Baozi Xishi's Struggle

Chapter 346 Tips for Making Flower Pastries

"First, the moisture in the jujube paste becomes less after frying, so the taste becomes stronger. Second, sugar needs to be added to increase the sweetness. If you don't like adding sugar, you can also add pickled candied dates, which will have a better flavor."

When Wen Yuan saw that Shen Yu answered every question he asked without hiding anything, a look of surprise appeared on his face.

He kept talking for a few times, and couldn't help asking, "Miss Shen, these are all tips for making cakes and pastries, why don't you keep them secret?"

"The baker that Master hired last time didn't answer any questions. He even kicked us out of the kitchen while he was making the cakes, and wouldn't let us watch."

Shen Yu smiled slightly and asked, "Now that Master Wenyuan and the other young masters have learned it, will they open a restaurant?"

Wen Yuan smiled and shook his head: "Of course not, I entered Buddhism in this life and will be a Buddhist disciple for life, why would I open a store."

Several young monks also smiled calmly: "We don't know how to do it either. We still prefer the masters in the temple to treat us well."

Chef Xu had dealt with Shen Yu once before and knew that although Miss Shen was young, she was magnanimous and open-minded, and her cooking skills were unfathomable.

In her eyes, these little pastry-making tricks are probably not worth keeping secret.

He also smiled and said, "I, an old man, don't know how to do it either. I am already so old. When the county magistrate is promoted, I will return to the temple and follow Master Wenyuan to cook vegetarian dishes."

Shen Yu said frankly: "If that's the case, why should I hide anything?"

"The masters didn't learn to make cakes in order to open a food store next to my house."

"You make the cakes delicious and beautiful, and distribute them to the people. If they enjoy eating them, it will be considered as a merit of mine."

After hearing this, Wen Yuan and the others clasped their hands together and said, "Miss Shen is very insightful and must be blessed with great fortune."

Shen Yu smiled, and suddenly remembered what Li had told him, and hurriedly asked, "Master Wen Yuan, my mother and Aunt Jiang are also devout Buddhists."

"Before coming here, they specifically told me that they wanted to ask what kind of blessing activities Guang'an Temple would hold during the Wanshou Festival."

"What time does it start? They want to come and participate, but they are afraid that there will be too many people in the temple and they won't be able to squeeze in if they come too late."

Shen Yu thought about the last time she came here. Because she arrived a little late, it was Brother Liu who led the way so that they could squeeze into the temple to burn incense.

So he specifically asked about the time, intending to have Li and the others come earlier this time.

Wen Yuan hurriedly asked, "You are Miss Shen's family. Will you come to worship Buddha and listen to the lecture?"

"Then why are you still crowding? When the time we agreed on comes, I'll send someone to pick you up and reserve the front seat for you. I wonder how many people in the girl's family will come."

Shen Yu was very happy to hear that. It would be best if he could come in without having to squeeze in.

She hurriedly reported the number of people in her family, thought for a while, and quickly added Zhou Dalang's family of three.

Shen Yu said embarrassedly: "My family has many people, so Master doesn't need to reserve the front seat for us."

"Those are where the nobles sit. It would be great if they could leave some seats for us in the corners."

Wen Yuan smiled and said, "Miss, you don't have to worry about this. Just make the cakes and pastries well. If Master Ci'en is happy, he might even invite you and your family to the side hall to listen to the great monk's lectures."

Shen Yu didn't know what the eminent monk he was talking about sounded like he was rare, so he thanked him quickly.

Shen Yu and Wen Yuan chatted about the Dharma Assembly, but their eyes were always fixed on the stuffing that Yan Qing was frying.

I saw that the date paste filling, which originally had too much water, had become delicate and oily, and when the spatula was run across it, it had texture and became shiny black.

Shen Yu knew it was almost done, so he started to add some granulated sugar evenly.

Because jujube paste is sweet in itself, the amount of sugar added should be much less than that of red bean paste filling. After stir-frying for a while, the unique sweet fragrance of red dates will float throughout the kitchen, rich and sweet.

Wen Yuan sniffed and sighed, "So this is how the jujube paste stuffing should be fried. I've never had this taste before. I thought it was because the jujubes I bought were not good."

Shen Yu still used a small dish to taste the food. When he thought it was ok, he asked them to turn off the fire and serve out the date paste filling.

After preparing the filling, Shen Yu began to prepare the water-oil skin and puff pastry for the cake.

Originally, pastries that are made with shortbread are either made with butter or lard, but since these are vegetarian pastries made in the temple, they can only use vegetarian oil instead, but the effect of making the shortbread isn’t as good.

Fortunately, it still needs to be fried at the end, which can slightly make up for the shortcomings.

Shen Yu walked to the dough board, took out the flour and kneaded it. He felt that it was a little rough, but it was just right for making shortbread.

When she made the two kinds of pie crusts, she specially picked out several bowls of different sizes, one for flour, one for vegetable oil, one for granulated sugar and one for water, so that Wen Yuan and the others could remember the proportions.

This way, when they make it themselves in the future, they only need to use different bowls to weigh it and they can make a crust with the right proportions and the right softness or hardness.

Chef Xu said approvingly, "Miss, this is a good idea. This way you won't make mistakes."

Wen Yuan also nodded frequently and said in annoyance, "Why didn't I think of this idea?"

"I remember when I was just learning how to make pancakes, I added water when there was too much flour, and added flour when there was too much water. The first time I mixed the dough, I filled a whole bowl."

"In the end, we didn't make peace, and everyone in the temple had to eat noodle soup with me for several days."

"My master was so angry that he made me carry water for a whole month. After that, I got scared when I tried to knead dough, so I didn't like making cakes and pasta."

So that's how it is. It seems that everyone takes detours and suffers when learning cooking.

Yan Xin and a few others stood behind Wen Yuan and couldn't help laughing secretly.

Because it was just a trial, no plant dyes were added and the quantity was very small.

Shen Yu mixed the water-oil dough and puff pastry according to the amount needed to make twenty cakes, arranged them into neat rectangular dough sheets, and set them aside to chill for later use.

She took the bean paste filling that had cooled and become a little hard, smeared a thin layer of oil on her hands, and began to roll the bean paste into balls of the same size.

After rolling ten balls, he rolled ten more jujube paste balls.

After all the fillings were rolled, Shen Yu washed his hands, cleaned the loose powder on the dough board, and applied some oil on it to prevent it from sticking when rolling out the dough.

Roll out the dough into a large rectangular piece, and then roll out the puff pastry into a slightly thicker rectangle.

Put the puff pastry on top, wrap it with the oil dough, roll it out gently, and then roll it up again in the same direction.

After rolling it into a long cylindrical shape, use a knife to evenly divide it into twenty portions.

Press the dough gently into a round piece with your hands, take a rolled filling, push it gently with your hands to wrap it into a ball, close the opening downwards, and put it aside. In this way, the dough for a flower pastry is ready.