Chapter 321: Chapter 109 Rose Cake, Almond Buddha Hand_3
In the kitchen, Du Xixi naturally couldn’t hear Ke Xing’s "grand" explanation. She had already asked 2569 to fetch various kinds of flour from the cupboard. Taking a deep breath, she began today’s pastry making.
Rose cake and Almond Buddha Hand are traditional pastries of Blue Star. In fact, rose cake doesn’t require rose petals or rose jam, whereas for Almond Buddha Hand, the filling needs rose petals to make a rose red bean paste.
These two pastries, the former crispy and fragrant, the latter soft and sticky, both have unique and beautiful appearances, making them quite suitable for Mo Ying and the others to taste together.
Du Xixi first made the rose cake, a naturally "blooming" pastry after frying that requires two differently colored doughs for wrapping. Du Xixi added edible plant pigment to the two doughs and stored them in a preservation bag, completing the preparation of the water-oil dough.
Next was the oil pastry. Having followed Du Xixi many times in making oil pastry, 2569 naturally took over this task, so Du Xixi proceeded to the next step, adjusting the red bean paste filling.
The yellow dough, layered with oil pastry, wrapped the filling, and the red dough, also treated with oil pastry, wrapped the yellow dough—layer by layer, rounded "buds" appeared in Du Xixi’s hands.
These "buds" were neatly placed on a tray; they needed to be frozen for a few hours. Du Xixi took advantage of the freezing time to start making Almond Buddha Hand.
Sweet almonds were ground into granular powder, mixed into the flour, kneaded into a light yellow dough, which seemed to be emitting a slightly bitter, sweet almond aroma.
Fresh rose petals were made into rose jam and poured into the red bean filling, evenly stirred to show a beautiful dark red color. Under the light, crystal shine could be seen.
Fine rose petals hid their essence within the crystal shine.
Almond Buddha Hand does not use Buddha’s Hand fruit. It bears the name "Buddha’s Hand" due to its shape—the dough later needs to be pinched into a Buddha’s Hand-like appearance, with fingers clustering together, akin to the unique and delicate stance of Buddha’s Hand.
Mo Ying and the others arrived not too early or too late, just in time for the two pastries to be fresh out of the oven. Du Xixi was busy making a large table of lunch, so 2569 brought them to the living room for everyone to enjoy.
"Is this the rose cake and Almond Buddha Hand Xixi mentioned?" Mo Ying, the main guest, excitedly sat on the sofa, curiously looked at the two steaming pastries, washed her hands, and directly reached for a rather hot rose cake, carefully bit into it.
The expected crispness, the unexpected sweetness—Mo Ying felt the crispness of the rose cake right away at the first bite. By the second bite, the crispy outer layer surrounded the sweet filling inside, blending with the sweetness of the red bean and the resilience of the crust, truly delicious.
Mo Feng and some brothers went through great lengths to see Yiyi and Er Er, even working "night shifts." So despite having tidied themselves up, they couldn’t hide the fatigue in their eyes.
Mo Feng and Sun Mulin were the least reserved. These two brothers cleaned their hands with tissues and, quite instinctively, picked up the unusually shaped Almond Buddha Hand, eager to taste how a uniquely shaped delicacy would taste.
Anything Du Xixi makes, they love it, so Mo Feng and Sun Mulin had high expectations for this Almond Buddha Hand. But once they tasted it, they realized their expectations could be limitless!
The "Buddha’s Hand" shaped outer shell was soft, paired with the light rose fragrance inside and the sweet red bean flavor—one bite and it could truly be called "delicious lingering on the lips."
"So tasty!" Mo Feng and Sun Mulin ate without raising their heads. Naturally, it was Mo Ying who said this, having eaten a piece of rose cake and now eyeing an Almond Buddha Hand, she continued eating unabashedly.
"Ah Qian, why aren’t you eating?" Ke Xing also grabbed some pastries to eat. As he ate, he didn’t forget to tease his two grandsons, but seeing Diwu Qian, sitting beside him, looking pale and seemingly unwell, he asked with concern.
Diwu Qian had just switched shifts at the hospital, having completed surgery upon leaving, so he was not only physically exhausted but also lacked an appetite.
He looked at the two plates of continuously fragrant pastries, although he didn’t want to refuse Ke Xing’s kindness, he truly had no appetite and could only regretfully say, "Forget it, I’d better wait a while before eating."
Ke Xing saw that he really had no appetite for pastries and vaguely guessed that he’d just come after surgery, so he smiled understandingly without insisting he eat them.