Chapter 200 Making Mooncakes
Li Wanyue nodded, "That's fine. I want to open a dim sum shop. I want Uncle Bai to be the shopkeeper and Aunt Bai to help make dim sum. As for wages, Aunt Bai will get thirty coins a day and Uncle Bai will get one and a half taels of silver a month. If you do a good job, there will be extra rewards and you can take four days off a month. If you are willing, let's sign the contract."
"I am willing to do so. You don't have to pay me. You have helped us a lot. It is only right for us to repay you."
"You can help me take good care of the shop, which is my reward."
After Li Wanyue finished speaking, she took out two deeds and said, "Uncle Bai and Aunt Bai, take a look. If there is no problem, please sign it."
The two of them didn't even look at it, they just wrote their names and put their fingerprints on them.
Li Wanyue put away her copy of the contract and said, "Aunt Bai, let's go learn how to make mooncakes first."
"Ai."
Inside the flower hall, everyone sat neatly.
Several of them came from the county town. Xie Yan had already checked their background and gave their indentures to Li Wanyue.
Seeing her coming, one of the middle-aged men stood up. His name was Guan Tang. He was the former kitchen manager of Xiangmanyuan and also a very skilled chef.
He originally opened a pastry shop, but it was forced to close down due to disruption by the steward of Cao's mansion.
He also framed their entire family, forcing them into slavery and working for the Cao family.
Originally, County Magistrate Cao was imprisoned, and the slaves of the Cao mansion were also going to be sold, so they were very nervous during this period.
Later, the county magistrate said that someone had bought the Xiangmanyuan shop, and the new owner asked them to continue working in the store. Only then did they feel relieved.
Now it seems that the new boss is easy to talk to.
When the others saw Guan Tang stand up, they quickly stood up and followed him to salute.
Li Wanyue said: "Master Guan, there is no need to be polite, and the others don't need to be polite either. From now on, just do your job well and I won't treat you unfairly."
"yes."
"Mid-Autumn Festival is coming soon. Let's make something suitable for the occasion. The ingredients are all ready in the kitchen. Master Guan, please take your people to make some snacks that have sold well during the Mid-Autumn Festival in the past."
Guan Tang responded and followed Wang Guixiang to the kitchen.
Li Wanyue looked at the others and continued, "Aunts, sisters-in-law, sisters, you are all people my family trusts, but when it comes to business, there are some things that need to be said in advance.
If you want to do something, please put your fingerprint on the deed in a moment. The recipe of the pastry is not allowed to be revealed. If it is revealed, once it is found out who made it, they will have to compensate for the loss of 100 taels of silver. Please supervise each other. If you see anyone behaving suspiciously, tell me or my family. There will be a reward after verification.
Of course, I believe that the aunts and sisters-in-law will not tell anyone about the recipe, I am just saying this to remind everyone."
Mrs. Hu immediately said, "Yueyue, don't worry, I won't tell anyone."
The Cheng family also echoed: "That's right. We women don't dare to speak loudly at home because we can't make money. Now it's good. Yueyue is willing to give me a chance to make money. After hearing about it, my family members treat me better than before."
Everyone agreed.
Li Wanyue nodded: "Speaking of this is also for our common interests. Let's learn how to do it first."
Afterwards, Sun Xiuqin was asked to take Hu's daughter-in-law to make cat ears. This could be imitated without much thought, and she was not afraid of others learning from her.
Wang Guixiang took Chen Cuihua to make glutinous rice noodles.
The rest of the people are responsible for making mooncakes.
Soon, Master Guan and his men came out with a few plates of dim sum.
There are mung bean cakes, osmanthus cakes, peach blossom cakes, and puff pastry mooncakes. It seems that there are no Cantonese-style mooncakes here.
She tasted it and found it tasted good, but the mooncake crust was a little hard.
Afterwards, Li Wanyue took out the prepared ingredients and began to teach how to make mooncakes.
One is the puff pastry mooncake, and the most important thing about puff pastry mooncake is the puff pastry.
Add sugar, lard and water to flour, knead it into dough, and let it rise for one incense stick of time. Then, knead the flour and lard into a separate dough to make puff pastry.
Add cooked oil to the fried flour, add walnut kernels, melon seeds, black sesame seeds and crushed sugar, mix well, add some water to form a ball, and the filling is ready.
Knead the dough and divide it into small pieces. Flatten it and then pinch some puff pastry to wrap it into a ball. This is to make it crispy.
Roll the pastry into a long thin strip, roll it up and roll it again, then roll it into a dough sheet, wrap the filling, seal it and flatten it.
The other is the Cantonese-style mooncake.
Without invert syrup, it can only be simplified.
Add some sugar, honey and egg liquid into a bowl and stir. Then add cooked vegetable oil and stir while adding. Then add appropriate amount of flour, stir evenly, press to mix, then cover with a lid and let the dough rest for one incense stick of time.
When the time comes, pinch a piece of dough, flatten it, wrap it with red bean paste or five-nut filling, seal the opening, put it into the mold and press it, and the mooncake is ready.
Master Guan didn't take it seriously at first, but the more he looked at it, the more surprised he became.
How could a country girl make such a dessert?
It was also the first time for the onlookers to see this kind of mooncake. In the past, they had mostly seen crispy and baked mooncakes, but this was the first time they had seen a baked one.
The last step is baking. Without an oven, it is difficult to control the heat.
Li Wanyue also took advantage of her free time to try more than a dozen times before finally baking a better mooncake.
The fire in the oven has been lit. Wait until the temperature rises, then take out two pieces of firewood, leaving one thick and one thin.
Put the puff pastry mooncakes on an iron plate and then put it into a small earthen kiln-style oven. Let Zhao Suying watch over it. It will only take about a quarter of an hour.
She picked up the pan again and seared some more.
The crispy mooncakes are out of the pan, and the surface is golden and the color looks better.
The color is slightly lighter when baked.
Li Wanyue asked everyone to taste the food.
Everyone praised it after tasting it, saying that the crust was crispy and the filling was sweet and not greasy.
Master Guan and several masters from Xiangmanyuan also nodded secretly.
Li Wanyue started baking Cantonese-style mooncakes again.
After the oven has been preheated for almost half an hour, put the mooncakes in and bake for half a quarter of an hour. Take them out and brush them with a light layer of egg liquid, then put them in and bake for another quarter of an hour.
Golden mooncakes would be nice.
They are very experienced and can get started after watching it once.
In the afternoon, Li Wanyue taught them how to add some ground pumpkin powder and green vegetable powder when making the dough.
Use the carved persimmon mold to make persimmon-shaped mooncakes.
Butterfly pea flowers are used to boil water, which is a blue-purple color. The dough is then boiled in boiling water and filled with mung bean paste. After it is done, it is steamed for half a quarter of an hour and it becomes a blue-purple mooncake.
After Master Guan and his companions learned how to make the mooncakes, it was time to return to the county town. Li Wanyue packed up some mooncakes for them to take back.
She said, "Go back and prepare well. The business will open in two days. If you have any questions, go to find Mr. Shen of Moxiangzhai."
"yes."
"By the way, if you want to redeem your indenture, that's fine too. We can then sign an employment contract and you can continue to work in the store."
Master Guan and others looked up suddenly and stared at her in disbelief.
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