“Making Sweets”
“First up will be sweet potatoes.”
I immediately began preparing the sweets for the tea party by first making confections I’d produced in the past. To start with, I would make sweet potatoes and pudding that I’d made before.
For some reason, even though I’d given Ruzzo the recipes for these two already, he was watching my cooking intently as if mesmerized.
“Such skill…”
“Anyone can do it with practice.”
I responded casually to Ruzzo’s flattery while thinking about what other sweets I should make next. Since I hadn’t been creating new confections recently, I wanted to expand my repertoire here. After considering various options, I decided to add pancakes and crepes.
For the pancakes, I had secured wheat flour and eggs but couldn’t get baking powder in this world. So to help improve the texture a little, I came up with the idea of sifting the wheat flour.
Sifting was a necessary process when making flour-based confections to begin with. By carefully sifting the flour two or three times, it improved the finished texture and flavor. I’d take advantage of that here.
“Rolando-sama, what are you doing there?”
“I’m sifting this wheat flour.”
“Sifting?”
Apparently, the process of sifting didn’t exist in this world. Ruzzo peered curiously at what I was doing.
Left with no choice, I baked some pancakes using unsifted flour and flour I had sifted three times to let him taste the difference. It became clear there was a noticeable difference in texture and flavor from the sifting, which got an excited, childlike reaction from him.
“Amazing… I can’t believe just sifting makes this much difference!”
“It’s an essential step for making these kinds of sweets, so remember it.”
Saying that, I next moved on to making crepes. Since pancakes and crepes use the same batter but just different thicknesses, I took that same batter and used a frying pan to spread it thin without burning it.
When it started turning a golden color, I removed it from the pan and topped it with chopped fruit and the whipped cream I had prepared ahead of time using milk acquired from Saverdales, combining them.
Ideally, I’d want to use fresh cream, but that would be asking too much in this world. For now, I’ll make do with whipped cream. I’ll make fresh cream someday!
Each time a crepe topped with various fruits was completed, Ruzzo heaped praise, finally beginning to revere me saying “I’m the happiest chef in the world to encounter so many dishes like these!”
Certainly, in this world, there were few options in their culinary repertoire, and even that limited selection tended to be concealed as individual chefs’ secret recipes. As such, there were few recipes that chefs in general knew, so even if someone created a new recipe it would end up being hidden away as that chef’s original.
But in my case, I was freely teaching Ruzzo all these recipes, so for him, it was a valuable chance to learn about many different dishes.
Next, I created a fruit punch using fruit. The preparation simply involves adding sugar to water and then soaking fruit in it. I used magic to accelerate time for efficiency, producing a fruit-infused syrup substitute for the fruit punch base. That’s all there was to it.
There were no especially difficult steps, but a mistake with the amount of sugar would produce an unbearably sweet fruit punch, so I had to balance the fruit’s natural sugars while achieving a pleasant flavor.
“So it’s not as simple as just mixing fruit together.”
“Yeah, depending on the fruit mix the flavor and taste changes too. You can make seasonal fruit punches with whatever’s in season.”
“I’ll be sure to try it.”
As Ruzzo soaked up various tips from me, we carried out test production of the dishes to serve at the tea party, but eventually, I started getting fed up with hangers-on and yelled at the kitchen door.
“Whoever’s peeping out there, come out!”
“Terribly sorry, Rolando-sama! I stopped them but…”
It was a throng of female servants led by the head maid Mia. Unable to resist the temptation of sweet confections, they had neglected their duties and were hungrily eyeing the scene from outside the kitchen.
Though I vaguely noticed the numbers gradually increasing using my detection skill, I never imagined even the respectable head maid would join in leering at the kitchen. I wonder if the allure of sweets can truly attract people to this extent?
In any case, test samples for the tea party sweets were done except for the important taste-testing step. And since these ladies were already here, they could serve as tasters rather than guinea pigs.
“Mia, gather all the servants to the dining area. We’ll have a tasting for the tea party sweets.”
“A-At once, sir!”
Suspecting she was delighted deep down based on her reply tone, I internally smirked while preparing sweets and black tea for the number of people. For the black tea, I used the highest grade available in the capital and added my personal touch to achieve something akin to Earl Grey. I then mixed in milk and honey, reproducing a royal milk tea experience.
I had issued instructions to Mia no more than thirty minutes ago, but all the servants were already assembled in the dining area when I went to check. Either they were really looking forward to this or the women coerced the men into prompt action under threat of some kind. If only they would move this quickly all the time.
“All right, let’s begin the tasting for the black tea and sweets planned for the tea party.”
“Rolando-sama, allow me to assist with serving the food.”
“Please.”
The confections I had stored were placed on tables by maids serving each seat. As for the milk tea, I personally poured each cup and distributed them one by one to the servants.
They seemed embarrassed to be directly served by the master, but their eyes were already sparkling at the array of unfamiliar sweet confections laid out before them. Mocha in particular looked to be biting her finger in anticipation, as if wondering when she would finally get to eat them. I couldn’t help laughing at the sight.
“All right everyone, go ahead and try them.”
At my signal, the servants eagerly began sampling the sweets they had waited so long. In order to verify with my own tongue as well, I carefully tasted and inspected each one.
Beginning with the sweet potatoes, I ate these frequently so there was no issue with flavor. To achieve a smoother mouthfeel, I had repeatedly strained the sweet potatoes used and also liberally employed honey, successfully reproducing their rich sweetness and silky texture.
The pudding then consisted simply of eggs, milk, and sugar – no complex flavors, just a basic unembellished taste. However, it was served with a fruit garnish and whipped cream topping, so the end result resembled pudding a la mode.
Next, the pancakes clearly benefited from sifting the wheat flour, yielding a soft fluffy texture and faint sweetness that spread through my mouth. The honey syrup was also superb, making these indistinguishable from pancakes I’d eaten in my past life.
Similarly, the crepe’s thin savory skin enveloped vibrant fruit and whipped cream, allowing one to enjoy a diverse range of flavors, also with no cause for complaint.
“Delicious!”
“Om nom nom, so good!”
“This is so tasty!”
“Hmm-nom nom nom nom…”
As they competed in singing their praises, there was only about one person who just continuously ate away in silence. It was none other than Mocha, who kept steadily working through the sweets at a constant pace as if by conveyor belt, giving no hint of where they were all going in that slender tightly-toned body of hers.
“So, how is it Mocha? Tasty?”
“Om nom nom nom…“
“I-I see…well, if you’re enjoying them.”
The way she stuffed her cheeks full gave her the air of a squirrel or hamster, and her responses of energetically bobbing her head up and down were also cute and puppyish.
While everyone else seemed to approve as well for the most part, the senior staff members like Sobas and Mia especially enjoyed the royal milk tea, saying the mellow flavor was gentle on the stomach.
Judging both from my palate and others’ opinions that there were no issues with serving these sweets at the tea party, I was about to proceed to the next step when I felt a tug at my clothes from Mocha hovering beside me.
“Yes? What is it?”
“…Still not enough, sir.”
“…”
What a surprise. There should have been around twenty servings of sweets prepared for the servants. Even if we distributed about ten servings each, there should still be about six or seven servings left. However, that surplus had disappeared somehow.
I had confirmed that some of the servants had taken seconds because I had mentioned that refills were allowed. But when on earth did Mocha get seconds? She’s a frightening one.
“They who do not work shall not eat. Besides, overeating is harmful to the body.”
“I understand. I will work, sir.”
Despite the incident with Mocha, the sweets planned for the tea party were now decided. Leaving the rest to Sobas and the others, I focused on mass-producing the sweets scheduled for the day of the event.
Afterward, with the help of the various noble houses, it took three days to complete all the preparations. Despite the challenges, we managed to bring everything to the point where the tea party could take place.
“Making Sweets”
“First up will be sweet potatoes.”
I immediately began preparing the sweets for the tea party by first making confections I’d produced in the past. To start with, I would make sweet potatoes and pudding that I’d made before.
For some reason, even though I’d given Ruzzo the recipes for these two already, he was watching my cooking intently as if mesmerized.
“Such skill…”
“Anyone can do it with practice.”
I responded casually to Ruzzo’s flattery while thinking about what other sweets I should make next. Since I hadn’t been creating new confections recently, I wanted to expand my repertoire here. After considering various options, I decided to add pancakes and crepes.
For the pancakes, I had secured wheat flour and eggs but couldn’t get baking powder in this world. So to help improve the texture a little, I came up with the idea of sifting the wheat flour.
Sifting was a necessary process when making flour-based confections to begin with. By carefully sifting the flour two or three times, it improved the finished texture and flavor. I’d take advantage of that here.
“Rolando-sama, what are you doing there?”
“I’m sifting this wheat flour.”
“Sifting?”
Apparently, the process of sifting didn’t exist in this world. Ruzzo peered curiously at what I was doing.
Left with no choice, I baked some pancakes using unsifted flour and flour I had sifted three times to let him taste the difference. It became clear there was a noticeable difference in texture and flavor from the sifting, which got an excited, childlike reaction from him.
“Amazing… I can’t believe just sifting makes this much difference!”
“It’s an essential step for making these kinds of sweets, so remember it.”
Saying that, I next moved on to making crepes. Since pancakes and crepes use the same batter but just different thicknesses, I took that same batter and used a frying pan to spread it thin without burning it.
When it started turning a golden color, I removed it from the pan and topped it with chopped fruit and the whipped cream I had prepared ahead of time using milk acquired from Saverdales, combining them.
Ideally, I’d want to use fresh cream, but that would be asking too much in this world. For now, I’ll make do with whipped cream. I’ll make fresh cream someday!
Each time a crepe topped with various fruits was completed, Ruzzo heaped praise, finally beginning to revere me saying “I’m the happiest chef in the world to encounter so many dishes like these!”
Certainly, in this world, there were few options in their culinary repertoire, and even that limited selection tended to be concealed as individual chefs’ secret recipes. As such, there were few recipes that chefs in general knew, so even if someone created a new recipe it would end up being hidden away as that chef’s original.
But in my case, I was freely teaching Ruzzo all these recipes, so for him, it was a valuable chance to learn about many different dishes.
Next, I created a fruit punch using fruit. The preparation simply involves adding sugar to water and then soaking fruit in it. I used magic to accelerate time for efficiency, producing a fruit-infused syrup substitute for the fruit punch base. That’s all there was to it.
There were no especially difficult steps, but a mistake with the amount of sugar would produce an unbearably sweet fruit punch, so I had to balance the fruit’s natural sugars while achieving a pleasant flavor.
“So it’s not as simple as just mixing fruit together.”
“Yeah, depending on the fruit mix the flavor and taste changes too. You can make seasonal fruit punches with whatever’s in season.”
“I’ll be sure to try it.”
As Ruzzo soaked up various tips from me, we carried out test production of the dishes to serve at the tea party, but eventually, I started getting fed up with hangers-on and yelled at the kitchen door.
“Whoever’s peeping out there, come out!”
“Terribly sorry, Rolando-sama! I stopped them but…”
It was a throng of female servants led by the head maid Mia. Unable to resist the temptation of sweet confections, they had neglected their duties and were hungrily eyeing the scene from outside the kitchen.
Though I vaguely noticed the numbers gradually increasing using my detection skill, I never imagined even the respectable head maid would join in leering at the kitchen. I wonder if the allure of sweets can truly attract people to this extent?
In any case, test samples for the tea party sweets were done except for the important taste-testing step. And since these ladies were already here, they could serve as tasters rather than guinea pigs.
“Mia, gather all the servants to the dining area. We’ll have a tasting for the tea party sweets.”
“A-At once, sir!”
Suspecting she was delighted deep down based on her reply tone, I internally smirked while preparing sweets and black tea for the number of people. For the black tea, I used the highest grade available in the capital and added my personal touch to achieve something akin to Earl Grey. I then mixed in milk and honey, reproducing a royal milk tea experience.
I had issued instructions to Mia no more than thirty minutes ago, but all the servants were already assembled in the dining area when I went to check. Either they were really looking forward to this or the women coerced the men into prompt action under threat of some kind. If only they would move this quickly all the time.
“All right, let’s begin the tasting for the black tea and sweets planned for the tea party.”
“Rolando-sama, allow me to assist with serving the food.”
“Please.”
The confections I had stored were placed on tables by maids serving each seat. As for the milk tea, I personally poured each cup and distributed them one by one to the servants.
They seemed embarrassed to be directly served by the master, but their eyes were already sparkling at the array of unfamiliar sweet confections laid out before them. Mocha in particular looked to be biting her finger in anticipation, as if wondering when she would finally get to eat them. I couldn’t help laughing at the sight.
“All right everyone, go ahead and try them.”
At my signal, the servants eagerly began sampling the sweets they had waited so long. In order to verify with my own tongue as well, I carefully tasted and inspected each one.
Beginning with the sweet potatoes, I ate these frequently so there was no issue with flavor. To achieve a smoother mouthfeel, I had repeatedly strained the sweet potatoes used and also liberally employed honey, successfully reproducing their rich sweetness and silky texture.
The pudding then consisted simply of eggs, milk, and sugar – no complex flavors, just a basic unembellished taste. However, it was served with a fruit garnish and whipped cream topping, so the end result resembled pudding a la mode.
Next, the pancakes clearly benefited from sifting the wheat flour, yielding a soft fluffy texture and faint sweetness that spread through my mouth. The honey syrup was also superb, making these indistinguishable from pancakes I’d eaten in my past life.
Similarly, the crepe’s thin savory skin enveloped vibrant fruit and whipped cream, allowing one to enjoy a diverse range of flavors, also with no cause for complaint.
“Delicious!”
“Om nom nom, so good!”
“This is so tasty!”
“Hmm-nom nom nom nom…”
As they competed in singing their praises, there was only about one person who just continuously ate away in silence. It was none other than Mocha, who kept steadily working through the sweets at a constant pace as if by conveyor belt, giving no hint of where they were all going in that slender tightly-toned body of hers.
“So, how is it Mocha? Tasty?”
“Om nom nom nom…“
“I-I see…well, if you’re enjoying them.”
The way she stuffed her cheeks full gave her the air of a squirrel or hamster, and her responses of energetically bobbing her head up and down were also cute and puppyish.
While everyone else seemed to approve as well for the most part, the senior staff members like Sobas and Mia especially enjoyed the royal milk tea, saying the mellow flavor was gentle on the stomach.
Judging both from my palate and others’ opinions that there were no issues with serving these sweets at the tea party, I was about to proceed to the next step when I felt a tug at my clothes from Mocha hovering beside me.
“Yes? What is it?”
“…Still not enough, sir.”
“…”
What a surprise. There should have been around twenty servings of sweets prepared for the servants. Even if we distributed about ten servings each, there should still be about six or seven servings left. However, that surplus had disappeared somehow.
I had confirmed that some of the servants had taken seconds because I had mentioned that refills were allowed. But when on earth did Mocha get seconds? She’s a frightening one.
“They who do not work shall not eat. Besides, overeating is harmful to the body.”
“I understand. I will work, sir.”
Despite the incident with Mocha, the sweets planned for the tea party were now decided. Leaving the rest to Sobas and the others, I focused on mass-producing the sweets scheduled for the day of the event.
Afterward, with the help of the various noble houses, it took three days to complete all the preparations. Despite the challenges, we managed to bring everything to the point where the tea party could take place.
