Free Web NovelChapter 620: Chapter 613: I Can Handle It Myself
When Fu Yu initially proposed going to the storeroom, his understanding of the dough and jujube was limited to what Pang Bowen had casually found online.
However, after hands-on teaching practice, Fu Yu became extremely familiar with the cooking process.
He prepared all the necessary ingredients.
Fu Yu returned to the baking area.
Pang Bowen asked with concern, "Xiaofu, can you handle it yourself? Do you need Xiaozou to lend you a hand?"
Xue Yuli and Zou Anna were working together on making durian crepes.
The crepes were prepared by Fu Yu, and now they just needed to be layered with cream and durian flesh.
Fu Yu shook his head, "No need, I can do it myself."
Xue Yuli and Zou Anna, having heard Pang Bowen, quickly responded, "Chef Fu, if you need help, just let us know!"
Fu Yu smiled and nodded.
When Fu Yu used to cook, Zhang Jinyu was always by his side, with assistants on standby.
During cooking, he could chat and joke around with others.
But now, at the dessert shop, he could only exchange a few words with Pang Bowen, making sure to be mindful of his status.
He felt somewhat restrained.
Fu Yu didn’t start immediately; instead, he leisurely took out his phone and opened a video app.
Beside him, Pang Bowen was curious, "Xiaofu, what are you up to?"
"Watching a baking tutorial for dough and jujube," Fu Yu replied calmly, "I’ve never made this before, nor have I dabbled in this area of pastry baking."
Whether it was an illusion or not, the baking area fell silent at his words.
Xue Yuli quietly approached and asked, "Boss, can Chef Fu do it?"
Pang Bowen glanced at Fu Yu’s face, his tone filled with uncertainty, "You never know until you try. It might just work out!"
Fu Yu pretended to look through a couple of videos, scanning them briefly.
As Pang Bowen mentioned, dough and jujube is an emerging item with limited information available online.
The few cooking videos that did exist lacked detailed steps.
Rather than cooking videos, they were more like tasting videos.
When bloggers tasted the dough and jujube, they vividly described its appearance, ingredients, and taste.
After reviewing the related videos, Fu Yu managed to gain some insights and noted down a few innovative methods for making dough and jujube.
He believed he had covered everything flawlessly, understanding how to make the dough and jujube and mastering the baking process.
Thus, Fu Yu began baking.
In reality, baking the dough and jujube was just an experiment; even Pang Bowen didn’t have high expectations.
After all, it hadn’t yet become popular. Even if Fu Yu failed to produce an authentic dough and jujube, it wouldn’t matter.
Nevertheless, for the sake of the grand vision painted by Pang Bowen, Fu Yu hoped to make the perfect dough and jujube.
He placed flour, all-purpose flour, and yeast into a bowl, adding a small amount of water, and stirred.
Because yeast is granular, it wouldn’t dissolve without a bit of water, risking small yellow spots during steaming.
After stirring, he added sugar and baking powder.
The baking powder was added along the edge of the bowl to facilitate kneading later.
He continued to add water, reserving a little to dissolve the red yeast powder.
Red yeast powder is very light and its color is intense, so the amount must be controlled precisely.
Fu Yu had failed countless times in practice sessions before.
Most often, the color of the final product was either too light or too dark. The dark date color is inherently deep, akin to a reddish-brown, but the dough is not a real date, so it would be slightly lighter than the reddish-brown.
This proportion is notoriously hard to perfect.
Through numerous attempts, Fu Yu gradually figured out the amount that closest resembled the natural hue of dates.
Next, Fu Yu began kneading the dough.
He was already proficient at this step.
He kneaded until evenly mixed, then added water if needed based on the dough’s softness or hardness.
Fu Yu could clearly feel the dough was slightly dry and hard, so he carefully controlled the water to what he deemed just right.
He kneaded it thoroughly until it was smooth.
Ordinarily, Fu Yu would opt for a dough press.
It saves effort and can knead the dough thoroughly.
But since he was baking in front of Pang Bowen and was making a small quantity, Fu Yu felt a demonstration of his skills was necessary.
After all, future collaborations would depend on his abilities, which would correlate with his share of the profits.
After kneading the dough, Fu Yu let it rest.
Once rested, kneading it once more made it even smoother.
During the resting period, Fu Yu made the date paste filling.
The main ingredient was dates.
The dessert shop used high-quality dates shipped from Xinjiang, with sweet and succulent flesh.
Fu Yu cleaned the dates and then steamed them.
He strained the mass, ensuring the date paste had no red spots.
The date skins were sieved out, leaving none behind.
After making the date paste, he added some oil and fried it until firm, ready for use later.
While frying, for added texture, Fu Yu specifically included small cut-up pieces of peeled date flesh.
The rested dough was kneaded again.
This time, it felt smoother and less tough.
As Fu Yu kneaded, he mentally recalled the instructions given in the practice sessions.
In essence, dough and jujube is a type of figurative dim sum, with creativity drawn from life.
The challenging parts lie in shaping and coloring the dough.
Each piece of dough requires dedicated research and color design.
While processing, Fu Yu spent most of his time on these two steps.
This is because during preparation, the ingredients used were devoid of synthetic colors, relying on natural ones, making coloring more challenging.
Multitasking, Fu Yu reminisced about the previous practice sessions while letting the kneaded dough rest.
After the second rest, Fu Yu started portioning.
The aim was to knead the overall color of the dough uniformly.
This was crucial to prevent the finished product from having varying color shades.
Another vital aspect was ensuring the dough was smooth and moisturized.
Otherwise, the steamed dough wouldn’t be smooth.
In the practice sessions, the proportions for dough and jujube in the filling and portions were precise.
With 8 grams of filling, the portions needed to be 10 grams each.
Relying on his exceptional tactile sense, Fu Yu didn’t even use a scale.
A casual pinch and roll gave rise to a row of identical date paste balls and portions.
