I'm the Culinary God

"The method of making horn-shaped honey is quite simple, basically you can grasp it at a glance."

Lin Xu took out a mixing basin and began to knead the dough.

He added half a bowl of medium flour into the basin, a small spoon of salt for increasing gluten, cracked in two eggs, and then gradually added water in small amounts to the basin to stir the flour into dough flakes.

The eggs were added to enhance the color, making the fried dough crust appear enticingly golden yellow. Without eggs, it would appear light white when fried, lacking in appearance relatively.

Of course, some people fry horn-shaped honey in several colors directly, such as light white without eggs, golden with eggs, and red with fine white sugar, making golden, silver, and red three-color horn-shaped honey, which looks better when matched together.

Exerting force, the dough flakes were kneaded into a somewhat hard dough, placed in the basin and covered with a damp cloth.

The kneaded dough needs to be relaxed so that the dough and water can combine more thoroughly.

Taking advantage of this interval, Lin Xu took a package of glutinous rice flour, put it in a non-oiled pan and fried it until it emitted fragrance, only then placing it in the tray to spread out and cool.

Glutinous rice flour is the dry flour used to coat the horn-shaped honey at the end, not only effectively preventing stickiness but also enhancing the fragrance of glutinous rice flour.

Apart from glutinous rice flour, toasted flour, starch, milk powder, powdered sugar, even white sugar, fine white sugar, white sesame, and other ingredients can also be used to coat the outside of the horn-shaped honey.

After frying the glutinous rice flour, Qi Siming began to boil sugar.

The sugar preparation required corn syrup and white sugar, with water added to the pot, and both sugars poured in at a 1:1 ratio, using a spoon to stir and start boiling.

Corn syrup had high viscosity and low sweetness, added purely to balance the sweetness of the white sugar.

Besides white sugar, moderate-sweet sugars like crystal sugar could be used.

Qiu Zhenhua said:

"Actually, the sweetness of these finished sugars is always too much; when we were kids, we used freshly boiled maltose or pumpkin candy, sweet potato sugar, and various fruit sugars."

These sugars he mentioned had lower sweetness, carrying the original aroma of their ingredients, more suitable for making sweets.

But his words inspired Lin Xu, who thought of trying Autumn Pear Paste next time. Boiling Autumn Pear Paste to a slightly thick state could be used directly as syrup, which should yield good results.

Winter often leads to coughing, needing more consumption of Autumn Pear Paste for easing lungs and relieving cough.

Qi Siming said:

"These snacks are now mostly eaten by middle-aged and elderly people; young people don’t like them as they are too sweet and indeed not good for health."

These snacks were filled with syrup, with each one being a caloric bomb.

It was a common understanding that excessive sugar consumption was bad for health, so how to reduce sugar intake while still enjoying these treats had become a challenge facing every pastry chef.

Once the sugar in the pot fully melted, stirring was no longer needed, continuing to boil until the sugar thickened and even slightly clung to the spoon, indicating it was ready.

The prepared syrup was covered with the pot lid and set aside for later use.

The previously raised dough had finished relaxing; Lin Xu placed the dough on the counter and began kneading.

At this moment, the dough was still somewhat hard; after kneading once, Lin Xu split the dough into two, rolling them both into round dough pieces, then picking up a rolling pin to start flattening.

Rolling the dough pieces into large discs about two millimeters thick, he rolled them on the rolling pin and set them aside.

Then he picked another long rolling pin to flatten the other dough piece, rolling it into a thin large disc similarly.

He brushed a thin layer of oil on the dough sheet and then took the previously rolled dough sheet, rotating the rolling pin to evenly lay it over the oiled sheet.

The two dough sheets were aligned perfectly, without the slightest deviation.

Nearby, Chen Yan watched with amazement:

"Wow, did my brother-in-law become a compass spirit? The two dough sheets are rolled equally round, with no size difference, that’s incredible."

Shen Jiayue glanced at her:

"Praise properly, what compass spirit? My dear Xu is just highly skilled."

This method of horn-shaped honey looks just like that; although the rolling step is quite challenging, it can be helped with a noodle machine to press into thin sheets. If there’s no significant difficulty following this, I’ll secretly make it at home to surprise everyone.

Hum, I can’t live in Xu’s shadow all the time, we must dare to challenge ourselves too.

Lin Xu combined the two dough sheets, using the rolling pin to flatten them again, making the sheets adhere as closely as possible. Then he took a round mold with a diameter of over ten centimeters, pressing it on the edge of the dough sheet, only pressing one-third of the whole mold.

Then, by pressing firmly, a crescent-shaped gap appeared on the dough sheet.

Following this gap, he pressed forward, each time only pressing one-third to one-quarter of the mold, pressing the dough sheet into crescent shapes.

These crescents were the dough embryos for making horn-shaped honey.

Lin Xu worked swiftly, pressing the entire dough sheet into crescent shapes and then sprinkling some dry starch over these crescents to prevent sticking.

Shen Jiayue looked at this step, finding it not difficult; the only challenging aspect for her might be the frying. If there were no frying involved, the other steps would be doable.

Lin Xu completed these and set up the oil pan for frying.

With the oil at five heat levels, he placed the crescent-shaped dough pieces he made into a sieve, shaking off the excess starch, then putting them into the oil pan to fry.

After placing the crescents into the oil, initially, there’s no need to manage them; waiting for them to shape up before stirring them in the pan with a spoon.