Buster awoke the next morning to the sound of clanging metal. He figured that meant Cherry was up and stirring around in the kitchen. He got up and left his room, making his way there. The light was on in the kitchen, which confirmed his suspicion.
"Good mornin', Ms. Cherry," Buster greeted.
"Good mornin', Buster," she waved.
"Didn't you say we'd be working on somethin' in the kitchen today?" Buster inquired.
"Yeah, we can't sell baked goods if we don't bake any, you know?" Cherry couldn't help but laugh.
"I reckon that wasn't the brightest question to ask," he shrugged.
Cherry had some dough out that she was kneading. She asked Buster to help her with it. The stallion obliged and trotted over to the counter. She turned to him, "Do exactly what I do. We can't make pies and pastries without dough."
He mirrored her and they were both kneading the dough together, "Like this?"
"Exactly like that," she nodded.
She grabbed two circular pans she uses to make pies. She covered the inside of the first pan with dough and placed the other pan in front of Buster.
"Do what I just did, remember to press it down so it clings to the pan. If it slides around too much then it won't bake properly, all the filling will fall out when you go to cut it," Cherry instructed.
He took the dough and made sure it circled the entire pan and had a bowl shape. Cherry gave an approving nod.
"Very good. Now we need to pit them cherries. This here's a good way to do that," she picked up a wooden skewer with her teeth, she took some cherries and left them sitting sideways on the counter. She poked through each one with the skewer and pushed forward until the cherry pits fell out the bottom of each cherry. She pushed a bin up to the edge of the counter, she slid the cherry pits and stems off the counter and they fell into the bin.
Buster attempted to do the same but he ended up squishing one of the cherries, sending cherry juice flying into Cherry Jubilee's eye. She knew it was an accident, but in the heat of the moment, she grabbed a loose strip of dough and slapped him with it.
Buster grabbed a rolling pin and was about to throw it at her. Cherry had a saucepan and was ready to hit him upside the head with it. They were about to start brawling when Buster stopped and said, "What the heck are we doin'?"
Cherry took a deep breath, putting the saucepan back on the stove, she needed it for the next step. Breaking it over Buster's head wasn't exactly the best course of action for her. Buster placed the rolling pin back on the counter.
"I'm sorry, Buster, when that cherry juice got in my eye, I reckon I started, uh... seeing red," she shook her head at herself for saying that.
Buster couldn't help but laugh, "That was terrible."
"I know, now before we kill each other with kitchen utensils, I'm going to demonstrate again how to properly pit the cherries," she picked up the skewer and pitted another cherry.
Buster did the same and got it right on the second try. Cherry gave an approving nod, "Looks like there's still hope for you after all, Songbird."
They eventually had enough cherries pitted for two pies. They used two bowls to hold the cherries. Juice from the cherries was leaking into the bottom of the bowl. Cherry Jubilee used a spoon to scoop the cherries into the pie crust. Buster did the same, using another spoon to scoop his cherries into the other pie crust. Cherry went on to demonstrate the next step, "What you have to do next is put the stove on low heat. You see all that juice building up at the bottom of the bowl?"
Buster nodded.
"Good, so we're gonna pour the juice from the bottom of the bowl into the saucepan. Then, you put the stove on low heat for about 3 minutes. Once it's good and warm, you'll see it has an almost jam-like texture. That's normal," Cherry instructed.
Buster used a different burner on the stove to heat up his cherry juice. After another 3 minutes, he turned the burner off and picked up his saucepan.
"That's perfect. All you do in this next part is pour this over the cherries. You see how it's all stringy and caramelized?" she asked.
"Yeah, I see it," Buster answered.
"That's exactly what you want to happen there. All that juice will melt in the oven and give the pie filling a little extra thickness as well as some extra flavor," she was almost proud of her new culinary student.
Buster poured the cherry juice over the cherries and awaited further instruction.
"Next step is some things to add more flavor to the pie. We're gonna throw a little butter in there first. Small cubes should dot the pie filling. Little dots of butter in the cherries," she demonstrated and showed buster the end result.
Buster did the same. Cherry inspected it and nodded, "Excellent. You're gonna be a mighty fine baker by the end of today."
"Other than being slapped with dough and almost catching a saucepan upside the head, I've actually been having fun with this," Buster laughed.
Cherry cracked a smile, "Alright, next is egg wash. We're gonna crack a few eggs and then add milk and whisk it 'til your hooves fall off. This is to add some color and flavor to the dough. Baking is 50% flavor, 50% presentation. If it don't look good, nopony's gonna wanna find out if it tastes good. If you can get your pies to look good and taste good, you'll be well on your way to success in this business."
"How do I apply the egg wash, do I just pour it?" Buster lifted the bowl of egg wash and tilted it.
Cherry nearly had a heart attack, "NO! NO! Don't pour it! I'll show you. Grab a basting brush. This pie is your canvas, the egg wash is your paint. Now, we're going to use what's called a Lattice crust. It's eight thin woven strips of dough. Four of them evenly spaced vertically, then four horizontally. You will have them overlap with each other. It'll look like a basket when it's done."
Cherry finished the woven pattern and then used the basting brush to apply the egg wash to each strip of dough as well the crust going around the pie. She topped it off with coarse sugar. It was now ready to go in the oven. Cherry checked to make sure Buster did the Lattice crust and applied the egg wash properly. When she deemed it satisfactory, she then went to preheat the oven.
"You will have to preheat the oven to 400°F (204°C). Once it reaches that temperature, you'll need to let it bake for 20 minutes. After 20 minutes, lower the temperature to 375°F (190°C) and let it finish baking. When it's a beautiful golden brown, you can take it out the oven. You'll have to let it cool for 3-4 hours before you can serve it. Add some whipped cream, add some vanilla ice cream, whatever you want!" Cherry explained the final steps.
"Is it ready to bake?" Buster asked, showing the pie to Cherry.
"Yes, we'll bake them both together," Cherry put them both in the oven and let them bake.
She took them out when they were done and let them sit on the side to cool off.
"Now that you've followed my instructions step by step, I'm going to let you do one completely from scratch. I got the other one started for you and let you do the rest. Now you have to do everything on your own. You may refer to my recipe, I just request that you don't go around telling everypony what it is," Cherry sat down in a chair.
Buster looked at the recipe. It was written on a scrap sheet of paper. It said the following:
Ingredients:
The instructions were a little vague. Cherry Jubilee did so intentionally. Luckily, she had already explained the full step by step process to Buster. He just had to do what she said for the parts on the recipe that seemed vague. The instructions said the following:
Instructions:
Buster was able to get the pie done on his own this time. He turned to Cherry Jubilee, "What do you think, Ms. Cherry?"
She inspected it carefully, "Crust looks good. Filling looks good. Egg wash was applied properly, coarse sugar was applied properly. I think you're ready to bake this thing. Go ahead and get right to put it in the oven. I'm impressed that you learned this so quickly."
"I won't take all the credit, I had a mighty fine teacher," Buster smiled.
"That's flattering, Songbird," Cherry laughed.
"What's next?" Buster asked.
"Now that you've gotten the Cherry Pie figured out, we're going to make Cherry Fritters," she said.
"Sounds like a plan. Let's get it done," Buster was ready.
"Alright, so there's two types of glaze, a vanilla glaze where we'll use vanilla extract and a cherry glaze where we'll use cherry juice. We will never use them both at the same time. We'll have to fry two batches separately and use each glaze. I will handle the cherry glaze because it requires a lot more time and energy. The vanilla glaze is much easier to make. While you're still learning, I'll have you handle the vanilla glaze. I'll talk you through the cherry glaze as well, but I'll handle that myself," Cherry instructed.
"Alright, so I need vanilla extract and what else?" Buster surveyed the kitchen.
"You'll need 1 and 1/4 cup of powdered sugar, a teaspoon of vanilla extract, half a teaspoon of almond extract, and 3 tablespoons of milk to make the Vanilla Glaze for the Cherry Fritters. That is probably the simplest step so I want you to go ahead and get that done first," Cherry added.
"That seems simple enough," Buster did as instructed. He was confused when the mixture seemed lumpy.
Cherry looked at the mixture and poked at it with a spoon, "Too much sugar, not enough milk. Pour a little more milk in there and it should smooth itself out."
Buster added some more milk and whisked it again. It smoothed itself out, just as Cherry said it would, "Thank ya kindly."
"It's all a learning process, Buster, you'll get to a point where you won't need my help and you won't need to look at the recipe either," Cherry encouraged him.
"Hopefully, we'll work together long enough for that to be the case," Buster smiled.
"We'll see," she replied.
"A lot of preparation is required for the Fritters. We will not be able to get these done today, but we'll be able to get the prep done," Cherry added.
"I assume it'll be something to do with dough since we're making pastries," Buster deduced.
"That's right. so we'll start with the basics. We need to make dough, I'll talk you through it," Cherry said.
Buster observed quietly and waited for her to explain what to do next.
"We will need 2 and 3/4 cups of all purpose flour, 3 tablespoons of extra fine sugar, 2 and 1/4 teaspoons of instant yeast, and half a teaspoon of salt. When you get all that into a bowl, I want you to mix it up real good," she explained.
Buster added them to a bowl and mixed them together. He looked up at Cherry who was ready to give the next set of instructions.
"Next, you will add a cup of milk, 2 tablespoons of unsalted butter, a teaspoon of vanilla extract, half a teaspoon of almond extract, and then crack one egg in there. Once you do that, I want you to add it to the other mixture with the flour, sugar, yeast, and salt. When it's all in the bowl together, get a whisk and beat it up. After you do that, you'll have to knead it with a dough hook for 6 minutes," she told him.
Buster did as she told him and was kneading the dough as Cherry gave the next instruction.
"After you're done kneading the dough, I need you to spread butter around the sides and in the bottom of a bowl. After you add the butter, you'll dump the dough into the bowl. That's basically it. Once you do that, wrap the bowl in plastic wrap and put it in the refrigerator. We'll let it chill overnight and finish the Fritters tomorrow," she explained.
Buster and Cherry put their bowls in the refrigerator. They decided that was a good stopping point and washed their hooves. They went to bed in their respective rooms afterward.
The next day, Cherry and Buster met in the kitchen again. They opened the refrigerator, removing the bowls of dough.
A huge baking sheet was stretched across the counter like a tablecloth. Cherry had thrown down some flour onto it to make it easier to roll and flatten the dough. She turned to Buster and explained what to do next, "The next part is simple. You have to press the dough into a rectangle shape. It needs to measure about 12 inches by 8 inches, a little bigger than a sheet of loose leaf paper. You will scatter the cherries across the rectangle surface but you need to leave about half an inch at the edges. Once you do that, you'll have to roll it into a log shape. I'll stop here and let you catch up."
Buster flattened the dough into a rectangle and made sure it was the right measurement. He added the cherries, leaving the half inch of space on the edges, as instructed. He rolled it into a log and waited for further instruction.
"Now that it's rolled up in that log shape, you gotta cut it into 12 equal rolls. Put each slice on a cookie sheet that's been dusted with flour. Wrap it in plastic wrap and let it sit for about 20-30 minutes," Cherry said.
Buster did as she said.
"Ms. Cherry, what do we do now that the 30 minutes is up?" Buster asked her.
"We're gonna use this huge pot. We're gonna pour vegetable oil in it and heat it up to 360°F (182°C). I need you to watch that pot while I get the fritters ready. The pot has to maintain a temperature of at least 350°F (176°C) and it shouldn't go any higher than 370°F (188°C). Monitor the temperature while I grab the fritters," she instructed.
Buster kept a sharp eye on the oil in the pot as Cherry brought the fritters over. She told him, "You gotta be real quick about this. Take two fritters at a time and fry each side for 1-2 minutes. It shouldn't take more than a couple minutes, but if it does, just make sure to take them out when they're a golden brown color. When they're all fried, you need to move 'em to a metal rack. I went and got a couple racks out of a cabinet. So they're not too greasy, you need to dab each one with a paper towel. If we give our customers heart attacks, they won't be able to buy anymore."
As Cherry fried each fritter and moved it to the metal racks, Buster dabbed them with the paper towel. Once the two dozen fritters were on their metal racks, Cherry let it be known that it was time to add the glaze to them.
Buster removed the plastic wrap from the vanilla glaze he made the previous day. Cherry told him he needed to dip the top of each fritter into the glaze and let the glaze settle for a few minutes. Once it settled, they'd be ready to serve.
"Now that the vanilla glazed cherry fritters are done, we can focus on the cherry glaze for the other batch of fritters," Cherry said.
"Do you want me to make it or are you gonna handle it yourself?" Buster asked.
"I'm still gonna make it, but I wanna talk you through it as I go. Pay close attention," she answered.
"Alright, Ms. Cherry," Buster watched carefully.
"So, for the cherry glaze, you're gonna need 2 pounds (0.9 kg) of powdered sugar, half a cup of tart cherry juice, a tablespoon of butter, and 3/4 of a teaspoon of vanilla extract," Cherry gathered each ingredient as she named them.
Buster continued to observe quietly.
"You're gonna grab yourself a big ol' bowl like this and dump the powdered sugar in it. You will then pour the cherry juice in with the sugar and whisk it up real good. Once you're done with that, you're gonna get a pot of water and boil it with the tablespoon of butter. Once you get the water and butter to a boil, you're gonna pour it over the powdered sugar and cherry juice. You'll stir in the vanilla extract at the very end. If you want a thicker glaze, you'll have to add more powdered sugar but there's so much in this mix already, adding more don't seem all that necessary to me," Cherry had explained the entire process of making the Cherry Glaze.
She let Buster dip the other batch of fritters into the cherry glaze. Now both batches of Fritters were done.
"Now you know how to bake Cherry Pies and Cherry Fritters, Songbird. We'll bake a Cherry Cheesecake another time. You can take the rest of the day off. I'm gonna take these into town and try to sell them. I'll give you half of whatever I make from that since you did half the work. I'll see you later on. Stay outta trouble while I'm gone," she added.
"If you need any help with anything else, ya know where to find me, Ms. Cherry. I'm at your beck and call," he took a mock bow.
Cherry laughed and said, "I'll see you soon. If you could clean up the kitchen while I'm out selling these desserts, I'd be grateful."
She loaded the pies and batches of fritters into plastic containers. She placed them in a saddlebag and slung it over her. She left the farmhouse, trotting toward Dodge Junction. Buster cleaned up the kitchen and washed the dishes that they used. After that, he went back to the room he'd been staying in and spent the rest of the time Cherry Jubilee was gone playing his guitar.
END OF CHAPTER 3!