Butter and baking

This is the first time I have posted a question on the website so I hope I am doing this correctly. Here is my question. What is up with the butter in Germany? I have baked cookies, made a cake and made muffins that all called for a certain amount of butter. In most cases 1 or 2 sticks of butter by American standards which I went online to find the conversion for grams so that I would know how much of the German butter to use. Everything I have made turns out like it has too much butter. I know I am being accurate with the ounce-grams conversion so what is going on. I even tried using a bit less butter in my last recipe, but it is still not right. If anyone has had this problem and knows what to do I would appreciate your expertise on this subject.

You are probably converting wrong. One stick of butter is app. one half of a 250g block. The only difference in butter here compared to the US is that most butter here is not salted.

My cookbook says 1 stick (or 8 ounces) of butter is 113 grams so I don't think my conversion is wrong. Since the butter is marked in 25g units (like American tablespoon units are marked on our butter) most recipes call for 2 sticks which is even easier since that is 226 grams which is makes using the markings on a slab of butter really easy to measure. If after three times I cannot get it right I am thinking the butter is higher in fat here or something because everything I bake is swimming in butter.

Something wrong with your book. 8oz is 226.796 g Close to what Eurovol wrote...

See http://www.metric-conversions.org/weight

Sorry, my typo 1 stick of American butter is 4 ounces so a recipe that calls for 1 stick I am using 113 grams, for a recipe calling for 2 sticks 226 grams.

One stick is a quarter pound of butter, not a half. Twice as much butter will make your fat cells swim in butter.

Use half the amount called for and see what happens. At best it will be less calories and at worst it will be a little dry.

But the OP is asking for help with metric conversion - futher clarification in archaic measurements is not really going to help.

Have you tried using the same amount of butter (and yes, your conversions are correct - 1 cup of butter is a bit less than a 250g block of German butter) and a bit more flour? A lot of people have trouble making N. American recipes with German flour. Perhaps something to do with the moisture content or the way it absorbs fats/liquids? I don't know.

Maybe you can post a couple of the recipes you're using so we can see the other ingredients?

German butter is usually 82% fat which is higher than standard American butter - even if you convert the weight correctly, it may act differently than you are used to in certain recipes (but not all of course). It may be worth your while to hunt down lower fat content brands such as Campina 'Buttergold' salted butter, some imported French butters (food hall in Kaufhof) or indeed English butter.

1 cup firmly packed brown sugar
1/2 lb Butter
1/2 cup granulated sugar
2 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla
3 cups Quaker® Oats (quick or old fashioned, uncooked)
1.5 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon salt (optional)
1/2 teaspoon baking soda

I only just moved here a few weeks ago and the brown sugar and flour came with me (my movers packed everything in the pantry that was not already opened!) So the only wild card would be the eggs, butter or sugar.

I did figure out that American butter contains a required 80% butterfat but European Butter contains upwards of 86% fat so and it is processed differently than it is in the states so there could be a multitude of factors conspiring to keep from making cookies!

Eggs too. Most American baking recipes assume large to extra-large eggs, so if you have been using only medium sized eggs, there could be a difference with that.

Maybe try using margarine like Sanella which is especially for baking.

german butter in the stick form with the foil paper is much more dense than american butter. I bake wedding cakes and birthday cakes and yes the recipe will not come out the same if you use the german stick form of butter. Especially if you try to make butter cream frosting with it. It comes out like goo. That is following the traditional american recipes. I use the Lurpak spreadable butter in the tub that has a mix of vegetable oil. Recipes come out fine.

The density would not really matter if normal weight based measures like grams were used, instead of this bizarre US volume based "cups" malarky. How on earth did this cups business start? That is a serious question BTW. I'm baffled by it.

DING DING DING!!! We have a winner!
Try using a mix of 2 parts of Type 405 flour to 1-2 parts of Type 550. For denser baked goods (like breads) you may want to reverse that ratio and then some (for dense bagels I use 1 part 405 to 6 parts 550).

BZZT!
American butter is at least 80% butterfat; European has a maximum of 86%. The difference is minor -- about 5%.

More sound advice. You'll need almost three eggs here to substitute for 2 large/extra-large American eggs; you may have to leave out a tablespoon of milk/water.

People in the UK couldn't afford kitchen scales before they scarpered across the pond. Seriously. The kitchen scale hasn't been around very long. Look at any cookbook over 100 years old and you'll see that anything to be actually measured was in relation to the volumes of other ingredients, so the "cup" could be any damned thing; the measurements are all relative. The US standardised things in the early 20th century and it stuck. Changing over the country to metric has been tried and it's simply unfeasible.

For baking volume measurement is infinitely preferable to using weight. Ditto for making roux.

woof.