Is it difficult to make souffles? Why is it so expensive?

Souffle is actually a Soviet-style moon cake. It started a few years ago, and it's still hot. During the Mid-Autumn Festival, Yuntui and Cantonese-style moon cakes form a dominant situation, which is inseparable from its taste! Layered pastry structure, wrapped in red bean paste layer by layer, centered on greasy salted egg yolk, with rosy color and fragrant smell. Crispy with soft, sweet with salty, oily egg yolk makes up for the dryness of the skin, and the salty taste of egg yolk also blends the greasy feeling of the whole egg yolk crisp. And now the stuffing is more and more developed. For example, the addition of hemp potato suddenly adds a layer of glutinous taste, or the filling is not limited to red bean paste: there can also be lotus seed paste, purple potato and so on.

Online souffle prices are almost everywhere from 5 yuan to 20 yuan. Its material looks simple, and it seems not difficult to make it. The difficulty is nothing more than the opening of the cake. Personally, I don't think Chinese-style cake opening is as complicated as western-style cake opening. It's simpler, and it's not so easy to mix cakes.

But to say simple, it would be all wet:

1, materials must be selected, and attention must be paid. The crispy lard must be cooked by yourself, and the bean paste stuffing must be cooked by yourself. Salted egg yolk should also be raw salted duck eggs, not vacuum-packed salted egg yolk.

In fact, it takes a lot of time and manpower to open cakes. Every time you open it, you need to let it rest and relax. How many times do you need to open the small package to open the pastry?

Let's share with you the basic taste of souffle.

Oil skin: medium flour 150g, lard 50g, sugar 10g, and water 65g.

Crispy: low flour 120g, lard 60g.

Stuffing: bean paste, lotus seed paste and purple sweet potato are all acceptable, with 25g portions.

Decoration: two egg yolks and sesame seeds.

Salted duck egg yolk 15

Production steps:

1, handle the yolk in advance, first remove the egg white from the duck egg and separate the yolk. A film on the surface of egg yolk must be torn off. Then soak the egg yolk in cooking oil and let it stand overnight. Spread tin foil on the baking tray and brush (or spray with a watering can) some highly alcoholic liquor. I used rum and baked it in the oven 180 for 5-8 minutes until the surface was a little oily.

The film on the surface of egg yolk has a fishy smell, so it must be torn off. You can wash it with water first, then wipe off the surface moisture with kitchen paper, and the film will be easily removed. Salted egg yolk is fully formed and not soft. Vacuum-packed egg yolk is also possible, but it is slightly worse than fresh taste. The treatment method is the same as fresh: soak in oil first, then spray with wine, and then bake. 2. Divide the bean paste into 25g pieces, and wrap the baked egg yolk for later use.

3. Let's make the oil skin: put all the ingredients together and beat the dough at high speed with the chef's machine. After dough is formed, gluten is still weak and there is no film. Wrap it in plastic wrap and let it stand for about 30 minutes. The purpose of standing is to make the oil skin tough and malleable, and it is not easy to break brittle in subsequent production.

Tips: The amount of moisture has a certain relationship with the water absorption of flour and air humidity. You can adjust the situation appropriately. The final dough is not sticky, but very soft. 4. Then make cakes: put lard and low flour into a basin, mix them roughly with a scraper, and then knead them into dough by hand. Divided into 12g and covered with plastic wrap.

Tips:

Lard should be softened, if it is too hard, it is not easy to mix with powder. Reasons for using low-gluten flour: Compared with medium-gluten flour and high-gluten flour, low-gluten flour is not easy to produce gluten and can be better integrated with oil skin. It is safest to use low-gluten flour. 5. After the oil skin is left standing, it is divided into 18g, and then the dough is wrapped in the oil skin with the mouth facing upwards.

Tip: In the process of wrapping, the first wrapping should also be covered with plastic wrap to avoid dry surface. It is best to keep the hardness of the skin and pastry roughly the same. If the cake is too soft, you can put it in the refrigerator for a while. If it is too hard, rub it with your hands a few times. 6. The first rolling: put the wrapped pastry on the chopping board, gently pat it flat with the palm of your hand, and then roll it into a flat tongue. Then roll it into a roll and put your mouth away. All cakes are rolled up in the same way, covered with plastic wrap and left to stand for 15 minutes.

7. Second roll-out: roll out the roll again in the same way, roll it up again, cover it with plastic wrap, and let it stand for another 30 minutes.

Tip: Why do you have to let it stand and relax many times? Avoid making the dough too hard, which is difficult to roll out. After relaxation, it is easier to roll and shape, and it is not easy to retract. So be sure to let it stand for enough time. 8. After relaxing for the second time, you can start stuffing! Pinch both ends of the roll to the middle, flatten it with the palm of your hand, and then roll it from the middle to both sides with a rolling pin into a roughly round shape with thin edges and thick middle. Then put the stuffing in the middle, slowly fill the stuffing with the skin of the tiger's mouth, and finally close it and pinch it tightly. (If you do a good job of moisturizing, this step should be very simple. If you forget to cover the plastic wrap, your skin will be so dry and hard that you can't wrap it at all! )

9. Close the mouth downwards, put it in a baking tray and let it stand 15 minutes. At this time, you can preheat the oven to 180 degrees.

10, the surface of the souffle is brushed with egg yolk liquid and sprinkled with sesame seeds. Put it in the oven and bake for about 25 minutes. If you think the color is not dark enough, you can take it out in the tenth minute and brush the egg liquid again.

Tip: When it is hot, the layer of pastry is not obvious. When it's cool, the level will be clear ~ friends who have finished the production steps, do you think it is necessary to sell the pastry so expensive? 1, material cost

Let me simply calculate the material cost with you: salted egg yolk is about 2.3-2.5, and the cost of each fried egg yolk is about 1 yuan, plus the stuffing: the finished red bean paste stuffing is about 1.5, so the material cost has reached 5 yuan. (If you make the bean paste yourself, the cost will be higher.)

2. Labor costs

Not counting the cost of artificial water and electricity, only counting the cost of materials is hooliganism. According to the gross profit of 60%, an souffle should be sold at least 13 yuan, which is a little profit to recover the cost. If it's for Mid-Autumn Festival, plus beautiful packaging, I think it's not too expensive.

Of course, if you think a 10 yuan souffle is too expensive, then I suggest that you can make it yourself and experience the hard work of making it by hand, which is indeed cheaper than buying it. As for those souffles that cost a few dollars each, he dares to sell them, but I dare not eat them. The better cost is 5 yuan. I suggest you buy less and eat less.