Skip to content

South Africans in Germany

Home » For the Foodies » Substitutes and Food Info » Baking ingredients

Baking ingredients

For all of the passionate bakers out there! We have thoughtfully compiled a comprehensive list of alternative ingredient options that can be used for baking in Germany, along with their corresponding German translations. 

 

ProductSubstitute / Translation
Self Raising FlourYou do not find this often in Germany. Sometimes you can get it at Lidl.
You can also make your own as follows:
To make one cup (250ml) Self raising flour Mix together:
250ml all-purpose flour and 7.5ml baking powder
Cake FlourType 405 for baking and sauces, pastries and pie crusts and other lighter baked goods
Type 550 is a finer all purpose flour. Most often used to bake white bread, cookies, muffins, biscuits
Rye FlourType 1150, Roggenmehl.
This is a medium to dark flour. For very dark use Type 1800
Bread FlourType 812 for baking bread. it has a chewier texture than all purpose flour
White Whole WheatType 1600, contains whole wheat kernels including the germ and bran.
Volkoring meel / Whole WheatType 1700 Weizenvollkornmehl, good for baking dense and nutty whole wheat bread
High Gluten FlourType 1050 best for elastic dough such as bagels and pizza crusts
Speltflour /
Dinkel Wheat /
Hulled Wheat
Type 630 Dinkelmehl , it can be used instead of Type 405, it has more gluten
Nutty WheatAccording to the Snowflake website, Nutty Wheat is flour that has 18% coarse wheat bran added to it (wholemeal only has about 12%),
So in theory you could make your own. Mix 4/5 plain flour with 1/5 wheat bran (available form health shops).
Bran / Semelsdie Kleie
Wheat Brandie Weizenkleie
Mielieblom / Cornstarch (mostly know as Maizina)die Speisestärke. Available in the baking section
You can also substitute 15ml Cornstarch with 30ml Cake Flour.
Cornstarch (Speisestärke) is a binding agent for light sauces and a baking ingredient to loosen the dough. Corn starch (Maisstärke), potato starch (Kartoffelstärke) and wheat starch (Weizenstärke) are all food starches (Speisestärke).
Corn starch is extracted from the whole corn kernel and wheat starch from the starch component of ground wheat.
Baking Soda / Koeksodadas Natron
Cream of Tartar / Kremetartder Weinstein (pulver)
Tartaric acid
Weinsäure / Weinstein
Cream of tartar is less acidic than tartaric acid.
If your recipe calls for tartaric acid and you don’t have it, using cream of tartar might work. For every teaspoon of tartaric acid, replace with two teaspoons of cream of tartar. However, using tartaric acid will produce better results
Baking Powderdas Backpulver. It is usually sold in packages
See a detailed explanation on double and single acting below
The baking powder you find in SA is Double acting e.g. Royal Baking powder ( Starch, Acidifying Agents (E450(a) – Sodium Pyrophosphate & E341 – calcium phosphate ), Sodium Bicarbonate (E500) ). This means it has two acidic components.
The ingredients for Dr Oetker Backin is: Backtriebmittel (Dinatriumdiphosphat (E 450), Natriumhydrogencarbonat (E 500)), Stärke. The E341 Calcium Phosphate is missing.
Instant dry yeastInstant Backhefe or Trockenbackhefe
Vanilla Essence vs Vanilla ExtractVanilla Essence is called Vanilleessenz. It is an artificial product
Vanilla Extract is called Vanille Extract and is more readily available in Germany.
The Extract is a natural product and has a more intense flavour and if you have to substitute, the information I could find suggest you use half the extract if your recipe calls for essence, and double the essence if the recipe calls for extract
 

More information about Flour types

Ash Protein US UK German
~0.4% ~9% pastry flour soft flour 405
~0.55% ~11% all-purpose flour plain flour 550
~0.8% ~14% high gluten flour strong or hard 812
~1.1% ~15% first clear flour very strong or hard 1050
>1.5% ~13% white whole wheat wholemeal 1600

More information about Baking powder

  • Single-acting baking powder reacts when it’s mixed with the liquid ingredient in a recipe. Because all the bubbles are produced immediately, it’s important to bake the recipe in a pre-heated oven as soon as it’s mixed. Similarly, over-mixing can drive off the bubbles, making the recipe fall flat. Contains only one acid
  • Double-acting baking powder releases some carbon dioxide immediately and more upon heating. It’s double-acting in that it contains a fast-acting acid that reacts at room temperature and a slow-acting acid that reacts with heat. Most of the carbon dioxide gas is produced during cooking, so double-acting baking powder is more forgiving if a recipe isn’t baked immediately. Contains both fast- and slow-acting acids

Substituting:

Usually, you can substitute one type of baking powder for the other. So, if a recipe calls for 1 teaspoon of double-acting baking powder, you can use 1 teaspoon of single-acting baking powder (and vice versa).
Exception!!
If a recipe calls for double-acting baking powder because there is a time delay between mixing and baking, it’s not a good idea to use single-acting baking powder. Pancakes for example

I found this info on the internet:
To Substitute 1 Tsp of Double Acting Baking Soda use:
1/4 teaspoon baking soda plus 1/2 teaspoon cream of tartar plus 1/4 teaspoon cornstarch
OR 1 1/2 teaspoons single-action baking powder
OR 1/4 teaspoon baking soda plus 1/2 cup (120 ml) buttermilk, sour milk or yogurt to replace 1/2 cup (120 ml) non-acidic liquid

 Info from Sciencenotes.org

Related Content

Substitutes and Food Info

Many South African products can be bought online. For those items you cannot find in Germany, most have a substitute. We

Facebook
Twitter
LinkedIn
WhatsApp
Email