Luxor4u

Hello all!

since the Eid holiday is around the corner.....I would like some help finding some baking ingredients. My family always bakes sweets for the holiday....since this is our first year in Egypt. I realize we may not find all the ingredients we need...so that is why I need time to change our recipes or find new ones all together. I need help locating these items:


1. baking soda(soda bicarbonate)
2. brown sugar
3. quick rising yeast
4. vegetable shortening
5. butter(not imported...too expensive)
6. baking chocolate chips
7. sweetened coconut
8. powdered sugar(confectioners sugar)
9. vanilla extract
10. cocoa powder
11. peanut butter that doesnt cost an arm and a leg

thanks so much in advance....the kiddos thank you as well!

UmYusuf

Ah, well now that Luxor has 2 brand spanking new supermarkets I'm sure you'll be able to find most of those ingredients!

You can get most of them in Kheir Zaman on Television Street (I didn't check for no's 1 and 4 but the rest are there!). Re. sweetened coconut - are you talking about dessicated coconut? That's available everywhere at the moment because it's Ramadan, but throughout the rest of the year you might be hard pressed to find any. Vanilla extract is a little disappointng - just little powder sachets, no Nielsen-Massey here!

Hope that helps - happy cooking!

Baking soda is sold at herbal shops. It is called carbon or carbonato, and normally sells for 6LE/kilo.

Brown sugar is hard to find and expensive. If you ever see anyone sitting selling those brown sugar cones from a basket in the street, they can be crushed to make a brown sugar substitute.

Everything else you probably can find at the supermarket, except probably chocolate chips.

You can make peanut butter at home with a food processor.

If you want real vanilla you can get it at Adel el Attar, Madrab el Orz Street. They have vanilla pods and essence

They had quite a big display of peanut butter & chocolate nutella stuff (don't like either personally) in KZ

Ohhh, Fabby, that's fab news about the vanilla!!! I know the shop you mean - he's got loads of herbs n stuff, but never thought to ask about vanilla - will have to get some next time I'm in!

Thats the one, we spent aboutr 2 hours in there. Not sure whether he was telling me something but he put a towel over my head & face!

I went in for some oils for my burner as I had dreadful sinus & he made me a vapour bath of wonderful drops which cleared my head. Needless to say I bought some as well as the eucalyptus I usually use.

Re the vanilla he has pods & says you can just take 1 seed from the pod to flavour sugar, coffee etc so they last quite a while

FABlux wrote:If you want real vanilla you can get it at Adel el Attar, Madrab el Orz Street. They have vanilla pods and essence

They had quite a big display of peanut butter & chocolate nutella stuff (don't like either personally) in KZ

Eeeeek! I have no idea where the above address is, can you give directions? PLEEEEEEEESE?

Are you listening Scott?

Oooooh, will now have to make a mad dash before MD & Scott get there!!

Directions (should I really be doing this?): do you know Pub 2000? Coming down from the corniche, carry on down that road (past Pub 2000) and the attar is a few shops down on your right hand side.

Right, off to get my coat (figure of speech )

Ok, it is quite easy to find.
From Medina Street take the last road before the narrow section heading down to the Nile towards Pub 2000. The shop is on the left right opposite the Happyland Hotel.

Edit: Coming from the reverse direction to Countessa but the direction you would probably be coming in.

ON MY WAY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Thanks so much for the input. The two new stores you were referring to....what are their names and locations please? I know about Arkwrights, a nice little store with lots of goodies!

I was searching online for alternatives just in case I dont find an item or they are too pricey...here are a few

how to make your own:
1. brown sugar
http://culinaryarts.about.com/od/makeyo ... nsugar.htm

2. powdered sugar
http://www.thriftyfun.com/tf129383.tip.html

3. peanut butter
www.wikihow.com/Make-Peanut-Butter

The 2 new stores are Forty Supermarket on Hospital Street and Kheir Zaman (a member of the Metro chain) full details are on the Metro again thread.

I bought icing sugar but it was soo lumpy I stuck it in the coffee grinder (worked well )

In Egypt unsalted Danish butter - Lurpak - costs about half of what it costs here in Denmark, just like Danish cheese! A friend was so excited to find salted French butter in Arkwrights that she did not care about the price, but that was expensiv! I have seen Egyptian butter in many supermarkets, but mostly tiny packages, and I do not know the price.

BBLUX wrote:Ok, it is quite easy to find.
From Medina Street take the last road before the narrow section heading down to the Nile towards Pub 2000. The shop is on the left right opposite the Happyland Hotel.

Edit: Coming from the reverse direction to Countessa but the direction you would probably be coming in.

That is Ali Ibn Tallat St and it is the Sunset Hotel not Happylands.

Does Kheir Zamen not sell local butter by the kilo like Metro does up here? I just buy a whocking great lump of the stuff and then chop it up into small blocks, wrap individually and put them all in the freezer.

In the days when I couldn't find confectioners sugar or caster sugar, I just used to put ordinary sugar in the grinder attachment of the blender and whizz til it got to the right consistency. Did the job ok.

Am I talking to myself here or have you all run off to the spice shop??

Good morning Goddess, we are here taking notes.

I have to give a credit here to the revitalised Omar Market over butter.
Plain unsalted butter used to come in HUGE chunks (relatively anyway) and I had to ask for it to be wrapped in kilo packs -but now they have it all ready weighed and priced, on a tray with several different sized chunks making a total kilo. In the last 5 years or so the price has gone up by 50% but is much improved in quallity.
They also have jars of buffalo ghee. I was impressed that though this was not in the chiller but out on the shelf there was no seperation as the air was nice and cool.

What is the problem that people have with peanut butter? I've been able to get it in several local shops for years now.

I found a huge lump of butter(unlabeled) in the freezer section at 'Al Bakery Market' on the corner of Television and El Madina El Monawara Street.
it was 30LE a kilo.....we had some with our eggs yesterday and it was really good and didnt taste like freezer burn. Has anyone found good butter any cheaper.

The shop is small but, has a lot. I found ready made pizza crusts, good motzerella cheese that hadnt been in the freezer for ages and a great variety of teas, jams and sweets.

Thanks for all the help....one ingredient I just cannot find is vegetable shortening. Anyone know where I can find some?

A little tip for brown sugar

All you have to do is add molasses to normal sugar and mix together start by adding small amounts at a time and then just keep adding molasses until you get the brown sugar you want!!

You can also look on you tube there is a lady called Nancy Today and she shows you how it is done

She is as mad as a box of frogs mind!!!!