Su Xuanhe, who was kneading dough for the first time, obviously had the foundation of successfully making a fire just now. He was very confident. He picked up the small bowl where Su Qingluan placed cold water and poured the whole bowl of water into it.
Su Qingluan looked at the amount of water and silently scooped out half a scoop of flour from the black flour bag and set it aside. At this moment, Su Xuanhe, who was having fun playing in the flour and water mixture, had not yet realized the seriousness of the situation.
After stirring it randomly for a while according to his own will, Su Xuanhe felt something was wrong: it was not like he had not seen his mother, sister or even father kneading dough before. Although the flour with water seemed like "thin porridge" at the beginning, in his impression, it would not take long before the "thin porridge" would slowly turn into small lumps, and after kneading it a few times with his hands, it would become a smooth dough.
However, Su Xuanhe found that no matter how he kneaded the sticky "dough" in his hands, it was too moist and soft, and his hands were covered with it.
He looked up at Su Qingluan in confusion: "Sister, what's going on? Why can't I knead the dough?"
Su Qingluan looked down at him with a half-smile: "Aren't you very confident? Don't you need me to teach you?"
"..." Su Xuanhe turned his head away guiltily, and after a moment he squeezed out a word from his throat, "Teach me..." His voice was very low, almost as soft as a mosquito's buzz. If Su Qingluan had not been so close and there was no other sound around, Su Qingluan would not have been able to hear it.
So she deliberately said, "I didn't hear clearly what you said just now."
After a pause, Su Xuanhe seemed to have finally made up his mind and said loudly, "Sister, please teach me! Thank you!"
"Wouldn't it have been better if you did this earlier?" Su Qingluan rubbed the top of the boy's head. "I let you be stubborn just now. I don't know where you got the confidence from."
After a pause, she began to teach the tricks of kneading dough: "Generally speaking, the amount of water to use when kneading the dough can be observed based on the state of the dough. There is no need to memorize the exact ratio of water to flour. The ratio will change depending on the season, the type of flour, or if you add other ingredients like eggs or soybean oil."
"How do we see it then?"
"As soon as the flour starts to clump together, you need to reduce the amount of water you add. Be careful every time." Su Qingluan looked at the "mud" on Su Xuanhe's hand and sighed, "You obviously added too much water."
"What are 'floc-like clumps'?" Su Xuanhe was a little confused.
"The flocs are..." Su Qingluan thought for a moment, "Have you ever noticed the willow and poplar catkins floating all over the streets in the spring? They're almost like small balls of dough this size."
Su Xuanhe thought about the clumps of poplar and willow catkins along the ridges of the fields or along the roadsides, and gestured with his hands: "This big?"
"A little smaller...yes, that size is about right."
Su Xuanhe looked down at his wet hands and said at a loss, "Then what should I do?"
Su Qingluan added about 30% of the half ladle of flour she had scooped out earlier into the "mud soup" and stirred it with her wrist. "Please knead this flour in as well. I originally wanted to use less flour so you could knead it with less effort. It seems that this dough will be much larger."
Su Xuanhe looked at his sister's hand movements, held the basin with one hand, and stirred the flour in one direction with the other hand. Sure enough, the flour was not so wet anymore.
But the dough was still in a semi-fluid state with a watery sheen on the surface. Su Qingluan could only ask her brother to add a little more flour.
"Yes, add it in batches like this each time. Don't add it all at once."
"I really want a little more..." Su Xuanhe pouted, a little impatient.
Su Qingluan snorted and laughed: "If you add too much, won't the dough become dry?"
"Then just add more water." Su Xuanhe said as a matter of course.
Su Qingluan snorted coldly: "It's easy to add flour if there is too much water, but it's not easy to knead water into dough that is too dry." Because if it gets wet, the surface of the dough will become extremely slippery, and it will always slide out when kneading, making it very difficult to withstand force.
Although Su Qingluan did not explain everything in detail to Su Xuanhe, Su Xuanhe had just suffered a loss for not listening to his elder sister's advice, and he had learned his lesson now. Although he didn't know why, since his elder sister said so, it must make sense. He obediently decided to withdraw his idea of making trouble.
As the flour was gradually added, Su Qingluan nodded: "This amount of flour is enough, there is no need to add the rest, otherwise you won't be able to knead it anymore."
"But... I can't stir it anymore..." Su Xuanhe rubbed his sore shoulders.
"Because the stirring you just did in one direction was just mixing the water and flour, not actually kneading the dough. Waiting until the flour and water are fully mixed before continuing to stir is not only tiring, but the dough won't become smooth and elastic." Su Qingluan didn't really want to "abuse child labor" after all. She pointed to the stool she had just pulled over and said, "If you're tired, take a rest first. Watch how I knead the dough later, and you can learn from me."
Su Xuanhe shook his head: "My arms are just a little sore, not too tired."
Su Qingluan nodded, scooped out a large piece of dough, and put the remaining one-third of the dough back: "Then watch how I exert my strength and move."
Su Xuanhe nodded and watched as Su Qingluan used the heel of her palm to squeeze and knead the dough. Children always have a strong ability to imitate, and after watching for a few times, Su Xuanhe was eager to try it himself.
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