For her last edit for this evening, Twilight figured that she could order a specialty sandwich from Salami's Place, the Untitled--bean sprouts and green vegetables on a potato roll, complemented by tomatoes and your choice of mutton, ham, chicken, or turkey with provolone cheese. Tonight, Twilight did not care much to move around, and nor did Shining or her parents object to it, as they put in orders of similar sandwiches to offset the fact that they already sent Muffins to deliver.
It should be worth noting that with her skin of gray, blond hair, and sweet disposition, Muffins had a driver's license and actually made a decent amount of change on the side running food deliveries for small restaurants and pizza parlors. Error-prone and accident-prone as she appeared, she was not known to get into any accidents in the short time she had her license. Moreover, everyone always loved the fact that she smelled like blueberry muffins, often to the desire of some of the boys who would bow to her and kiss her hand when they approached her.
As Twilight nibbled away at the Untitled she had with extra crunchy bean sprouts and peppery turkey breast, she turned her attention to the free chocolate chip cookie they threw in because of a promotion they were running. Muffins then came to her mind, as she recorded her monologue:
"Cookies, cakes, muffins, and other sweet baked stuff. There's this particular girl in my neighborhood that people just love, especially because she always smelled like muffins, blueberry, chocolate, bran, and otherwise. She proposed this question to me one morning when I was in calculus class."
Ending her monologue, she inserted the clip before a segment she recorded about leavening agents and their uses in cooking that went like this:
"Finally, we're back with more Twilight Time. Our question this week comes in from @d3rpmuffins. She says:"
Dear Twilight,
I love muffins, but why do some recipes use yeast and others use something like baking powder?
"Well, derpmuffins (I hope that was not what you wanted me to pronounce), baking powder and yeast are used in baking as leavening agents. A leavening agent is a substance that introduces gases into an otherwise rigid dough or batter, such that a much lighter, more porous structure in what you're baking."
As she was listening to the video, Twilight searched on the Internet for images of baking soda, baking powder, and other leaveners to improve the playback. In addition, she also found pictures of Pinkie Pie's bright pink birthday cupcakes and cookies that she thought were cute.
"Leavening by chemical means includes the use of baking soda or baking powder, which is just baking soda with dry acids in them. They release carbon dioxide gases which become part of the mixture as bubbles. Sometimes, when there is already enough acid in the mixture from other ingredients, you could get away with just the baking soda, but to protect flavors and colors, you could use baking powder where there is almost no acid at all. You'll see this a lot in your favorite cakes, cupcakes, cookies, and muffins."
"If you're not using chemical leaveners, you can achieve the same light and porous baked goods with mechanical and physical leavening. You can whip the mixture to force air bubbles into it, like what happens with whipping egg whites for angel food cake and meringues. You can even rely on steam within the mixture to leaven it, like what happens in puff pastry."
"In a less-related method, you can always use yeast to leaven your baked goods. Yeast gives you the air you want in your breads and pizza doughs by feeding on the sugars within the mixture and producing carbon dioxide bubbles, thus expanding and lightening it."
With that, Twilight recorded what was probably her last food-related question, but then there was another clip she came across that she recorded late in the Spring when she met Saffron Masala and her father. After winning the coveted Street Cuisinier championship as featured on the TV show, Saffron's father had recently opened a restaurant in town showcasing cuisine typical of the Middle East and India; jasmine rice and aromatic, spicy curry included. She met with Rarity and Pinkie Pie at one point in time as they were torn over the direction of the restaurant, but thankfully, things had turned around to where their restaurant was the talk of Thursday school lunches. She once took a question from her about what it was to season a pan, as it went like this:
"Well, I know it's graduation season, and I'm about to graduate from Canterlot High myself next year, but today's Twilight Time question is as follows, coming from @saffronm45:
Dear Twilight,
My father and I are seasoning all the pots and pans that we use. What is this all about?
"Oh. This is one of those things in the realm of metallurgy and cooking. Ever since people learned how to cast iron, we have been cooking with cast iron implements for thousands of years, from pots and pans to dutch ovens and griddles. When you season your cookware, usually cast-iron, you are basically coating it with oils and fats and then baking it to give the surface a rust-resistant, non-stick protective coat.
Some cookware comes pre-seasoned from the factory for this same reason, but still has to be re-seasoned at least once a year."
"However, if you cook a lot, especially with acids, you'll have to season your cookware constantly to prevent rust and other such damage.
As for enamel-coated cast iron pans, the enamel coating is usually so protective that you do not need to season them.
Actually, that reminds me. Someone was asking me to buy their rice and curry."
And with that, Twilight inserted images into the video timeline, including those of a birthday cupcake Pinkie Pie received one year, lemon meringues that Mr. and Mrs. Cake made for Twilight's middle school graduation party, and even images of Italian-style bread typical of her sandwich. She figured that after this, it was time to quit. It had been two days since she started compiling everything and she still had a tutoring session with Fluttershy wherein she would be helping her with understanding anatomy and physiology--something that she would have an issue with for the subject of dissecting eyes and hearts.