Five or six minutes passed. After the students had gathered their ingredients and tied on their aprons, Mr. Higashi Ii, at the central workstation, slowly began to demonstrate the process under everyone's gaze.
"When stirring, the key is to pay attention to the consistency of the batter. The oven temperature should be uniformly set to 180 degrees."
Midway through, he didn't forget to explain while working.
"Alright students, now you can start following the steps I taught you earlier. If you have any questions, just raise your hand and ask me."
After putting the finished butter cookies into the oven, Mr. Higashi Ii clapped his hands and told the watching students to start making their own.
He also began to patrol around their tables, occasionally offering guidance when he saw improper techniques. If he encountered someone who was truly stuck, he would even lend a hand.
"Akira, first slice and soften the chilled butter."
Shouko stood in the middle of the long table, reviewing Mr. Higashi Ii's steps in her mind while instructing Akira beside her.
"Yes, yes, Shouko-sensei."
Shouko raised her hand and patted his arm, wrinkling her nose at him.
Akira's lips curved slightly upward. He glanced at Shouko, who looked quite like a chef, then withdrew his gaze.
Following her instructions, he picked up the still-hard butter, cut it into small pieces, and placed them in a glass bowl.
He remembered Mr. Higashi Ii saying that the butter only needed to be softened to the point where a finger could easily make an indentation, not melted into a liquid state.
"Akira, when did you learn such knife skills?"
Shouko, who was originally thinking about the next step, was unconsciously drawn by his exquisite knife work.
She put on a disposable glove on her left hand, picked up the butter pieces from the glass bowl, and compared them one by one. They were practically identical in size.
You know, Akira had never learned any cooking skills from Auntie Miyamura.
While it was true that a beginner could cut such small pieces with a knife, the key was that these were almost all the same size. The few that weren't were because they had melted slightly.
"Maybe I'm just naturally gifted?" Akira said, not even stopping his movements.
He wasn't planning to tell Shouko anything about having learned a little bit in Hawaii in his previous life. Anyway, even if he told her, she wouldn't believe him.
Worse, she might even slap him without hesitation.
Shouko couldn't help but roll her eyes at him. What he said was like throwing her half-month of hard study onto the ground to be trampled on, and not forgetting to spit on it before leaving.
Akira finished cutting the last bit of butter and put it in the glass bowl.
He looked up and saw her still holding the butter pieces and comparing them, saying helplessly:
"Shouko-sensei, stop being so shocked for now. I've finished cutting the butter. Have you thought about the next step?"
"Of course I have!" Shouko puffed out her chest proudly.
"So?"
Shouko suddenly picked up the glass bowl from the table. Before he could fully react, she placed it against his neck.
With the sudden touch of the cold glass bowl against his skin, Akira instinctively flinched.
"Use your body temperature to speed up the softening first," she said with a playful smile.
"The book says this is the 'Human Body Heat Conduction Method'!"
"…"
Akira was speechless.
Is this how the Human Body Heat Conduction Method is used?
However, seeing that he wasn't resisting at all and seemed completely at her mercy, Shouko took it away after a short while.
She wished Akira would be like this when they were in his room too...
It was a shame. When it was just the two of them, she was usually the one who ended up at a disadvantage. Only when others were present would Akira let her do things like this.
Shouko saw that the butter had softened enough.
"Next is—"
"Creaming the butter."
"Akira, when the teacher is speaking, don't jump the gun, okay?" Shouko glared at him with her beautiful eyes.
"Okay, Shouko-sensei." Akira raised his hands in surrender.
"Is something wrong, Miyamura?"
"Mr. Higashi Ii, no, nothing's wrong. My hands are just a little tired, just stretching them casually."
As he finished speaking, Akira even waved his hands, trying to make his words sound more convincing.
"Pfft..."
Mr. Higashi Ii withdrew his gaze upon hearing this and continued to guide the student in front of him.
"Quickly, let's continue making it, Shouko-sensei...!"
As soon as the other person looked away, Akira didn't hesitate to reach out and pinch Shouko's cheeks, who was trying to hold back her laughter, pulling them outwards.
"Pat..."
Shouko raised her hand and lightly slapped away Akira's 'salty pig hand'. She rubbed her cheeks, her voice muffled from the rubbing:
"Akira, this is your first class warning. If you do it again…"
Her voice trailed off. She released her hands, stood on her tiptoes, and bared her bright white teeth at him in a threatening manner.
"Alright, alright, let's continue, otherwise we'll fall behind everyone else."
Akira ignored her slightly bewildered look.
He took the glass bowl and poured its contents into a semi-circular metal bowl, then added the weighed powdered sugar, salt, vanilla extract, and egg yolk.
"Let me do the next step, otherwise I won't feel like I'm participating at all." Shouko stopped his next move.
She had originally thought she would be the one leading Akira and receiving his admiring gaze.
But she never expected that if she didn't fight for something to do, she felt Akira could handle everything by himself...
She planned to ask Auntie Miyamura when she got back if Akira had secretly learned cooking somewhere at some point...
"Mhm," Akira nodded.
"You hold this metal bowl steady. Next, I'll cream them."
Akira didn't say anything upon hearing this, silently holding the metal bowl steady on the table with both hands, while Shouko took the electric mixer and began to mix the ingredients inside at low speed.
She remembered that she needed to use the electric mixer to cream them at low speed until the color turned pale and the volume increased, then sift in the cake flour and use a spatula to mix using cutting and folding motions until there was no dry powder.
She also had to avoid over-mixing to prevent gluten development.
After planning the steps in her mind, she started working, while Akira was sent to wash the dirty glass bowls and knives.
"Ding!"
With a ding sound echoing in the previously quiet baking classroom, everyone smelled the milky aroma wafting from the oven.
This scent also gave them psychological encouragement, making them speed up their work.
Shouko felt the same way. She was a little impatient to have Akira eat the butter cookies she made herself as soon as possible.
Miyamura Akira (in his heart): My contribution at the beginning was completely ignored by you!?
Afterward, Shouko put the dough into a piping bag, lined the baking sheet with parchment paper, and used a medium eight-tooth piping tip to pipe out the cookie shapes, also maintaining spacing.
"Mission accomplished!"
Shouko casually tossed the piping bag, from which nothing more could be squeezed out, onto the table and looked at Akira with delight.
"Amazing, amazing…"
Akira looked at her expression, which clearly sought praise, and silently clapped his hands, his words of praise in his mouth never repeating.
"Okay, okay." The more Shouko heard, the more she felt a bit like she was floating, and quickly raised her hand to stop him.
"Akira, I'll leave this last step to you."
"Okay, Shouko-sensei."
Akira first walked to an oven and began to preheat it.
If he remembered correctly, the oven preheating temperature was 160-170℃.
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