The quest for real American chocolate chip cookies

I decided I wanted to make some chocolate chip cookies, preferably chocolate chip pumpkin cookies, but I was willing to concede that I had no idea whether or not my local stores carried pumpkin puree (so far, they don't). To my American mind, the major ingredients in a basic chocolate chip cookie are, well, basic. Any American grocery store will carry them all, usually with a variety of sizes and brand names to chose from. So far I have found everything but the chocolate chips and brown sugar (though I am still trying to determine which type of available flour is most similar to American all-purpose flour). The lack of chocolate chips is discouraging, but not fatal, as German chocolate is very good and I can always smash or chop up a candy bar in order to get my little chocolate pieces. In fact proper scientific study might require several types of chocolate bars to be sacrificed to this noble cause so that each can be assessed separately. It will mean making more cookies than I originally intended, but these minor inconveniences are part of living in a foreign country. I will report on the results after I solve the brown sugar problems.

My brown sugar problems are slightly more complex than the chocolate chip problem. Yes, I know that German stores have bags of sugar that are labeled "Braun Zucker" however this brown sugar is different than what Americans call brown sugar (a woman who has never been to North America absolutely insisted this could not be the case because if it is called brown sugar it is brown sugar, the point really wasn't worth arguing). However, I knew about this problem before I got to Germany and am prepared to make my own brown sugar, as my cooking guru (a.k.a. Mom) has informed me that American brown sugar is basically a combination of white granulated sugar and molasses. What I didn't consider was that molasses (Melasse) might not be readily available, partially based on the logic that molasses is an ingredient in gingerbread; gingerbread is associated with Christmas and "Hansel and Gretel"*; Germans are known for their skill at celebrating Christmas and their wonderful fairy tales (Märchen, one of my favorite German words) including "Hansel and Gretel;" ergo I really thought molasses would be findable. Sadly, I was wrong and as I type this, I can say that I have looked in four grocery stores and have no molasses. However, I do have a lead...

*Further research indicates that my childhood memories notwithstanding, in "Hansel and Gretel" the witch's house is not always (perhaps not even usually) made of gingerbread, it can also be made of bread, cake, candies, or chocolate.