Baozi Xishi's Struggle

Chapter 348 Dazzling Flower Cakes

Chef Xu picked it up with bamboo chopsticks, held it with his hand underneath, took a bite, savored it carefully, and nodded with a smile: "It's crispy layer by layer, sweet but not greasy, not bad, not bad."

Yan Xin and the others ate and nodded, smiling happily.

Yan Xin said happily: "I didn't expect that such beautiful and delicious cakes could be made in the vegetarian hall."

Chef Xu noticed that Shen Yu was just looking at the food but not eating it, so he took a clean small plate and bamboo chopsticks, picked up a piece of lotus crisp and put it on the small plate, then handed it to Shen Yu, asking her to taste it.

Shen Yu naturally knew the taste of the dishes he mixed himself.

Seeing Chef Xu serving the food and handing it to her, she had no choice but to take it with a smile.

I picked it up and took a bite, it tasted really good.

Although not as crispy as those made with lard, the pancakes are fried thoroughly at low temperature because the oil temperature is well controlled and the pancakes are rolled and folded many times when making the skin.

So after frying, each layer is thin and crispy, with a slight sweetness in the aroma of oil, and tastes very delicious.

After Yan Xin and the others finished one each, they were still not satisfied and were hesitating whether to have another one each.

Look at the tray, there are only four pieces left, not enough for six people to share. If I don't share them with Miss Shen and Chef Xu, it would be wrong for me and the others to eat them alone.

I had no choice but to hold it in and reluctantly put the tray aside.

A few people were there savoring the sweet fragrance of cakes and pastries when Wen Yuan came back with empty hands.

When he came back, he looked at the oil filter and saw that it was empty. He asked hurriedly, "Did you eat all the remaining ten?"

Before Yan Xin and the others could reply, Wen Yuan sat down on a bench beside the table and muttered, "You guys eat so fast. I wonder what this lotus crisp tastes like when it's fried. It smells sweet."

Chef Xu smiled strangely and asked, "Master Wenyuan, we made twenty lotus cakes in total, and you took away half of them. How come you didn't eat any of them?"

Wen Yuan thought about what happened just now and laughed again: "You all know Master's temper."

"I wanted to bring it over to him to taste first. He doesn't usually eat cakes and pastries. I'd eat it after he tastes it."

"As soon as I took it to the master, he liked it and praised the lotus cake for its beautiful appearance, saying it was no worse than the lotus on the flower cake."

"I took a bite and found it crispy, sweet and fragrant, even better than the flower cake. Then he asked me to put the tray down and said that the remaining ones would be kept for my uncles to try, and then he let me go."

"I thought I'd come back and try something else, but I didn't expect you guys wouldn't leave any for me."

Wen Yuan said this and glared at Yan Xin and the others in feigned anger.

After listening to what he said, Chef Xu smiled and took out the tray that was placed aside and said, "The young masters specially left this for you. I thought it was unnecessary, but I didn't expect you to come back without tasting the cakes."

Yan Xin and the others were feeling a little guilty at first, but when they heard what Chef Xu said, they laughed and said, "Yes, Master, we only ate one each, and we couldn't bear to eat any more."

"Try this lotus cake and see how it tastes. We all think it is crispy and sweet, much better than the cakes we made before."

Shen Yu was amused by what he heard, but he didn't expose them. He just smiled and said, "Since we have decided to use this kind of flower-flavored pastry, then you should practice making some by yourselves. Then you can have as much as you want."

When Yan Xin and the others heard that they were going to continue, they immediately became excited, thinking that they should make more this time and give each person a few more so that they could enjoy the meal to their heart's content.

Wen Yuan happily picked up a lotus cake and tasted it, saying with a smile: "No wonder Master ate one and left all of them. This lotus cake tastes really good, sweet but not greasy, the crust is crispy, and the filling is soft."

As they were talking, the monk in charge of purchasing came back and bought all the ingredients that Shen Yu had asked for.

Shen Yu took a look and was very satisfied: "Master Wen Yuan, let's continue. This time we can color it and make different flower shapes."

For the entire morning, Shen Yu demonstrated how to make five or six kinds of flower-shaped cutting knives, and matched them with different colors. Wen Yuan and a few others followed suit and tried to make them. Before they knew it, the six of them had made more than a hundred different shapes of flower-shaped pastry bases.

When the food was being fried in the oil pan, Shen Yu watched from the side.

When she saw that some of the cakes were not looked good because the cuts were made with different depths and unevenly, the fillings leaked out when they were not wrapped properly, and they did not open properly after frying, she would just put them on the other side of the colander after taking them out.

Yan Xin and the others waited for the cakes to cool down before picking them up and eating them.

A few people were eating happily at the beginning, but later, when the last cake was taken out of the oil pan after being fried, a few people didn't want to eat the cakes anymore.

The flavors of Huasu pastries actually differ only in the fillings, but the techniques for making the pastry base are the same.

It’s just that by adding different vegetable juices for coloring and changing the shaping technique after cutting, the final flower-shaped pastries become more colorful.

There are six-petal lotus flowers in light pink and jade white.

There are pink five-petal peach flowers.

A graceful peony with four or five large overlapping layers of deep red petals.

A dahlia with a dozen pale yellow, slender petals.

Under the green leaves is a small peach with a crooked mouth, round and plump, and a pink blush.

There are also some that are made by adding steamed pumpkin puree, which result in small yellow tangerines and round oranges with green leaves on top.

There are also small pumpkins with eight petals carved out.

Shen Yu picked out two or three good-looking flowers of each type and placed them all on a large tray.

The colors of orange, tangerine, green, peach and chrysanthemum give one a feeling of flowers in bloom and the fragrance of fruits.

When they were working one by one, everyone was so busy learning from Shen Yu how to wrap the stuffing and how to cut the flowers that they had no time to look at these things in detail.

After everything was done and everyone relaxed, they were surprised to find that they had made so many patterns without realizing it.

Wen Yuan's face was flushed with excitement. He pointed at the tray and said, "No one of you is allowed to touch this plate. I will ask Master to come over and take a look."

Yan Xin rubbed his stomach and suddenly burped. He touched his nose to cover it up and said with a chuckle, "I've never eaten so many shortbreads. I can't eat any more."

Chef Xu shook his head and sighed, "It's still good to be young. When I was your age, I ate more than you do, and everything tasted delicious to me."

As he spoke, he gestured with his hand to make a circle that was larger than the soup plate: "I can eat three or four pancakes this big in one meal, but now I can't eat anymore. I only ate two pancakes."

Yan Qing also smiled and said, "I couldn't eat lunch today. When I ate it, I just thought it was delicious. I thought I would just try one piece. I didn't expect Miss Shen to come up with so many different dishes at once."