounged up from the overpriced expat grocery store. I had flour (Chinese, but organic in theory), rare baking soda and baking powder, coarse dark brown sugar, a rare chunk of overpriced butter still rationed from our white-sauce-making binge last month, part of a jar of rare and overpriced Adams crunchy natural peanut butter, eggs, an inch of olive oil.
So I decided to go with this one, from Smitten Kitchen. The notes in [brackets] are mine.
[bwwpp_book sku=’97803075956520000000′]
Peanut Butter Cookies
Adapted from the Magnolia Bakery CookbookThe brilliance of these cookies is that they have include two different formats for peanuts–three if you use chunky peanut butter. They’re crisp on the outside, and almost cakey on the inside. Bake a batch and then hide the results in the furthest and most forgettable reaches of your kitchen. You’ll thank me later.
1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
3/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup unsalted butter, softened [had to mortgage the oven for this– imported Kerrygold all the way!]
1 cup peanut butter at room temperature (smooth is what we used, but I am pretty sure they use chunky at the bakery) [finished off the jar, which can hopefully be replaced for under 75rmb…]
3/4 cup sugar
1/2 cup firmly packed light brown sugar [all brown, all coarse, rather clumpy from humidity- could be interesting]
1 large egg, at room temperature
1 tablespoon milk
1 teaspoon vanilla extract [nope but have some dried beans from Bali, unsoaked in booze]
1/2 cup peanut butter chips [nada]
1/2 cup chocolate chips [should I cut up a chocolate bar?]For sprinkling: 1 tablespoon sugar, regular or superfine
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. In a large bowl, combine the flour, the baking soda, the baking powder, and the salt. Set aside.
In a large bowl, beat the butter and the peanut butter together until fluffy. Add the sugars and beat until smooth. Add the egg and mix well. Add the milk and the vanilla extract. Add the flour mixture and beat thoroughly. Stir in the peanut butter and chocolate chips. Place sprinkling sugar — the remaining tablespoon — on a plate. Drop by rounded teaspoonfuls into the sugar, then onto ungreased cookie sheets [no cookie sheets, used notepaper soaked in olive oil, placed over drip tray], leaving several inches between for expansion. Using a fork, lightly indent with a criss-cross pattern (I used the back of a small offset spatula to keep it smooth on top), but do not overly flatten cookies. Bake for 10 to 12 minutes. Do not overbake. Cookies may appear to be underdone, but they are not.
Cool the cookies on the sheets for 1 minute, then remove to a rack to cool completely.
This is how it worked out…
First pre-heat oven. Don’t forget to remove EVERYTHING from anywhere near oven. It gets hot.
Carefully oil single-spaced A4 notepaper and lay on a well-scoured drip tray.
Blend dry ingredients in a clean saucepan with a rice cooker spatula. The ingredients are kept dry to preserve them. Dehydrating food has been a prevalent process thorught the world. It is not an uncommon sight to see dehydrated bananas and fruits in the market.
Spend twenty minutes attempting to cream butter, sugar and peanut butter. Rest hand at intervals. Beat til as fluffy as possible.
Creaming accomplished! Fingers in pain. Fork bent.
Attempt to fold in dry ingredients without spraining hand or breaking fork.
Time to bake the cookies! With fresh fork marks!
Google Fahrenheit-Celsius conversion. Note that 180C is somehow hotter than 350F for next time.
Cookies accomplished!
24 Responses
Nice work! Cooking in China can be super challenging. Well done!
Thanks! My next quest is to make cheese– wish me luck!
Yay! Nice work!
Megan recently posted..WTF! What THE Friday Part…um…someday I’ll look up the number
I’m thinking of starting a series of improbable recipes for a Chinese kitchen…
Oh wow. Can I come to stay, please? I LOVE peanut butter cookies!
I thought I had it hard with my eccentric gas oven which (a) has no temperature markings and (b) even if it did they change all the time so would be completely useless, but you’ve just added a whole new dimension to tricksy kitchens. Cooking without frontiers!
Katja recently posted..Perfect weekend recipe
Of course! I could use an excuse to make more cookies…
In Istanbul I also lived for one year in a flat that came with a small, ancient gas cooker (oven and burners) but only the burners worked for the first 8 months or so– something was wrong with the oven. When the landlord fixed it just before I moved out, I realized it was barely usable anyway because all the markings on all the dials had been rubbed off. No idea what anything meant. Always a challenge!
Baking in China (and other improvisational activities) « A Totally Impractical Guide to Living in Shanghai…
After nearly a decade of expat life without an oven, I finally get a hand-me-down one in Shanghai. However, baking in Asia is never as straight forward as you might think. Sometimes you just need to improvise with what you’ve got….
First of all I’ve gotta say kudos for lasting so long without an oven! I only lasted 10 months (but dammit I needed to roast a duck for Christmas) before biting the bullet and buying a rather large counter top oven and it has had quite the work out, I use it all the time. In fact I think because It’s such a luxury to even have an oven in China it motivated me to bake more, at least one cake or batch of cookies a week. You’re cookies look delicious I’m so gonna try that recipe next week! 😀
One thing I really hate about the Chinese not really baking is the fact that it makes buying anything ridiculously expensive! I nearly drained my bank account just buying the ingredients for chocolate pudding! But finally I’ve found where to buy bakeware, there’s this cute little shop called YiPin Kitchen Store it has all the baking utensils you could dream off! 570 Yongjia Lu
I’d had such bad luck with counter top ovens in the past that I didn’t bother this time. This one was by pure chance and it actually sat unused for a week or two because I doubted its magical abilities…
Agreed about the cost of baking supplies. Will check out the place on Yongjia– we actually live on Yongjia so it can’t be too far. Where is it near? Is 570 near the police station heading toward Hengshan?
I’m really impressed that you can bake anything at all after so many years without an oven.
Heather recently posted..A Day in the Life of a Quirky Melville Tourist
Muscle memory! Like riding a bicycle…
Wow, I had no idea those cookies took so much work. I really should have eaten them slower to savor them rather than just shovel them in my mouth while on the train. 🙂
It’s okay to eat them quickly- fast eating means a faster metabolism so you’ll soon resemble a super model if you keep up this pace! No need for running now! Really- would I lie to you?
Congrats! Both on the oven and for figuring out how to make the cookies work! Can completely relate – I’ve been in China for less than 3 months and haven’t been brave enough to cook yet but I make jewelry and piecing together the materials and supplies has been interesting to say the least. I have really confused some poor people in China! Good luck with the oven!
I’m coming over to your place to borrow that oven next time I bake – maybe, between us, we could churn out enough to support both of us – you have a working oven, and thanks to International Express Couriers, I now have my long-lost KitchenAid stand mixer. Weighs a ton though….perhaps I could build a trailer for my bicycle and wheel it over on that!
Fiona at Life on Nanchang Lu recently posted..Seven Perverse Pleasures I Get Out of Living in China
Oh, my, yes…the Kitchen Aid! Maybe now I won’t develop arthritis in my fingers from all that mixing with a fork! The other alternative would be to mix it at your place then quickly courier it in your bicycle basket to my oven…
Here in Wen Jiang I have only the two burner gas top. It will be a while before we can afford even a toaster oven. We are planning to try to make homemade flour tortillas or some kind of flat bread that we can cook on a frying pan. I also want to try top of stove haystack cookies with oatmeal and peanut butter.
Did you ever see my other blog, the food one– http://www.wokwithmebaby.com/? I have a really reliable wok tortilla based on Xinjiang noodle dough (seriously!) that you might like. I’ve made Turkish flatbreads and Indian ones too (including stuffed ones). Also, at one point I made rice cooker cake. Lots of stuff in my slow cooker (forget the name in chinese but it has a red clay insert, they translate it as ‘electric casserole). Would love to try wok cookies. Have you a recipe?
LOVE your website, MaryAnne. I have not been able to eat much lately thanks to a BAD KFC experience. Almost ready to throw in the towel until I tried your site which might just save me.
Have you book marked Wok With Me Baby too? No need to starve, you know! PS KFC = sad, old oil. Yuck.
Absolutely bookmarked it!!! Thank you.
Hi MaryAnne, I stumble upon your website while googling (or rather baidu-ing) on ovens to buy in China. My husband and i just moved from the states, and our apartment doesn’t come with a built-in oven. I am really skeptical about the counter top ovens here, but your cookies look great – i was wondering if you can share the brand/model/size of the oven that you used to bake? Thanks a lot!!
Hi! I’m not sure the brand name of my oven as it’s in Chinese characters that I haven’t deciphered yet. I do have a better picture of it on my cooking blog though, if that helps: http://www.wokwithmebaby.com/2011/09/17/all-my-cooking-stuff-what-i-have-in-my-chinese-kitchen/
I recommend getting one that actually has a temperature control thing that lets you set it more precisely than just lo-med-hi (like toaster ovens do). Mine goes up to 225C, I think, and gives you the option of top, bottom or top and bottom heat. Basically, it’s as good as an oven but much smaller, though bigger than a toaster oven. It holds one round cookie/pizza sheet per rack, and there are 3 racks (though you can’t actually use all 3 at once as they are spaced so closely together— I think it’s mostly so you can bake or broil or whatever and position your rack an appropriate distance from the heat).
If you need more info, I can go try to find a measuring tape for the actual dimensions…
Hmm.. i can’t really see the brand very well from the picture. But i get an idea of what it should look like when i shop for it. Thanks for the info on what to look out for and what to avoid when buying an oven. We also saw some 2-in1 microwave/oven, but was told to stay away from those, because it doesn’t really do either function very well.
Btw, those rearranged chocolate cake looks awesome! Will definitely be visiting it more often, esp. since it’s tailored for baking in china!