How does it feel to walk out in front of a hundred people and be praised to the skies by Nanny Si, the sweets clerk?
This is the feeling of social death!
Su Wan was almost numb.
Fortunately, there was a lot of work in the Dessert Department, and the Right Manager of the Miscellaneous Storehouse stopped her, so she escaped the disaster.
However, everyone present, whether it was the seventy people from the Miscellaneous Library or the one hundred people who were transferred here, knew Su Wan!
The Zaliku was supposed to have one hundred men, but only thirty followed Deputy Chancellor Li of the Zaliku to the palace.
In the next ten days, 170 people will start making Mid-Autumn Festival mooncakes.
It is basically divided into two parts, one for palace maids and the other for ministers, princes and nobles in the court.
The palace maids don't need to look exquisite, as long as they taste delicious.
In addition, it requires a bit of ingenuity.
This was done in previous years.
This year is a little different. The Shangshi Bureau has just been incorporated into the Ministry of Rites, and someone is watching everything they do and say.
The food during this period is not shameful, and the Mid-Autumn Festival snacks should be better.
Not only the Imperial Palace needs to work quickly, but the temporary palace as well.
If both sides work together, they will not bring shame to the Ministry of Rites or the Imperial Food Bureau!
In total, the palace maids had to prepare 15,000 mooncakes.
Nine thousand mooncakes need to be prepared outside the palace, which is not a small number.
Because the requirements for making mooncakes are different, the people are divided into two groups.
Ninety of them make mooncakes for the palace, and eighty make mooncakes outside the palace.
Su Wan was naturally assigned to the group outside the palace that made more exquisite mooncakes.
It is said to be ten days, and ten days later it is the Mid-Autumn Festival on August 15th. The palace can distribute it on the same day, but it must be sent out outside the palace at least one day in advance.
So the difference in numbers is not that big.
Su Wan was personally led by the nanny from the dessert department, and she also took the others to visit the dessert department, which was roughly divided into four large workbenches, separated by huge screens.
The two in the middle are used to make snacks that are needed on daily basis, so they must not be cut off.
The left side is for those outside the palace, and the right side is for those inside the palace.
The transferred palace maids have not arrived yet, but the division of labor has already been made clear.
Chunxiang followed Su Wan, so she could naturally stand in front and subconsciously stood on tiptoe to look inside.
The tools for making desserts here are really professional!
After seeing this, Su Wan wanted to say that she wanted a set of such tools!
The molds used to make mooncakes are extremely exquisite, worthy of the palace's dessert department.
The ingredients needed to make mooncakes are also ready.
But Nanny in charge of the dessert department did not let everyone start right away. Instead, she asked them to familiarize themselves with the place so that they could concentrate on their work, and then looked at Su Wan.
As soon as Su Wan saw this look, she knew that they wanted to have a private chat.
Sure enough, when the two of them walked to a slightly remote place, even Chunxiang couldn't follow them.
The dessert department nanny said, "Do you know the heavy responsibility our food department has this time?"
Su Wan nodded slightly: "Well, this is the first time we make festival gifts after joining the Ministry of Rites. It also gives us face."
"Yes, now it seems that all parties have no objections. In fact, many people are waiting to see what the Shangshi Department will do. After all, our female official has been promoted to the rank of fourth-rank official." The sweet food department nanny smiled and said, "We haven't had a female official of the rank of fourth-rank for many years."
"So Concubine Jiang's people, and those who don't know what they are talking about, are just waiting to see us make mistakes."
"So, do you think we should make a good mooncake festival gift this time?"
Good guy, he is so patient and persuasive, just waiting for her to nod.
As long as Su Wan nods, the next words will definitely be simple.
"Wan Wan, do you have any new ideas? How can I make the mooncakes more exquisite? I see that you have extraordinary skills, so you should have other ideas about mooncakes."
Yes, there are.
But I didn’t even nod!
Su Wan didn't know whether to laugh or cry, but she bowed slightly: "Yes, have you heard of glutinous rice mooncakes?"
Since Su Wan was transferred here to help, she already had an idea in mind.
When she was making desserts before, the Dessert Department had asked her many times. This time they specifically asked her, one because they valued her, and two because they wanted to collect opinions.
Who made her have the reputation of "family tradition of learning"?
Looking at the title this time, I feel that we cannot use the term "family tradition" because otherwise it would just give face to certain people.
Su Wan tried to speak calmly: "I have some experience in making desserts before. I am very curious about glutinous rice and glutinous rice flour. I also have some insights into various types of flour."
"I do have an idea in mind, but I haven't tried it yet."
The name of glutinous rice skin mooncake may be unfamiliar to you, but if you change it to snow skin mooncake, there will be no problem at all.
Snow skin mooncakes sound nice, look beautiful, and taste delicious. They can be said to be a hot product in the modern mooncake industry.
But this thing actually existed in ancient times, but people in ancient times were not so fluent in using various types of flours, so the delicious food made was always a little bit lacking.
Sure enough, the sweets nanny said, "Some people have made mooncakes with glutinous rice skins. Let's not talk about the taste, but the skin is easy to crack. Not to mention distributing them to ministers, even ordinary merchants would not make this kind of mooncakes."
Mammy wasn't blaming me, she was telling the truth.
Su Wan said: "I know a way that might work."
Su Wan had thought of many kinds of mooncakes, including those with fresh meat, egg yolk, and ham, but since she was employed by the Ministry of Rites, she naturally had to make the mooncakes beautiful and elegant, and look high-class.
What could be more suitable than snow skin mooncakes?
Of course, you can do all of them, but if several flowers grow together, it won’t be as eye-catching as if one flower stands alone, and it won’t divert your energy to other things.
Snow skin mooncakes look elegant and pleasant, with a subtle fragrance.
The taste is icy, glutinous and smooth, which is very suitable for readers.
In fact, fresh meat mooncakes and egg yolk mooncakes are also delicious, but now I have to give them up and reluctantly choose ice skin mooncakes.
Sometimes it’s not good to have too many delicious foods in your mind, as it’s too difficult for people with decision-making difficulties.
Since Su Wan said there was a way that might work, Auntie Sweets would naturally let her try.
The main reason was that Su Wan’s dessert skills had already been demonstrated before, and the mango sagora she made last time won the emperor’s full praise, which accelerated the speed at which the Shangshi Division entered the Ministry of Rites.
Who wouldn’t cherish such talents?
If the twelve-year-old Shangshenjian Zuo Langzhong hadn't been so exaggerated, I'm afraid their superiors would have wanted to reserve a position for Su Wan.
Not to mention the fifth rank Shangshen Langzhong, even the promotion to the head palace maid was a bit too fast, so everyone was impatient and just waited until next year when Su Wan entered the palace for a year, and then let her be the thirteen-year-old head palace maid, which would be considered the first in the palace.
Nanny Si of the Dessert Department said this in her mind, and she was not speaking nonsense. Everyone knows the story of forcing something to grow too fast. If you are good to Su Wan, you can't flatter her to death.
It is one thing not to flatter them, but it is another thing if they really like them. No one can control this.
After a quarter of an hour in the Dessert Department, both the palace team and the outer palace team started to get busy.
Su Wan wants to try making glutinous rice skin mooncakes, also known as snow skin mooncakes, but she must wait until there are fewer people around. Now she will work with Nanny Si, the sweet chef, to make some ordinary mooncakes.
The first thing to make is naturally the famous five-nut mooncake.
Authentic five-nut mooncakes are made from the finest sugar and the five finest nuts. The more you chew them, the more fragrant they become. They are completely different from some of the less-excellent methods used in later generations.
Just think about it, almonds, peanuts, olives, walnuts, melon seeds, these nuts taste delicious even if they are chewed dry, not to mention they are baked at high temperature with high oil content, high sugar content, how bad can they taste?
Moreover, the five kernels in the five-nut mooncake also represented benevolence, righteousness, propriety, wisdom and trustworthiness in ancient times. Some are also said to represent loyalty, filial piety, trustworthiness, honesty and courage.
No matter how many novel mooncakes are made, the status of five-nut mooncakes cannot be shaken.
During the Mid-Autumn Festival, this would definitely be served at the Tianxiang Kingdom’s Mid-Autumn Night Banquet, and five-nut mooncakes would also be sent to the homes of various officials.
Nanny from the Sweets Department picked up five kinds of nuts skillfully. These kernels were all roasted by the Zaliku itself. There was a group of palace servants outside the door who were still roasting them. Obviously more nuts were needed this year.
Su Wan looked at them and found that each of the nuts had full kernels and was of the best quality.
Not to mention making it into a five-nut mooncake, it will leave a lingering fragrance just by putting it in your mouth.
In addition to nuts, there are two other things that will make you frown when you see them in some modern five-nut mooncakes. They are the red and green strips of food inside, which should be some cheap synthetic fillings made from industrial products in modern times.
But these are not that, but dried and shredded green plums and rose petals.
Green plums and roses are picked in March and April, and the best parts are selected to be dried and pickled. Then they are taken out in August and cut into beautiful red and green strips.
Su Wan was envious of the mooncakes she was making. Let her eat them directly!
If she were to use these ingredients to make five-nut mooncakes herself, I'm afraid most of the ingredients would be wasted.
However, the roses here are not the gorgeous roses that everyone imagines in daily life, but real medicinal roses used as food ingredients. They have single petals and are slightly rose-red. They are not very beautiful, but they taste very sweet.
The beautiful "roses" that are stacked up on weekdays are mostly roses.
If you use the "roses" you buy to make rose filaments directly, they will not taste good.
From the ingredients, you can tell how much attention is paid to making a real five-nut mooncake. The nuts themselves are priceless, not to mention that the green plums and roses have to be prepared since the first half of the year. Only now are the ingredients available to make five-nut mooncakes available.
Su Wan was now helping Nanny in the dessert department. Naturally, she could see that Nanny was very knowledgeable about desserts, so she just had to help quietly.
After these seven fillings are prepared, except for the red and green shreds, the other nuts are pressed into the size of melon seeds to facilitate wrapping later.
While pressing the nuts, start making the outer coating of the mooncake.
First prepare the syrup, alkaline water and vegetable oil and mix well.
Then sift the fine flour, that is, take a fine sieve and pass the flour through the sieve. This way, the flour will definitely not clump together, and each handful will be fine.
Pour the sugar water, alkaline water and vegetable oil just prepared into the flour and start kneading the dough.
The palace servants in other kitchens might not be so proficient in the step of kneading dough, but anyone coming out of the west kitchen is an expert at kneading dough.
With just a few strokes, the dough can become smooth.
But the dough at this time is very different from the previous one. It contains syrup water, alkaline water, and vegetable oil. This kind of dough is particularly difficult to knead, and only Su Wan can do it.
Madam Dessert looked at it with satisfaction and said to everyone, "This is indeed a technical job. Take your time."
If you can knead it, knead it. If you can’t knead it, help with some odd jobs.
After kneading the dough, let it rest for half an hour, which is an hour.
While the dough is resting, I continue to check the filling. At the same time, I take out the small kitchen scale from the dessert department. There are regulations for the weight of both the dough and the filling.
It is the experience summarized by the Dessert Company over the years. It is not an exaggeration to say that it is a recipe, because all recipes are summarized by predecessors or by ourselves.
Crush the filling into similar sizes, add honey and cooked glutinous rice flour and stir. The honey increases the viscosity, and the glutinous rice flour neutralizes some of the taste, so that the whole filling is not too greasy, and can also wrap the chopped filling.
The red and green silk were also poured in, and the stirring action became much slower. This thing is delicate and must be protected carefully.
Moreover, it is difficult to knead and stir after adding honey. However, the filling cannot be too wet, otherwise the water in it will break the mooncake skin when put into the oven.
When the filling is ready, it looks crystal clear.
All the ingredients are very fresh, and we strive to make the fillings in the best condition.
After the kneaded dough has rested, you can pinch it into small dough balls and weigh them. After confirming that it is the specified weight of the dough, roll it into a ball with your hands, continue to press it into a pancake shape, and put the same amount of filling in the middle.
Because the dough is kneaded well, the mooncake skin can be a little thinner. Hold the skin with the tiger's mouth and slowly pinch it, until the top is pinched firmly, and finally roll it into a round shape. After sprinkling some dry powder, put it in the mold to fix the shape.
The whole movement was smooth and flowing, and it was obvious at first glance that Auntie Si was an expert in making mooncakes.
If she could leave the palace with her skills, she would definitely be able to open a nice dim sum shop. But think about it, even if she didn't leave the palace, she would be the housekeeper now, which is quite impressive.
When Auntie Si made a mooncake, everyone exclaimed in amazement. The mooncake she made was really beautiful. The mooncake pressed out of the mold looked round, very beautiful and delicate, with clearly visible patterns and more beautiful shapes.
After making a plate of five-nut mooncakes, Auntie from the Sweets Department began to assign tasks. Those who had some basic skills were responsible for kneading the dough, while those who were not so good were responsible for picking nuts and weighing them.
This plate of five-nut mooncakes can be put into the oven.
Every year, the first plate of mooncakes is made by the most skilled nanny in the pastry department.
It seems that this nanny is the best at cooking.
Su Wan also learned a lot from watching. Nanny's control over the fillings was so precise. While others were still weighing, she could just weigh it with her finger.
Moreover, the mooncakes made have thin skin and rich fillings. As long as the final coloring is good, it will be a perfect mooncake.
The brown color on the mooncakes is not directly from baking.
When it needs to be baked, apply two or three coats of color. There are two ways to apply the coloring water: simply beat the eggs, or add sugar water to the beaten egg yolks.
Dessert Auntie chose the second method, and the roasted color was a beautiful brown and evenly colored.
After baking for a quarter of an hour, you can take them out and color all the mooncakes, and then bake for another quarter of an hour to continue coloring.
The process is clear and has strict requirements step by step.
Nanny from the dessert department also asked Su Wan to color the cakes, which was a special treatment for her.
After all, these are the first batch of mooncakes this year, and Su Wan, the little palace maid, can help out. Everyone knows that she is very skillful.
That's why everyone was so enthusiastic at the door just now.
Su Wan's name is already well-known in the Shangshi Division, and everyone knows this.
The mooncakes that have been colored twice look slightly yellowish, soft and smooth.
But now is not the time when mooncakes taste the best.
At this time, the mooncakes need to be sealed and allowed to absorb the oil for two or three days. Only then can they become the mooncakes that we usually eat.
Baked foods can generally be stored for a period of time, not to mention being stored in an airtight container.
After the oil is restored, the mooncakes become darker in color and look better.
One bite and your mouth is filled with the taste of nuts, sweet and sour green plum shreds, and fragrant rose shreds. This kind of five-nut mooncake will definitely become more fragrant the more you chew it.
It is precisely because of this that it is considered one of the must-have mooncakes for the Mid-Autumn Festival in the imperial palace.
Not only in the palace, but also outside the palace, there are many people selling five-nut mooncakes. Half a month before the Mid-Autumn Festival, all places in Kyoto are busy buying and making mooncakes.
This makes the festive atmosphere even stronger.
Su Wan and her friends were busy for the entire morning. They ate in the storage room and rested for half an hour before continuing to make mooncakes.
This is also the busiest period for the Dessert Department.
The Kyoto Imperial Palace is busy, people outside the palace are busy, and the imperial palace is naturally also preparing.
The head of the Imperial Food Department did not dare to be careless. He had to choose the best from everything from utensils to ingredients, so that he could host this Mid-Autumn Festival banquet successfully with the Guanglu Temple.
Fortunately, no matter what the mentality of Concubine Chu is, she will always respond to requests from the Imperial Food Bureau and can get whatever she wants.
But the chief of the Imperial Kitchen also knew his limits and would not ask for anything without reason.
The cooperation between the two parties was relatively pleasant, except for Concubine Jiang, who was still under house arrest and was gritting her teeth.
It's the sixth day of August. A total of three to four thousand mooncakes were made today, and the one hundred and sixty palace servants were busy from morning to night.
But the total number of items to be made inside and outside the palace is more than 20,000, so we have to rush the work.
When other palace servants returned to their respective palaces to rest one after another, only Su Wan stayed.
When Su Wan came this morning, she said that she thought mooncakes with glutinous rice skin were delicious. However, according to the usual method, Auntie Si of the Sweets Department said that mooncakes with glutinous rice skin would crack easily and could not be made at all.
Such mooncakes were not beautiful enough. Not to mention being fed to ministers, no one would buy them even if they were sent to ordinary stores outside the palace.
But Auntie Si, the dessert maker, is still willing to give Su Wan a chance, maybe Su Wan can come up with some good ideas.
Of course there are. The glutinous rice skin will crack because of the glutinous rice flour itself. If you add some other flour to change its shape, it will become soft, sticky and elastic.
After the other palace servants left, the Dessert Department seemed a little deserted. Only Dessert Madam and Su Wan, as well as a few senior palace maids from the Miscellaneous Storehouse were there.
The right chief of the Zaliku library, who had ordered people to report the incident, came in.
What should I do if four or five people are watching Su Wan making desserts and she feels a little stressed?
However, seeing the wide variety of materials in front of her, no matter what she wanted to use, Su Wan still decided to start immediately.
As expected of a dessert department, they have all the rare ingredients you could want, but most of the ingredients she chose have been used before.
First, the main ingredient is glutinous rice flour, then add sticky rice flour and ground rice powder.
Then there is clarified flour, which is gluten-free flour.
These have been used before, and vegetable oil is used again.
When choosing vegetable oil, you should also pay attention to using oil with less odor, so that the mooncakes made will be delicious and have no peculiar smell.
After pouring several kinds of powder into a bowl, use milk instead of water to make the taste more mellow. At the same time, add fine powdered sugar and prepared vegetable oil.
Mix all the ingredients evenly and set aside to rest for 25 minutes, or half an hour.
Finally, put it directly into a bowl and steam it. It only takes two cups of tea, about twenty minutes.
The steamed glutinous rice flour is soft, so there is no need to start kneading it in a hurry. Let it cool for a while, preferably in an ice cellar.
Next to the dessert department is the ice cellar. It is normal to use ice in desserts, and the ice was brought over quickly.
The chilled glutinous rice flour is not so soft anymore, so just divide it into three types, and then use the vegetable juice that is just waiting to be steamed.
The green color of the vegetable juice and the slightly reddish color of the spinach juice are kneaded into the glutinous rice balls respectively.
You don’t need too much of each, the whole glutinous rice will be dyed with beautiful colors, and you can make snow skin mooncakes of different shapes.
Having done this, Auntie Sweets has already figured out the next steps.
After the glutinous rice balls are made, you can directly put the cooked fillings into them. There are also lotus seed paste and red bean paste fillings on the side.
Simply pinch the glutinous rice dough into small round balls and use them as the snow skin for the mooncakes. Just like the method of making the five-nut mooncakes just now, stuff the fillings and wrap them up.
The only difference is that the crust of regular mooncakes is still made of flour and needs to be baked directly.
Snow skin mooncakes are made from steamed glutinous rice flour. It is originally steamed glutinous rice flour with cooked fillings added.
This snowy mooncake does not need to be baked or fried, and can even be eaten directly?!
Su Wan put the kneaded snow skin mooncake balls on the chopping board and sprinkled fried glutinous rice flour on the mold as a release agent.
After all, the glutinous rice skin itself is very sticky. If you put it directly on the mold, I am afraid that the mold will be covered with glutinous rice skin, which will be a complete failure.
With the fried glutinous rice flour as a mold release agent, the snow skin mooncakes are very complete, the patterns on them are very clear, and there is no sticking at all.
The original color snow skin mooncakes made by Su Wan first look small and exquisite with snow-white color. Compared with regular mooncakes, they have a different beauty.
The red snow skin mooncakes also look crystal clear and rosy and translucent.
The blue one is also very cute.
There is just one thing, this snow skin mooncake is too soft.
Being soft and shapeless is a big taboo for dim sum. It will be fine if it is just pressed now, but it will collapse after a while.
Su Wan laughed when she heard this: "Since it is a snow skin mooncake, it must be frozen."
"You can put it in the ice cellar and eat it tomorrow."
It's already 6 o'clock in the evening. If I get up at 5 or 6 o'clock tomorrow, it will definitely be frozen.
If you are in a hurry, you can actually eat it after leaving it on ice for an hour.
It saves the oil recovery time of regular mooncakes.
Nanny Si’s eyes lit up.
Things placed in the ice cellar will become slightly hard. Other foods may not like this state, but the soft glutinous rice ice skin mooncake is different. What it needs is a slight change in hardness and a cool taste.
It’s cool and refreshing, and the lotus seed paste and red bean paste inside are not too sweet.
The steamed glutinous rice is also very good.
If it is roasted in the conventional way, the skin will crack and it will not look as good as this.
The mooncake skin made in this way has a fairy-like air, as if this is the mooncake that Chang'e in the Moon Palace eats.
Looking at the beautiful mooncakes, Auntie Si of the Sweets Department felt that she had made the right decision by specifically asking Su Wan to come over!
If such an ingeniously crafted item tastes good, it can not only be sent to the homes of ministers in Kyoto, but also to the imperial palace, to add luster to the Mid-Autumn Palace banquet of the chief of the Imperial Food Bureau!
Sure enough, wherever Su Wan goes, there will be good luck and good food.
I really want to keep Su Wan in the Dessert Department forever.
In this way, the dessert department will definitely make more delicious food.
The right-hand man of Zaliku looked at Su Wan with a kind look in his eyes.
This little girl is so likable no matter how you look at her
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