Cut twenty catties of pork fat into cubes, put them in a pot to render oil, and slowly render them over low heat until the oil in the pot shrinks and becomes dry and yellow, and all of it floats to the top, leaving the clear, watery lard at the bottom.
Xu Milu used a slotted spoon to scoop all the fried edges into a large bowl. The freshly fried edges were still sizzling. One bite and your mouth is full of the aroma of oil.
Ignoring the high temperature, she calmly served a large bowl of fried dough to each of Chenxiang, Daizi, and Aqing:
"Here you go. Be careful not to burn your mouth when you eat it. There is white sugar, chili powder, and salt and pepper. Dip yourself in whatever you like."
"Chenxiang, after you finish eating, wash the peach blossoms and peaches clean. I'll need them later. Also, bring forty, no, eighty catties of refined flour from the storeroom."
The freshly fried pork belly was fragrant and sizzling with oil. Aqing and Daizi sat on the shop threshold, dipping it in salt and pepper and eating it one bite at a time, their mouths filled with the aroma, making the passing children drool.
Do you want some too?
Aqing didn't find it greasy at all, and even learned to invite the children on the street to eat with her. However, she was so beautiful and alluring that people dared not approach her. The woman with the child quickly stopped her and left with her child, covering their faces.
Xu Milu patted the flour off her hands and comforted Aqing, saying:
"Don't blame them. This lard is a good thing. Ordinary people might not even get to eat it once a month. If you're so generous, you might be mistaken for a kidnapper."
"Then I won't eat it, but I'll make you some snacks instead."
Aqing put down her food, peeked over curiously, and asked:
"Huh? These are peach blossoms? Peach blossoms can be used to make desserts?"
"Of course, many flowers are edible. Peach blossoms, pear blossoms, apricot blossoms, and jasmine flowers can be used to make tea, while magnolia blossoms, banana blossoms, and pumpkin blossoms can be coated in batter and deep-fried. They are all delicious."
Today, I'm making peach blossom pastries, so I'm just borrowing the color and aroma of peach blossoms.
As Xu Milu spoke, she continued to move, weighing out another forty catties of white flour. She divided it into two large basins, one containing wheat ears, eggs, water, and the juice extracted from peach blossoms, and the other containing lard. Without much kneading, she simply formed two large, smooth and delicate dough balls.
"If you want your pastries to have a lot of flaky crust, you can't skimp on the lard. Pastries with lard taste better."
Chenxiang brought over a basket of washed peaches. Xu Milu skillfully peeled and diced them, then poured them into a pot and simmered them over low heat. As the fruit softened and gradually thickened, a sour and astringent sweet aroma filled the air.
"My wife is making jam!"
Dai Zi was so tempted that she clapped her hands as she smelled the aroma: "That rascal isn't here, let's eat our snacks behind his back, without him! Hehehe!"
—This rascal snake is naturally referring to Mo Xuan. He has many relatives in the aquatic tribe, and he hosts large and small banquets. This time, he won't be able to return for at least ten days to half a month while visiting his relatives.
Xu Milu's jam is on the sweeter side, and she added a lot of wild honey to the peach jam. The resulting jam is thick and clings to the sides of the bowl, and even a little bit of it can make you feel sweet inside.
By this time, the dough has been resting for a while. Take out the water-egg dough and the pure oil dough, cut them into equal-sized pieces, and spread out layers of water-egg dough and pure oil dough.
Fold the dough into thirds, roll it out, let it rest for ten minutes, fold it into thirds again, and let it rest again. Repeat this process several times until layers of dough appear on the surface.
With the pastry side up, wrap the fillings inside, such as mung bean paste, red bean paste, and salted egg yolk. Then, make five evenly spaced slits in the pastry before deep-frying.
"Sizzle sizzle sizzle..."
The moment the pastry comes into contact with the hot oil, countless tiny, yellow bubbles resembling crab eyes appear in the boiling oil. Once the bubbles dissipate, a peach blossom pastry with layers upon layers and five petals is revealed to everyone.
"Wow! It really looks like a peach blossom! What an exquisite dessert! What a beautiful appearance!"
Aqing praised the freshly baked peach blossom pastries again and again, unable to resist looking at them from all angles, but dared not touch them, for fear of knocking off the "petals".
"Puff pastry should be eaten while it's hot."
Xu Milu fried a plateful, then turned off the heat and invited everyone to try it: "This time the pastry is really good. I rolled it out several times, so there are more layers of pastry, making it fluffier."
She tried it once and was very satisfied:
The flaky pastry has distinct layers, with the aroma of dough and oil mingling with the sweetness of the filling. The pastry makes a crisp "crunch crunch" sound as it hits your teeth, so flaky it crumbles.
The group ate their fill of the freshly baked pastries, and then bought up the entire first batch. Xu Milu seized the opportunity and made all the remaining dozens of kilograms of dough into pastries in one go.
One pound of flour can make three pounds of sugar cakes, and even more when made into flaky pastries. With the addition of fillings such as red and green bean paste and salted egg yolks, eighty pounds of flour can yield nearly two hundred pounds of flaky pastries!
Xu Milu frying things for a whole day, and the pot was almost burned through by the overly excited fire spirit.
However, they had a very fruitful experience, with every table in the shop filled with various kinds of flaky pastries: almond peach blossom mille-feuille, mung bean lotus blossom mille-feuille, red bean apricot blossom mille-feuille, peach jam mille-feuille, salted egg yolk chrysanthemum mille-feuille, hazelnut walnut mille-feuille, raisin mille-feuille, pine nut milk mille-feuille...
The whole street was filled with the aroma of pastries, and many mountain spirits and wild ghosts were peering longingly from the doorways, wanting a taste of the snacks.
"It smells so good...the snacks smell so good..."
"Madam Xu is back? Madam Xu made some pastries and fruits, I wonder if she'll sell them or not!"
"What beautiful pastries! I wonder how much they cost?"
"You blockhead! The pastries at Madam Xu's shop are so rare, you can only dream of getting a bite!"
"Having done so much, will Madam Xu sell it or not?"
"Slurp...slurp...I haven't smelled such a good aroma in so long...slurp..."
"Twenty catties will be kept to honor Master and my uncles, three catties will be given to Sister Yin, ten catties will be sent to Huasheng Temple for almsgiving, ten catties will be kept for me to give away, five catties will be given to Chenxiang, and some will be kept for ourselves..."
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