After the last post about essential baking equipment in China, how different supplies are called in Chinese and where to get them, here follows the second part of the guide: A list of baking ingredients, how they are called in Chinese, and more importantly, where you can get them from.
Where to get them from?
Let’s start with the obvious. Things like eggs, or flour you can get in most Chinese grocery stores, but where do you find things like butter, cocoa powder or powdered sugar in a country that is not traditionally a baking culture? Well, if you live in cities like Shanghai or Beijing you can always try big supermarkets like Carrefour or Walmart, or smaller shops focusing on import goods like City Shop.
However, if you live in a smaller city like I do, sometimes even the lonely Walmart just offers one brand of butter and that’s it for imported Western goods. So, the best place to find anything you need for baking is still Taobao. I can recommend a few sites I am using and know for sure that the quality is good.
小米烘焙体验馆 – One of the best baking ingredient suppliers on Taobao. You can even order delicate things like whipped cream. They deliver very fast and goods are always safely packaged.
浓夫烘焙西点店 – Another seller I trust. I have been ordering his cocoa powder and other little things. Delivery is extremely fast, and always good quality.
品味日耳曼 – A shop importing German goods. It has more than just baking ingredients, but I use it mainly to get things like vanilla sugar or different flavoured puddings.
Essential baking ingredients (Chinese vocabulary)
- Flour Types 面粉类
High-gluten flour 高筋粉 gaojin fen
Contains 11.5-13.5% gluten
Mid-gluten flour 中筋粉 zhongjin fen
Contains 8.5-11.5% gluten. Usually sold as standard flour in normal supermarkets.
Low-gluten flour 低筋粉 dijin fen
8.5% of gluten or less
Whole wheat flour 全麦面粉 quanmai mianfen
Whole wheat flour is ground with the “whole” kernel
Cake flour 蛋糕粉 dangao fen
Low in gluten, so if you don’t want to spend the extra money on the extra cake flour, just get the low-gluten flour instead, which you can find in any bigger supermarket.
Bread flour 面包粉 mianbao fen
Contains around 13.5-14% gluten
- Starch/powder Types 淀粉类
Corn starch 玉米淀粉 yumi dianfen
Cocoa powder 可可粉 keke fen
Vanilla powder 香草粉 xiangcao fen
Vanilla suger 香草糖 xiangcao tang
Matcha tea powder 抹茶粉 (mocha fen)
- Butter and Oils 油脂类制品
Butter 黄油 huangyou
You can get different brands in China, whether in the expat supermarkets or online on Taobao. The cheapest import brand here is Anchor 安佳 anjia. Also there are salted 有盐 youyan and unsalted 无盐 wuyan ones.
Cooking fat 白油/猪油 baiyou/zhuyou
Maiqilin butter麦淇淋 maiqilin
Another sort of butter, usually used for popcorn and it is cheaper than normal butter.
- Milk products 奶制品类
Fresh milk 鲜奶 xiannai
If you cannot find fresh milk, you can always go for normal one 纯牛奶 chun niunai.
Milk powder 奶粉 naifen
Whipped cream 淡奶油 dan naiyou
Sour cream 酸奶油 suan naiyou
Yoghurt 酸奶 suannai
Cream Cheese 奶油奶酪 naiyou nailao
Mascarpone 马氏卡彭奶酪 Mashikapeng nailao
Cheese 奶酪 nailao
- Sugar Products 糖类
Fine granulated sugar 细砂糖 xi shatang
Powdered sugar 糖粉 tangfen
Brown sugar 红糖/黑糖 hongtang/heitang
Caramel sugar 焦糖 jiaotang
Malt sugar 麦芽糖 maiya tang
Honey 蜂蜜 fengmi
- Leaven and yeast products 膨胀剂
Yeast powder 酵母粉 jiaomu fen
Baking powder 泡打粉 paoda fen
- Egg products 蛋类
Whole egg 全蛋/蛋液 quandan/danye
Egg white 蛋白 danbai
Egg yellow 黄蛋 danhuang
Where do you get your baking ingredients from? Any more tips?
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Thank you so much for posting about this. I am especially excited to know that one can order these things on Taobao. Thanks for recommending your favorite shops. How often do you bake? When I get to Jiangsu, I plan to bake all the time.
I just got my oven three weeks ago, but since then I have been baking every weekend. There is not much time during the week.
好文章,内容雷霆万钧.
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