Chapter 320 - 142: Pastry? This Is Simply a Work of Art

Chapter 320: Chapter 142: Pastry? This Is Simply a Work of Art

The same principle applied to the Fire Dragon Fruit.

Before long, the two portions of red and yellow liquid were ready.

On Su Chen’s end, thanks to Old Ba’s earlier pointers, he had a newfound understanding of how to use various types of flour.

This time, he went straight for all-purpose flour.

The first requirement for a lotus crisp was that the finished product must look like a lotus flower. Whether or not it was delicious was actually secondary.

The stamen of a lotus is yellow, so he mixed the all-purpose flour with lard, then poured in the prepared pumpkin juice and began to knead the dough.

With just a few kneads, the flour in the mixing bowl transformed into a yellow ball of dough, leaving no sticky residue on the bowl’s sides.

Chen the Eighth watched this, completely astounded. "Boss Su, your progress... you’ve improved again, just from a moment ago?"

It had only been half an hour, but his progress was visible to the naked eye!

’If that’s the case, then Boss Su probably hasn’t been practicing in secret at all. This son of a bitch is a pure, natural talent!’

Of course, Chen Wenliang didn’t know that with the bonus from his [Precise Strike] badge, combined with the passive sensory enhancement from his White Jade Hand, Su Chen was extremely sensitive when it came to the feel of things.

In the old days, masters were fond of using vague terms like "a suitable amount" or "a pinch." This was mainly because, for many dishes, adjustments had to be made on the fly based on the actual condition of the ingredients.

It wasn’t easy to nail down a specific quantity.

Therefore, apprentices had to spend years upon years relying on their own experience and feel to decipher the true meaning behind such words.

Su Chen didn’t say anything, but Chen Wenliang was still filled with a mix of shock and admiration.

"Apprentices these days are too quick to use machines. To be honest, handmade is still better. A skill like yours would take others three to five years to learn. The key is that handmade work is delicate; it’s not as rigid as a machine."

Su Chen finished kneading the yellow dough for the stamen. "Alright, Brother Ba, you can stop praising me. People have things they’re passionate about. When you truly love something, you naturally have the drive for it. Most apprentices today are just trying to make a living. It’s different."

Chen Wenliang nodded in agreement.

It was true. The energy invested in learning for a living was bound to be different from learning out of passion.

He set the stamen dough aside to rest. Next was to make the petal dough using the Fire Dragon Fruit juice.

Here, Su Chen ran into a difficult problem.

"Brother Ba, lotus petals have a color gradient," Su Chen said, pulling out a picture. "See? The edge of the petal is pink, but it gets lighter toward the center, until the innermost part is actually white."

"This..." Chen Wenliang was dumbfounded.

’No one else gets this complicated when making lotus crisps. They just use a uniform Fire Dragon Fruit juice for the dough. The final blasted lotus crisps still look plenty like lotus flowers.’

The only difference was that the petals were a solid pink.

"Can you solve this problem?"

Chen Wenliang shook his head with a wry smile. "Boss Su, you’re too much of a perfectionist. I can only think of splicing the dough, but that would inevitably create blemishes. I’m afraid the result wouldn’t be worth the effort."

Su Chen shook his head. "I have another idea, but I can’t do it myself. You should give it a try."

Su Chen poured the Fire Dragon Fruit juice into three separate bowls. He added different amounts of clear water to the second and third bowls, making their colors progressively lighter. The liquid in the last bowl was so diluted it was almost clear.

Only a very faint trace of pink was visible.

After kneading three separate balls of dough with the three different shades of liquid, Su Chen said, "Is it possible to wrap the dough balls inside one another according to their color, from darkest to lightest, and then use some kind of technique to merge them?"

In other words, he wanted to combine the three balls of dough into one, but without disturbing the color layers. This meant he couldn’t knead it!

One knead, and the effect would be ruined!

"I’ll... give it a try?"

Chen Wenliang formed the darkest dough into a large, flat disc. He shaped the next one into a smaller disc, and did the same with the last, lightest one.

He then laid the three dough discs on the cutting board and began to repeatedly pat them with his palm, working from the center outwards.

’This is a good method. It’s slow, but I can clearly see the discs of dough are merging.’

Su Chen observed Old Ba’s technique and noticed something interesting.

As Old Ba patted the dough, he constantly adjusted the force and angle of his hands based on the degree of fusion. After a good ten minutes of this, Chen the Eighth let out a heavy breath.

"Boss Su, what do you think? Will this work?"

A single sheet of dough now showed three gradient colors, from the outer ring to the inner. Just looking at it, it was already beautiful.

Su Chen looked at the dough with satisfaction. "It should work. I’ve never tried it before, so we’ll only know for sure once it’s done."

He covered the two types of dough and set them aside to rest. Now, Su Chen had to make the oil-based roux.

The purpose of the roux was to create flakiness, giving the final product more distinct layers after being blasted.

This was simply flour and lard, rubbed together until uniform.

Once the roux was ready, the stamen dough had also finished resting. Su Chen took out the dough and handed it to Chen Wenliang. "You do it."

"Me?" Chen the Eighth pointed at himself. "You think I can do it?"

"You’re definitely better at it than I am." Su Chen was telling the truth. He had tried rolling it out himself a few times in the practice room, and the results were never satisfactory.