Chapter 48: It's All Technical Problems

At 4 o'clock in the afternoon, the locust flower buns were out of the oven.

【Locust Flower Bun C-grade】

Looking at the obviously flipped locust flower buns, Qin Huai knew that he must have had problems with a lot of steps.

"Brother, brother, are they out of the oven? Can I eat them? Why did you take so long to make these buns? The previous pot of locust honey buns was sold out." Qin Luo rushed to the steamer at the first opportunity.

Qin Huai nodded to indicate they could be eaten, warning: "Blow on them a few times to let them cool down."

Qin Luo took a locust flower bun out of the steamer with gloves. Perhaps because she had eaten fermented rice buns the past two days, Qin Luo subconsciously squeezed the bun and was disappointed to find that the elasticity of this locust flower bun was far inferior to the fermented rice bun, so she broke it open.

Qin Luo blew on the bun a few times, trying to open her mouth, but failed. She blew for another half minute, shook it, felt it was okay, and took a bite.

"Brother, your buns are no different from the previous ones, and they aren't very sweet." Qin Luo said vaguely. "And they're a bit hard. Did you not ferment the dough well?"

Qin Huai felt that Qin Luo hadn't eaten buns and dumplings for nothing all these years; she hit the nail on the head.

If he had fermented the dough well, could this bun be C-grade?

"Are there any other problems?" Qin Huai broke off a small half of the bun from Qin Luo's hand and took a bite.

Very average.

Only slightly better than Qin Congwen's craftsmanship.

"Anything else?" Qin Luo chewed carefully twice more and asked, "Isn't this just an ordinary bun?"

The implication was how many problems could an ordinary bun have.

Qin Huai ate silently.

Ordinary was the biggest problem with locust flower buns.

He had made S-grade locust flower buns into ordinary buns; wasn't this problem big enough?

"It's still a fermentation problem." Qin Huai muttered. "What's so good about honey fermentation?"

Last night, Qin Huai studied honey fermentation. Using honey to ferment dough had a long history. This thing hadn't been passed down because honey was a substitute in the absence of yeast, a compromise out of helplessness.

Honey fermentation is highly difficult, requiring strict control of the ratio of honey to flour. Too much honey leads to fermentation failure, and one also has to consider seasonal and temperature factors. It belongs to the high-difficulty, low-effect past version, and there's a reason it wasn't passed down.

For this flip, Qin Huai even felt there were no objective factors; it was entirely a flip caused by inadequate technique.

Qin Huai even began to suspect that the unique skill of Qin's Pastry Shop was fermented rice buns, not the long-lost honey fermentation. It was because honey fermentation had too high a technical requirement for the chef themselves, and a generation of successors in Qin's Pastry Shop didn't reach the technical level, so it was lost.

Qin Huai wanted to scratch his head a bit.

What to do? He wanted to seek help online.

Ask the omnipotent netizens if there were any descendants of Jiang Chengde or descendants of Qin's Pastry Shop who could be selfless and teach him if there were any techniques for honey fermentation to bypass the technical bottleneck.

Qin Huai felt he had fallen, actually starting to want to take shortcuts.

Sure enough, you have to practice more to cook.

Qin Huai swallowed the bun in his mouth and began to practice more.

On the other side, Grandma Ding walked with the lightest steps she had had in these past few days, carrying a large bag of buns and opening her front door. "Grandma!" the little granddaughter who loved maple syrup with goat milk rushed over. "Eat bun bun!"

The little granddaughter was only two years old; she ate buns by holding them in her mouth, and she couldn't speak very clearly. She was the main force in the family who would cry loudly if she couldn't eat buns.

"Grandma bought the buns Miao Miao loves to eat today. I'll break them for Miao Miao to eat in a moment!" Grandma Ding said with a smile, reaching out to the little grandson who was still sitting on the carpet happily watching cartoons. "Tu Tu, eat bun, the one you love to eat most."

Seeing that her younger brother and sister both had buns to eat, the second granddaughter indicated she couldn't take it and protested loudly: "Grandma, Grandma, what about me?!"

"Chen Tingting has them too, the milk buckwheat buns you love to eat. When Grandma went, the buns were just out of the oven. Grandma paid and rushed back without stopping; they must be delicious."

The second granddaughter Chen Tingting then happily bounced over to get the bun.

The eldest granddaughter and the eldest grandson saw that everyone was eating and felt they couldn't lose, so they rushed over to ask for buns. Grandma Ding had a lot of experience with this and broke half a bun for each child to gnaw on.

Now it was Grandpa Qiu, Grandma Ding's partner, who was surprised.

"Did Assistant Xiao Qin make such a full range of flavors today?" Grandpa Qiu chose from the remaining few buns.

Grandma Ding smiled mysteriously, her hands not stopping as she broke the buns, striving to break the buns into the smallest pieces so the little granddaughter wouldn't choke.

"Do you think my two jars of locust honey yesterday were sent for nothing? Assistant Xiao Qin is smart. I guessed that he must have forgotten the next day. When I peeked into the kitchen two days ago, the jar of locust honey I gave him wasn't even put out."

"Yesterday, as soon as I brought it over, Assistant Xiao Qin made all the flavors for our family's little ancestors today. He knows what he's doing. He listens to us chatting while drinking tea in the afternoon and remembers it." Grandma Ding's words were full of praise for Qin Huai.

"Speaking of drinking tea, do you know that the cafeteria is giving away herbal tea today? I heard you get it if you spend 25. You bought so many buns, didn't you bring a cup back?" Grandpa Qiu's thinking was very jumpy.

"Drink what herbal tea? Did you steal a lazy day and not go out when I told you to take Tu Tu and the others down to play?" Grandma Ding's gaze instantly became sharp. "That herbal tea is so disgusting it almost spread to the opposite residential complex. Old Xu said that the herbal tea was boiled by Did Luo Luo; he saw it with his own eyes when he ate breakfast this morning."

"Did Luo Luo is a cute child, but her craftsmanship is really far worse than her brother's. But I heard that the hand-shaken lemon tea Did Luo Luo makes is not bad; the neighborhood committee is already drinking it. If you want to drink it, go buy it yourself. It's such a hot day, and you still want me to make a special trip for you for a drink."

Speaking of which, the buns in Grandma Ding's hands were already broken.

Grandma Ding gently coaxed her little granddaughter Miao Miao, let her open her mouth, and quickly stuffed the small bun into her mouth.

Miao Miao bit it with her teeth that hadn't fully grown, held it for a while, and suddenly cried loudly.

"Not bun bun, not bun bun!" Miao Miao's crying echoed throughout the living room.

Grandma Ding panicked and tasted it herself, confirming: "It's maple syrup goat milk, it's this flavor!"

"Not, not!" Miao Miao continued to cry at the top of her lungs. "Want the one from before, the one from before."

Just then, the second granddaughter, who had finished gnawing on half a bun, also indicated: "Grandma, the buns from the day before yesterday were delicious."

"From the day before yesterday, from the day before yesterday." The little grandson parroted.

A few minutes later, all the children started clamoring to eat the fermented rice buns from the day before yesterday, including the eldest grandson who loved mung bean cakes and the eldest granddaughter who loved jujube cakes.

Grandma Ding: Numb, it was an unnecessary move. The locust honey was sent for nothing. Let the world be destroyed.

Grandpa Qiu, whose hearing impairment was quite severe and who accepted the crying of his grandchildren well, gnawed on a bun and said: "I also think the fermented rice buns from the day before yesterday were more delicious."

"Shut up!"

(End of chapter) ===== CHAPTER 49 =====