Five or six minutes passed, and after the students had gathered their ingredients and donned their aprons, Mr. Toi, at the central table, slowly began making the cookies under everyone's gaze.
"When mixing, pay close attention to the moisture content of the batter. Set the oven temperature to 180 degrees Celsius," he continued, explaining as he went along. "Alright, students, now start following the steps I taught you. If you have any questions, just raise your hands and ask me." After Mr. Toi placed the finished butter cookies in the oven, he clapped his hands and told the students to begin making them.
He also began to inspect the tables, offering guidance when he saw any irregularities, and even offering hands-on assistance if he encountered any problems he couldn't solve.
"Tsuna, start by melting the refrigerated butter slices."
Standing in the middle of the long table, Shouko went over Mr. Toi's steps in her mind while instructing Tsuna.
"Yes, yes, Teacher Shouko."
Shouko patted his arm and wrinkled her nose at him.
Tsuna's lips curled slightly, and he glanced at the chef-like Shouko before looking away. He followed her instructions, picking up the still-hard butter and cutting it into small pieces, placing them in a glass bowl.
He remembered what Mr. Toi had said: the butter should be softened enough to be easily indented with a finger, not melted into a liquid state.
"Tsuna, when did you learn these knife skills?"
Shouko, still pondering her next step, was drawn to his exquisite knife skills.
She donned 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.
Tsuna, I know, had never learned any culinary skills from Aunt Miyamura.
While even a novice could cut these small pieces with a knife, the key point was that they were all practically the same size; the small differences were due to a slight melt.
Tsuna didn't stop what he was doing, casually saying, "Maybe I'm just gifted."
He didn't even bother telling Shouko about the little things he'd learned in Hawaii in his past life. She wouldn't believe him anyway.
Worse still, she might even slap him without hesitation.
Shouko rolled her eyes. It was as if he'd thrown her two weeks of hard work under the carpet, and he'd even spit into it as he walked away. Tsuna finished chopping the last bit of butter and placing it in a glass bowl. Looking up, he saw her still holding the butter block for comparison. He said helplessly, "Teacher Shouko, don't be so shocked. I've already cut the butter. Have you figured out what to do next?"
"Of course I have," Shouko said proudly, hands on her hips.
"So?"
Shouko suddenly lifted the glass bowl from the table and, before he could fully react, pressed it against the side of his neck.
The cold glass bowl suddenly pressed against his neck, and Tsuna instinctively flinched.
"First, use your body temperature to speed up the softening." She smiled playfully, "The book says this is the 'human body heat conduction method.'"
"..." Tsuna was speechless.
Is this how the human body heat conduction method is used?
But seeing that he didn't resist at all and seemed to let her do whatever she wanted, Shouko took it down after a while.
She thought it would be great if Tsuna did the same in his room...
Unfortunately, when it was just her and Tsuna, she was often the one who suffered. Only when there were outsiders around would Tsuna let her do this.
Shouko saw that the butter was almost melted: "Next is—"
"Whip the butter."
"Tsuna, please don't answer when the teacher is talking, okay?" Shouko glared at someone with her beautiful eyes.
"Okay, Teacher Shouko." Tsuna raised his hands in agreement.
"Are you having any problems, Miyamura-san?"
"Teacher Toi, it's okay. My hands are just a little sore, so I'm just raising them casually."
Tsuna waved his hands to make his words more convincing.
"Pfft..."
Teacher Toi averted his gaze and returned to instructing the students before him.
"Hurry up and get on with it, Teacher Shouko...!" As soon as her gaze shifted, Tsuna reached out without hesitation and pinched Shouko's face, trying to stifle a laugh.
"Pah..." Shouko slapped the hand away, rubbing her face with both hands. Her voice muffled by the scrubbing, she said, "Tsuna-kun, this is your first class warning. If you do it again..."
She untied her hands, stood on tiptoe, and bared her teeth threateningly at him.
"Okay, okay, let's get on with it, or we'll fall behind everyone else."
Tsuna ignored her silly expression and poured the glass bowl into a semicircular iron basin, then added the measured amounts of powdered sugar, salt, vanilla extract, and egg yolks.
"Let me take the next step, or I won't feel like I'm participating at all." Shouko stopped him from moving.
She'd originally thought she'd be the one to lead Tsuna to success, earning him admiring stares.
But she'd never imagined that if she didn't find something to do, she'd think Tsuna could handle it all on his own...
She planned to ask Aunt Miyamura when she got back if Tsuna had learned anything from her...
"Yeah," Tsuna nodded.
"Hold this iron bowl steady. I'll beat them."
Tsuna said nothing, silently securing the bowl to the table with his hands. Shouko took the electric whisk and began stirring the ingredients on low speed.
She remembered to beat on low speed until pale and puffed up, then sift in the cake flour and use a spatula to mix by cutting and stirring until there were no dry powder. She also had to avoid over-kneading, which would cause gluten to form.
Having mapped out the steps in her mind, she set to work, while Tsuna was left to clean the dirty glass bowls and knives.
"Ding!"
A ding sound echoed through the previously quiet baking classroom, and everyone was greeted by the fragrant aroma of butter from the oven.
This scent gave them a boost, prompting them to speed up their work.
The same was true for Shouko, who couldn't wait for Tsuna to taste her handmade butter cookies.
Tsuna: "You've completely ignored my initial contribution!"
Shouko then placed the dough into a piping bag, lined a baking sheet with baking paper, and used a medium-sized eight-toothed nozzle to pipe out cookie shapes, keeping the spacing between them.
"Done!" Shouko tossed the piping bag, now completely empty, onto the table and looked at someone with delight.
"Great, great..."
Tsuna, seeing her face begging for praise, raised his hand and silently clapped, his words of praise echoing without a single word of repetition.
"Alright, alright." The more Shouko listened, the more she felt like drifting off, and she quickly raised her hand to stop him.
"Tsuna, I'll leave this last step to you."
"Okay, Teacher Shouko."
Tsuna walked over to an oven and started preheating it.
If I remember correctly, the oven preheating temperature was 160-170 degrees Celsius.
(End of this chapter)
---