When it comes to cookies, cakes, and really
anything that’s baked in the US, I’m personally
not the biggest fan and here’s why.
Hallo Servus and welcome back to my Youtube
channel! My name is Felicia, I’m originally
from Munich Germany but have been living here
in Cincinnati Ohio off and on since 2016.
And this is the 7th and last episode of my
mini-series about random differences between
Germany and the US. Definitely make sure to
check out the other episodes as well, you’ll
find the links in the info box below! I’ve
talked about how Germans pee differently,
about oil changes on cars, cats and declawing,
male circumcision, the fascination with jawlines,
and German vs. American ice cream and today’s
video is gonna be a little similar to that
one because we’ll talk about another food
topic.
So this is something that Germans, and I think
most Europeans notice pretty quickly when
they come to the US but there’s one story
in particular that I think brings the point
home. So when I got my master’s at the University
of Cincinnati, a fellow grad student and I
hosted a weekly German Stammtisch, like a
happy hour to focus on casual conversations,
and we had a budget to buy some snacks. So
we got some big bags of chips and a big bowl
of cookies from the store and brought that
to the Stammtisch every week. And one day,
the other girl who was American said, “We
need to get new cookies.” And I was like
“Oh are they all gone?” And she said “No,
they’re just really stale.” So I checked
them out. They still smelled good. So I took
a bite and was like – what? They’re not
stale! They’re crispy, they're perfect actually.
So I ended up taking them home for myself
cause they tasted just right to me.
And that’s really the main statement of
this video: In Germany, most baked goods,
whether that be bread, cookies, cakes, or
other pastries have a little more bite to
them compared to what you usually get in the
US.
The main thing that all Germans and other
Europeans always complain about is American
bread. If you’ve ever seen a European shop
for bread in an American store – you know
the deal. We’ll just walk around and touch
every pack of bread to see how squishy it
is, and most of it is really just like toast.
Which in Germany, we wouldn’t even call
bread. Toastbrot, yes, but that’s not the
same as just “Brot” bread or even better
Brötchen bread rolls. And whether it’s
rolls or a full loaf, it needs to have a crispy
crust on the outside while it’s soft in
the inside. And it’s really hard to go from
Germany where we have bakeries with a huge
selection of freshly baked bread products
in every store and at every other corner to
TOAST. And before people start commenting
“you can find that in the US if you look
for it” – yes, I know you can find anything
if you look for it but the bread that you’re
mainly surrounded with here is just different.
But today, I wanna focus more on sweet things
– so cookies, cakes, and pastries.
Because Germany doesn’t only have a big
bread culture, we also have a big “pastry”
culture. We actually have our own ”meal”
or ritual dedicated to it. It’s called “Kaffee
und Kuchen” – coffee and cake – and
it’s like the German equivalent to British
teatime so it typically takes place in the
afternoon. And it’s not like all Germans
eat cake everyday at 4pm, I wish, but it is
pretty common. Like when you have guests over,
it’s often for Kaffee und Kuchen, especially
on Sundays or if you go to a café, you can
usually get cake there as well. I mean you
can get cake at every bakery even and they
have amazing selections usually! But even
with cakes, and cookies, or even muffins,
they usually have some bite as well, like
a lot of cakes have crusts, or at least a
solid bottom, or we also like to bake fruit
into the cake batter or other things to give
them some texture. American cakes are pretty
different compared to that. They’re usually
pretty soft, rather moist, don’t have a
crust and then they usually have a frosting
on top which means that they’re covered
in even more soft stuff, and some food dye
in a lot of cases. Whereas in Germany we like
to put something solid on top like crumbles
or a hard glaze.
And chewy cookies aren’t really a thing
in Germany either. A cookie has to be crunchy.
Whether that’s one of our many traditional
German cookies or even what’s sold as American
style cookie, they’re crunchy. I’m not
even sure if I’ve ever seen an American
style CHEWY cookie in the German stores? Let
me know if you have cause I feel like that
has to be at least an option, but in the US
there’s always both options: Chewy or crunchy
and I feel like chewy is even the more common
and more popular option here. But to me and
a lot of other Germans, that’s really just
like a half-baked cookie almost. Don’t get
me wrong I do enjoy one of those warm oven
fresh chocolate chip cookies that are still
soft and have some liquid chocolate in the
middle like you can get them at some restaurants
but when they’re cold I definitely prefer
a fully baked crispy cookie.
I know this may sound a little snobby, like
oh you Americans don’t know how to do it
right, but to me as a German, most of the
baked things I’ve eaten in the US tasted
like someone took them out of the oven too
early. I don’t know if Americans in Europe
feel the other way around like things are
overbaked? I mean, that would make sense so
let me know what your experiences are with
that!
And don’t get me wrong, I haven’t hated
every baked good I’ve eaten in the US but
sometimes I definitely felt like it would
have been better if they had given it another
10 minutes in the oven. And the funny part
is that in my family I’m actually known
as the one who likes everything soft. Like
my family often puts bread rolls or pretzels,
especially on the second day when it’s not
super fresh anymore , on top of the toaster
or into the oven again before they eat it
to crisp it up. Which I just learned is the
very fitting English translation for aufbacken,
and I’m the only one in my family who doesn’t
want it any more crispy usually. And still
I find American baked goods too soft. It’s
like with me and the sweetness in the US.
I’m known as the person who likes it really
sweet and most of my German friends always
thought that the way that I drink my coffee
or something was way too sweet and I never
got it, but then I came to the US and for
the first time in my life I experienced what
it means when something is “too sweet”.
I never even understood how that’s possible
before.
Now of course, this is all a generalization.
There’s a large variety of cookies, cakes
and pastries in both countries. But overall,
this is something that I’ve found to be
different and it’s so interesting to me
that even though we do eat the same things
in the two countries. Like we do eat bread
we do eat cake, we do eat cookies, the taste
preferences of Germans vs Americans seem to
be pretty different. And I wonder where that
comes from, so if you know more about that
let me know in the comments below and of course,
I’d like to hear what you think about this
topic. What do you prefer? Soft and “half-baked”
or baked really well and crispy?
Thank you so much for sharing your thoughts
and for watching! This was the last episode
of my random differences mini-series. I really
hope you guys enjoyed it as much as I did.
It was a nice change compared to my usual
longer and more in depth videos and I really
loved reading all of your comments and answers
to my questions, it was really helpful! If
you liked this video and this series, let
me know by hitting the thumbs up button, and
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me on social media and I’ll see you next
time with a “normal” video again. Tschüss!
