But this morning, she was up early and at the bakery right as Gilbert woke up. They ate breakfast together, while Melina prodded him for every bit of information she could about the macarons. The old baker remained stubbornly tight-lipped, saying that the best way to understand something was to do it practically.
"Can we start already?" She urged after breakfast. "I really need those macarons to impress the Monster Lord with."
"Do you really think he'd eat anything you made?" Gilbert asked.
"It's alright. Elowen will be the one giving them. I won't even go along this time," Melina assured.
"You're sending him alone?" Gilbert questioned.
"No, I'll have Sienna go with him. If things go sour, then I'll teleport them both away. But I think it's better if I'm not present during any negotiations with the Monster Lord," Melina said.
"This plan has as many holes as a colander," Gilbert noted.
"Perhaps. I don't think we can make the situation any worse with the Monster Lord than it is now. But if by some miracle we do succeed, then it will be a huge step to achieving understanding between realms," Melina explained.
"I suppose if you put it that way…" Gilbert said thoughtfully. "As long as you take all the precautions."
"We will," Melina confirmed. "I'll come up with a few backup scenarios in case teleportation doesn't work or if Monster Lord tries to ambush Elowen. Ways to get out of Monster Realm quickly. But for now, can we start making those macarons?" Melina asked.
"Yes, yes. We'll start with shells. First, we'll need powdered sugar," Gilbert said. "If you want to make macarons a regular thing, then you'll have to set some time aside to grind the sugar. Or have one of your apprentices do it."
Melina nodded. They usually had a bit of powdered sugar on hand for decorating the sweet pastries, but if they had to use powdered sugar for macarons instead of regular sugar, then they would have to grind more. For the time being, she grabbed the little bit of powdered sugar they had and quickly ground up some more using a mortar and pestle.
"That should be enough for now," Gilbert said after a while. "You'll have to sift 90 grams of powdered sugar and 90 grams of almond flour together."
Melina grabbed the sieve and did just that, watching the fine powders mix together. She did wonder just how fragile the cookies would be if they needed such fine ingredients.
"Now measure out 30 grams of granulated sugar, and start whipping egg whites from two eggs. Add the sugar gradually as you're whipping them," Gilbert said, and demonstrated the process, whipping up the egg white at amazing speed.
Melina had to wonder how, even without the System, he made it look so easy. She started whipping the eggs by hand and carefully pouring the sugar with magic. However, before long, her hands tired and she switched to all magic. Gilbert shook his head disapprovingly. Soon enough, they both had whites whipped to stiff peaks.
"You should be able to do this if you whipped your eggs right," Gilber said and tipped over the bowl.
Melina jumped forward in panic, ready to catch the egg whites. But to her surprise, they stuck to the bowl, not at all bothered by the forces of gravity.
"What?" She gaped, looking at the egg whites.
"Go on, try it! Yours should do the same if you whipped them properly."
Melina looked at her grandfather dubiously. Was he playing a joke on her? Did he replace the egg whites with something else while she wasn't looking? But no, Gilbert wasn't the one for jokes. So she cautiously, slowly tipped her bowl over, watching whether the egg whites would slide. But much to her surprise, they stuck firm.
"That's interesting," she noted.
Gilbert nodded. "Now we've got to do your favorite part. Can you guess what it is?"
Looking over the sifted flour and sugar mixture and whipped egg whites, it didn't take much to deduce that the two needed to be mixed together.
"I need to fold the flour and sugar into egg whites. Very carefully," she said.
"Precisely. And you're doing it by hand this time. You need to practice proper folding," Gilbert said.
She barely withheld a sigh. Folding by hand was an extremely finicky process that had many chances to ruin the whole dish. But Gilbert was right that she had to practice doing it more by hand. After all, who was to say that she wouldn't lose her magic one day? She couldn't imagine the scenario, unless she was forced to rewind time again.
But on the off chance she was left without magic again, she had to keep her baking skills sharp. That was something nobody could ever take away from her. Just like the loss of the System hadn't diminished Gilbert's value as a baker.
Melina took the bowl of egg whites and began to slowly, carefully fold in the almond flour and sugar. The process was painful to say the least. With each fold, she feared ruining the airiness. But at the same time, it felt like she wasn't making any progress at all as the flour and sugar didn't quite wish to combine with the egg whites.
"Just for your knowledge, if you wish to make the macaron shells a certain flavor, this is the moment to add things to the mixture. But you have to be extremely careful. If it's too moist, then the whole cookie will be ruined. Same if it's too dry. Whatever you add needs to have a strong, concentrated flavor," Gilbert instructed, having already finished folding his mixture. How did he do it so fast?
But his words did make Melina think, how could she incorporate the flavor into macarons? She could see how fragile the cookies were, and she hadn't even tried cooking them yet. What could she add that would retain both the flavor and the effect?
But she'd experiment with that later. First, she had to be able to make the regular macarons. There was no point in experiments if she couldn't do that much.
"I think I'm done," Melina said, wiping sweat with a towel. It had taken her far too long, in her opinion.
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"Not bad. You're getting better at folding," Gilbert said, appraising her mixture. "Now put this into a piping bag."
"It has to be piped?" Melina exclaimed. It was her second least favorite activity in the kitchen after folding. While she had gotten much better at it, thanks to the large amount of choux pastry she had to pipe each morning, Melina didn't enjoy it.
It wasn't something that could be reliably done with magic either, since getting the pressure exactly right without spilling the dough everywhere was an absolute nightmare. Doing it by hand was easier.
Begrudgingly, she grabbed the piping bag and carefully put the macaron cookie mixture inside. Gilbert did it twice as quickly and had already started piping it on a wide cooking tray. Melina observed her master's work for a while.
"You can make them larger or smaller depending on what you need, but smaller cookies are more likely to hold together," Gilbert said, making a row of larger cookies and a row of smaller cookies.
Melina decided to mimic him, practicing making larger and smaller dollops. Hers weren't as good as Gilbert's, but they were much better than those accursed first dollops she made with choux pastry. If she kept practicing, then she was sure that she would be able to make hers just as perfect as Gilbert's.
Once they were both finished piping, Gilbert turned to Melina. "Now we have thirty minutes to make the gel."
"What? Aren't we baking them?" Melina asked in surprise. Sienna too cocked her head, having turned into her large form, ready to fire up the oven.
"Macarons need to form a little skin while they rest. Only after that can they be baked," Gilbert explained sagely.
"Skin?" She blinked at him in confusion.
"A little layer of hardened mixture. It always forms when it stays out in the open for long enough. It might happen more quickly on hot and dry days, but today is kinda overcast and moist, so it might take longer. So we'll move on to the next element," Gilbert said. "Now go grab some strawberries from the garden."
"What for?" She asked.
"For the gelee, what else? It can be made from various things, but most common by far is fruit puree and fruit juice. Since we have nice, fresh strawberries in our garden, we'll use those," he explained.
She nodded and ran outside to pick some strawberries. They glistened in the morning dew, looking beautifully ripe. She picked enough for the filling and a bit extra for Mango when she woke up. The little fox curled up on the old coat Gilbert had laid out for it in the kitchen corner and was sleeping.
"Alright, get those clean and crush them with a mortar and pestle," Gilbert instructed. "We'll be using a fine strawberry puree for this recipe."
Melina got to work, cutting off the stems and then finely chopping the strawberries using
"Will this do?" Melina asked.
"Yes, that's perfect. You want a smooth consistency, but a fine pulp is preferable to just juice. Preserves more of the flavor. Heat it until it is just a bit warm."
Melina poured the strawberries into a pot and then heated them up using her hands. No reason to get the stove going if all she needed was just to get it warm.
"Now add sugar, around 50 grams, mix it, and after that dissolve gelatin in it," he instructed.
"So it'll be like jelly?"
"Close. It's gelee, although in principle the two are very similar," he said.
It was nothing new to Melina, so before long, she had sugar and gelatin both melted and ready. But looking at the result, she began to wonder how she would turn this into filling for the macarons.
"So do I cool it down and then cut the shape I need later?"
"How do you intend to cut a round disk from a giant glob of jelly?" He countered, giving her a dubious look.
Melina shrugged in response. She knew there had to be a better way of doing it. She would have suggested piping again, but one couldn't pipe something as liquidy into shape. Maybe while it still wasn't fully set, but it would be difficult to catch the perfect time.
"We'll use a tray to set the gelee and then cut the right shape," the old baker instructed, pulling out a metallic tray. "It would have been hard to do without a refrigerator, but now that we have one, it's not a problem anymore."
They both proudly looked at their new magitech device, which sat in the corner near the door to the bakery—as far away from the oven as possible. The little crystal shone with faint light, indicating that the refrigerator was working.
"Well, I could cool it with magic," Melina countered, although she was eager to make use of the new device.
"No, cooling something with fruit bits inside so quickly risks freezing it completely instead of turning into a gel. It's better to cool it down gradually," he said.
It made sense. Frankly, if the refrigerator could handle the task, then it was better to use it rather than magic. The fine control required for freezing something without turning it into an icicle was immense, and she would rather spend her mental and magical energy on other things.
For example, the priest who was prodding along the ward Melina had set up at Erina's inn. She could feel her mana drain away as her ward activated and stopped the priest from setting up whatever it was he was trying to do. She couldn't tell what kind of spell it was exactly, but it was similar to her wards in structure.
She felt deep satisfaction at having thwarted his plan, whatever it may have been. The priest obviously tried a few more times, draining Melina's mana each time. But it wasn't something she couldn't handle.
"What's with that face?" Gilbert asked dubiously.
"No, just a few pests trying to sneak around. I foiled their plans a little," Melina said.
"Are you doing something dangerous? I thought you wouldn't oppose the Church openly and pretend to work for them instead?" He questioned.
"I will. But I doubt the one who tried to break my defenses even understood what happened. My wards are very subtle. All they will experience is their magic failing. They might blame it on the elves," Melina said.
Gilbert gave her a dubious look, then sighed. "Just be careful. Don't poke the sleeping bear. Best we return to the macarons. They should be good to be baked now."
Sienna turned into her large form and heated the oven in one powerful fireball. She looked at them eagerly, ready to cook.
"Okay, okay. Let's load these in. How hot do we need to go? I imagine we don't need high temperatures," Melina said, looking at the delicate cookies.
"No. Go a bit lower than you would with a sponge, Sienna. It doesn't need much heat at all. And we'll cook them for 12-15 minutes," Gilbert instructed.
They watched the macarons like hawks, observing how they slowly but steadily cooked, their shells becoming firm.
"They look ready," Melina noted in about 10 minutes.
"Just a bit more. If you take them out too early, the shells will fall apart the moment you touch them."
They watched for a bit longer until Gilbert finally said that it was alright to pull the cookies out.
"These need to cool completely before we can do anything, so let's turn our attention back to the gelee."
Much to Melina's delight, it didn’t take long for the gelee to set. Pouring it into a thin layer on a metal tray sped up the cooling process. Gilbert showed her how to effectively cut the gelee by first cutting it into squares and then trimming the edges to make the round shape.
The offcuts could either be turned into an extra element for another dish, or, as it was in this case, a snack for one hungry ice fox. She really loved the strawberry gelee, eagerly reaching for the complete discs to eat them too.
But Melina repelled the fox and began the proper assembly of macarons. The shells were very fragile, and the first one she grabbed broke. Apparently, they had cooked it at too high a heat after all, and next time they adjusted to a lower one.
However, by grabbing the shells carefully with magic, Melina was able to assemble the fragile cookies together with gelee discs to form a proper macaron. They smelled heavenly of sugar and strawberries, and they all grabbed one to try.
The flavor that exploded in Melina's mouth was heavenly. Sweet and delicate cookie shells, which had a subtle almond flavor that Melina hadn't tasted anywhere else. The tangy and delicious strawberry gelee tasted heavenly, and they ate a good chunk of macarons in companionable silence. Even Gilbert looked pleased by the result.
"Wonderful! Now we're going to take luminfruit and make these macarons even better. Not even the Monster Lord in all his hatred and grumpiness will be able to reject them!" Melina said, filled with determination.