Flowers in full bloom

Chapter 402: Little 0 mouth

As expected, Rong Jue, a foodie, was overjoyed. Of course, the glutinous and not-too-sweet chestnut cake was also liked by Lord Pei and Madam Pei.

The chestnut shells and flower buds left over from making chestnut cakes were not wasted. Instead, the shells were put back into the water used to boil the chestnuts and boiled over high heat for half an hour. Then they were switched to low heat and boiled for another half an hour. After filtering out the shells, the remaining juice was carefully preserved, ready to be sent to the dyeing workshop to be used as a dye.

Because chestnut shells are also a kind of dye, different media can produce different colors, and can be dyed into many different colors. Hualei adheres to the principle of waste utilization and also uses the leftover chestnut shells.

Because it is a custom for every household to make candy during the New Year in the Great Sheng Dynasty, Hualei is also preparing to make a batch of maltose this year, which can be used for entertaining guests, giving gifts, or eating by oneself. Because candy is considered a valuable item in the Great Sheng Dynasty. Just when he was about to start.

Unexpectedly, Rong Jin was carrying a small basket of oranges, followed by Rong Jue, Lin Lang, Rong Zhen and other children from the Marquis' Mansion to the Huazhai in Yongningfang. It turned out that yesterday, Marquis Pei received his year-end benefits from the Ministry of Rites, which included oranges.

Oranges were still a rare commodity in the Great Sheng Dynasty. They were specially awarded by Emperor Shengwu, and there was only one basket. Rong Jin sent over half a basket. There were also other miscellaneous foods, which were relatively rare in the Great Sheng Dynasty.

Of course, this was only available to officials of the third rank and above. The year-end benefits for officials of the sixth rank were equivalent to nothing, except for an extra month's salary of twelve taels of silver.

Rong Jue, who was standing behind him, was holding a large can of candy in his arms, which he wanted to give to Hua Lei. Hua Lei didn't know whether to laugh or cry, but she happily accepted it. Giving candy during the New Year means that the days in the coming year will be sweet and happy.

So, Hualei decided to make maltose with a group of children. Because they had made preparations in advance, Hualei, Aunt Song, Aunt Fu, and several children started making maltose together very quickly.

The wheat had been prepared a few days ago. The wheat was washed and soaked in warm water for a day. The next day, the wheat was spread flat on the bamboo colander. Water was poured twice a day to maintain a certain temperature.

After a day, white spots will grow on the wheat. Continue watering and waiting. After five or six days, the malt will grow to about one and a half inches.

Cut off the malt along the root, wash and crush it, chop it into fine powder with a knife, and then grind it into pulp with a stone mill. Wash and peel the sweet potatoes, put them in a pot, and steam them. After steaming, stir them constantly and crush them into sweet potato puree.

After it has cooled down a little, pour in the malt pulp, stir evenly, put it in a ceramic jar, cover it with a straw fan, and wait for it to ferment. After about a day, the sweet potato pulp will start to produce juice, and you can proceed to the next step.

Aunt Song had already brought out the juicy sweet potato pulp from the kang room. Hua Lei took a look and saw that there was a lot of juice, just enough to make malt sugar.

So, take out the white gauze and filter the wort with it like making tofu, and then boil the wort over high heat for about an hour.

When the wort becomes thick, start stirring it constantly to prevent it from sticking to the pot. When the wort can hang upside down on the spoon, the maltose syrup is almost done. Use two chopsticks to scoop a large spoonful and let Rong Jue Linlang and others stir it and eat it. The little guys squinted their eyes happily.

Pour out the prepared maltose and let it cool, then cut it into pieces. The most basic maltose is ready. During the cooling process, I tasted the flower buds. They were not particularly sweet, but they had the fragrance of wheat and were very delicious. Rong Jin also liked them very much.

Because a lot of maltose is made, Hualei is going to add some soybean powder and glutinous rice flour to make some dragon beard candy. After the maltose syrup cools down, start pulling the candy. The pulled candy needs to be coated with a layer of glutinous rice flour, soybean powder, and rice flour.

Then continue to coat the sugar with powder, fold, stretch and stack it until it is very thin. It is best to stretch it to the level of thinness of a hair. However, the flower buds have not reached this level after being stretched for a long time, so wait until the dragon's beard is about the same thickness as vermicelli.

At this time, the little guys had almost run out of malt syrup, so Hualei stuffed some dragon's beard candy into each of their hands.

Because it is Chinese New Year, Hualei prepared more candies. The first thing to make is sesame candy. Wash the sesame seeds, fry them, then put the fried sesame seeds into the freshly made maltose and stir them evenly, then shape them and cut the sesame candy into sesame candy blocks while it is still hot.

Before cutting, apply a layer of sesame oil on the knife so that it won't stick to the knife when cutting. After making sesame candy, Hualei took out pine nuts, fried them with sand, peeled off the outer shell, leaving only the pine nuts, and made pine nut candy in a similar way to sesame candy.

After making these candies, Hualei thought that it would be nice if these candies had colors. So, she took the existing pumpkin from the kitchen, washed and peeled it, and boiled it with a little water. After a quarter of an hour, the pumpkin had become very soft.

Blend the cooked pumpkin into pumpkin pulp. Then use white gauze to filter out the pumpkin juice and remove the pumpkin residue.

Pour the filtered pumpkin juice into the pot, add the maltose syrup just made, and stir well. Then boil the stirred colored syrup over medium-low heat. Then turn to low heat and simmer until thick. Stir constantly during this process to prevent the bottom from getting sticky.

After boiling the pumpkin juice maltose, let it cool and cut it into pieces. The originally off-white maltose turned into pumpkin color. In order to make it look better, Hualei also took out some molds made by Uncle Zhao. Pour the unsolidified syrup into the mold, and the pumpkin maltose of different shapes is ready.

Hualei added a small wooden stick to one part of the cake, turning it into a lollipop. Hualei then casually gave each of the children a lollipop.

In order to make the candy more colorful and better looking, Hualei found some other vegetables. Referring to the method of pumpkin juice, she added vegetable juice and other fresh fruit and vegetable juices to the maltose. Suddenly, the candy became colorful and very beautiful. Rong Jue and Linlang gathered around, chattering and extremely happy.

Seeing the oranges sent by Rong Jin, Hua Lei had an idea and prepared to make some orange candy. Wash the oranges, cut them into thin slices, remove the pulp, and use the orange peel.

Put the orange peels in a pot, add about the same amount of water, boil for about a cup of tea, then use a bamboo sieve to scoop out the orange peels and drain the water to remove the bitterness of the orange peels. Then cut the cooked orange peels into thin strips.