She Becomes The Hero In Another World 47 She Prepares Some Sweets

It would be nice to see a court ball, which was one of the few events she did not have the pleasure of witnessing. But, already she was dreading her approaching time in the spotlight. As yesterday's venture revealed, a hero was a very high profile job.

Robin, though, was quite unused to being high profile. In fact, if everyone around could ignore that she existed, then everything would be fantastic! But, there was no such luck for her. Even the pa.s.sing maids and servants stole glances at her in pa.s.sing. Upon the event of a grand ball, how much more stares would be focused upon her? Robin cringed at the idea.

After breakfast, at which Prince Christian did not make an appearance, Robin quickly vanished into the kitchens to pa.s.s on some recipes for foods she thought would be much welcomed at the ball.

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At some point mid-morning, Christian twitched, and finally woke up from his forced sleep. He slowly rose, edging his legs over the edge of the bed, before coming to a sitting position. His sleepy eyes were unfocused as he stared off into the distance. Only after he gave a great yawn did some semblance of consciousness appear.

"Ugh! What happened?" He moaned as he rubbed his head, where the large lump from yesterday had almost disappeared.

"Heheh. Do you want to know?" A voice to his left startled him. He turned to see Keith sitting leisurely in a comfey chair by the unlit fireplace. Keith had several bandages plastered on his face and hands.

"Keith? What happened to you?" He asked. "And why can't I remember anything from yesterday?"

"It's only natural that you can't remember." Keith sighed. "After what happened yesterday, there are many things that you may not remember. So, I'm asking you again. Do you really want to know?"

"Do you really know what happened yesterday?" Christian asked. "If you're trying to pull the wool over my eyes again, I'm not going to listen."

"Never fear. I not only know what happened yesterday, I even went to the magician's tower and the specialized Castle Magic Eye Records and recorded all the relevant visual information down that I could." Keith chuckled, as he tapped a gla.s.s ball on his lap.

"Care to take a look?"

The question hung in the air a moment before Christian shook his head to make sure that it was clear. He didn't completely believe Keith would so conveniently do such a thing. He may have cut key parts out of the record...but, still, it should mostly be true.

"All right, let's see what you've got there."

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In the kitchen, Robin was busy showing Ponzu how to make some light party sweets.

"Since macarons are too much work at this point, I'll leave it for when we can get more accurate utensils." Robin explained. "For now, we'll be working on two main sweets: Meringue cookies, and cream puffs. If I have enough time after that to think of a few more recipes, then we'll work on those, too, but I think this will be more than enough to work on, since we need to bake these in bulk."

Ponzu nodded, as he stood at ready with his notebook. For today, he had also prepared some greased parchment paper, which Robin had indicated was a good idea before breakfast.

"For meringue cookies, you only need two ingredients." Robin explained. "While there are many variations of this cookie, we will be working on the original recipe, so don't worry about it being too complex. I actually like to make this because of how easy it is...well, it's easy if you have good arm strength."

Robin then pointed out the two ingredients. "Egg whites and white sugar. the granulated stuff will work, but if you want a smoother texture, you would use powdered sugar, instead." Robin extracted six egg whites and about 1 and a half cups of regular sugar. Then she handed the bowl with the egg whites to Ponzu along with a whisk.

"Beat them." She ordered. Ponzu sighed. So, this was what Robin had meant by arm strength. His arms were still somewhat sore from yesterday's venture! He held it in as he whisked those eggs with a vengeance. A professional cook does not run from work because it is hard! he told himself as he kept up a brisk speed.

When the egg whites were quite stiff, Robin gradually added the sugar, while Ponzu kept beating the mixture until all the sugar was added and the mixture formed peaks. Robin spread a greased parchment out onto a baking sheet. Well, it was more or less just a metal sheet than a baking sheet. But, Ponzu had prepared it anyways. One of the sides of the metal sheet was raised slightly, to help make it easier for the chefs to grab it, but that was it.

Then Robin dropped teaspoon-sized amounts of the mixture about two inches apart from each other onto the greased parchment, and stuck it in the oven, along with the lava salamander scale to make sure that the heat stays at the right tempurature. This time, they needed to make sure that the scale shone yellow like a dandelion.

Robin had already come up with a convenient color chart to make sure that Ponzu could measure the temperature accurately. The cookies were baked in the oven for about thirty to forty minutes. Robin took them out when it looked like they were about to start browning.

After letting it stand for ten minutes in a dry location, Robin smacked the pan against the counter. The cookies, leapt off the pan, startling Ponzu, who was worried that they might break. Instead, they landed on a white cloth that Robin had prepared. She gathered up the corners of the cloth and transferred the meringue cookies to a basket.

"The thing you need to look out for are if the meringues aren't cooked all the way through." Robin warned. "That's why you must always make sure that when you are baking these, not to have anything that contains water to be placed in alongside it. So, vegetables, meats, and any non-dry items are forbidden when making Meringue cookies. Got that?"

Ponzu nodded his head as he scribbled it down into his notebook. With all this writing, Ponzu had gotten much better at noting things down speedily. Then he looked up when Robin handed him one of the cookies. He glanced at Robin, confused.

"Taste it." Robin said, as she nibbled on one of them in her other hand. "This is the taste of the meringue cookie. Make sure to remember it."

He nodded and likewise nibbled at his own cookie. After the initial satisfying crunch, Ponzu was surprised when the cookie instantly melted in his mouth. It was sweet, airy, and light, and before he knew it, the cookie in Ponzu's hand was gone. He looked at the other cookies in a new light.

Robin laughed. "Don't go eating up all the rest of these! We still have one confectionary left to create. This one will be a pastry. For this, we'll need to bring out a saucepan." She brought one cup of water to a boil, before adding a half cup of b.u.t.ter, and stirring until it melted. Then she added one cup of flour, and a half teaspoon of salt, and stirred the mixture until a ball was formed.

She removed it from the heat, and added one egg, then she beat the mixture and let it stand for five minutes. She repeated this three times until she had added four eggs into the dough. Then she let it stand for ten minutes.

After that, just like the meringue cookies, they were spooned with heaping tablespoons onto a greased parchment paper-lined baking sheet about two inches apart from each other. By this time, the lavsalamander scale was gleaming a yellow-orange color, placing it around 370 to 375 degrees. It was a good thing that the oven was a magic tool. if the oven were heated with fire, over half the products would have been destroyed due to uneven or too much heat. The sh.e.l.ls were baked for about 30 minutes.

While they waited, Robin and Ponzu whipped up two cups of heavy cream with a teaspoon of vanilla and a quarter cup of sugar for the filling. But then Robin realized that they had no piping bags! Thinking quickly, she cut out a few triangles of parchment paper and quickly rolled out a few cones, cutting off the tips, and folding the uneven edges at the wide part of the mouth down. they would do in a pinch. These, they filled with the cream puff filling.

By this time, the sh.e.l.ls were finished, so Robin took them out to cool a bit. Before adding any kind of frosting or whipped cream product, it is best that the food be completely cooled. Otherwise, your prized confectionary will only have melted, steamed milk, instead of whipped cream. The piping bags were stored in the cooling room until then.

After the sh.e.l.ls had cooled, they then cut off the tops, and piped the filling inside, before covering the white peaks with a puffed sh.e.l.l cap. It was finished! While he felt the sweets definitely had to appear for the ball, Ponzu was determined to get some apprentice chef hands to help him out with the whipping process. Otherwise, the sweets might not all be finished in time for the ball.

It was at this point that Robin realized it was about almost lunch time. After this, she'd have to get ready for the ball, which started at four, and went late into the night.

"Unfortunately, it won't be a Cinderella story this time." Robin chuckled under her breath, as she washed her hands and made her way to the dining room for lunch.