fandomhigh | Baking Workshop 7/10, Monday Morning

Piper smiles at the students as they arrive. She kind of already fears for the home ec classroom. "Good morning everyone. I'm Piper, in case some of you don't already know that."

She points out a plate of brownies on the counter. "I usually make samples of the assignments I choose. Today is no exception. As you can see, you're going to bake brownies today."

She hands them each a list of ingredients and instructions. "I try to make the instructions as easy to follow as possible, but, if you ever have questions or need help with anything, please don't hesitate to ask."

Equipment Needed

bowl

8x8 baking pan

dish towel or oven mitt

spatula

mixing spoon

measuring cups

measuring spoons

Ingredients

6 Tablespoons Cocoa

1/4 cup butter

1 cup sugar

1/2 Teaspoon vanilla

1/4 teaspoon salt

1/3 cup flour

1 cup toasted pecans (optional)

2 eggs

Instructions

Melt 1/4 cups of butter in a microwaveable dish.

Measure 6 tablespoons of Cocoa powder into the mixing bowl.

Add melted butter and mix.

Add to Batter (1 cup sugar, 2 eggs, 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract, 1/3 cup flour, 1/4 teaspoon salt).

Mix batter.

Pre-heat oven to 325 degrees.

Flour the Pan (cover pan with butter, then add some flour to keep brownies from sticking)

Pour the brownie batter into the dish.

Put the brownies into the oven for 35-40 minutes.

Let them cool until slightly warm.

[ooc: ingredients and instructions from here.]

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Batter well-mixed, Sakurazaki grabs a handful of flour, sprinkling some over the pan once Alphonse has ran the butter over it. "Look! It's snowing!" She grins, chuckling lightly. This was going much better than the last time she tried this.

"And these lucky brownies get to play in it," Alphonse laughed. After Sakurazaki was done, he took the bowl of batter and began pouring it into the pan. Of course, Alphonse also had to poke his finger in the bowl and stick a chocolate covered finger in his mouth.

Grinning slightly at the idea of brownies playing in the snow, Sakurazaki also wrinkles her nose at Alphonse. "Does that actually taste good? I mean, can't raw eggs make you really sick if you're not careful?"

"Never stopped us from doing it as kids," Alphonse said, smiling.

Chuckling slightly over a slight pang of envy, Sakurazaki tilts her head, smoothing out some of the batter with a spatula. "Did you do a lot of baking when you were little?"

"Our mom did," he replied with a hint of nostalgia. "Sometimes Ed and I would help, or make a huge mess. We always insisted on eating some of the batter before she baked it."

A demure smile of recollection flashed onto Sakurazaki's face. "They always caught us whenever Ojou-sama and I tried to sneak into the kitchens." There's a light laugh. "I suppose my training really did need a lot of work."

After a second of biting her lip, Sakurazaki feels the need to change the subject. "Think they're ready to go in?"

"The oven should be hot enough by now," Alphonse pulled the handle open to the oven, holding a hand out briefly before nodding. "Yup! This should be good."

Sakurazaki quickly arms herself with the oven mitts and carefully slides the pan in. "There we go!" She firmly shuts the oven door, starts pulling off the mitts and grinning rather proudly. "What next? Just waiting?"

"For at least thirty-five minutes," Alphonse read off the paper. He paused momentarily. "Yeah, just waiting."

"Significantly less exciting than the rest of it," Sakurazaki decides with a slight bit of a pout. "But patience is a virtue, I suppose."

"You know, I think these are going to turn out really well! I don't think I could have done such a good job without your help, Alphonse."

"Aw, it was no problem," Alphonse said. "I don't think it's all that difficult once you get the hang of it."

"I hope so! Otherwise, taking this class is going to be rather hopeless for me, unless, apparantly, we do Japanese cuisine, which I don't think we will."

"To be honest, I doubt we'll ever be getting that far," Alphonse peeked through the oven door window, willing the brownies to bake faster. "But this is pretty simple stuff. It's just a matter of mixing the right amount of ingredients correctly... and hoping you don't screw up the oven bit. We don't even have these where I come from."

Sakurazaki nods. "We'll probably be making a lot of the same things Jude made last session," she notes with a bit of a frown. She was hoping the cirriculum would be slightly varied; he'd be more impressed that way. "They started with brownies last time, too."

"Well, it is the first class, and brownies are known for having a basic recipie," Alphonse said. "Who knows? We might be heading in a different direction from here."

Sakurazaki's smile is slightly glowing. "I hope we get to do something really...." Really what? She isn't quite sure what word to use so she just settles with "impressive."

"Maybe Piper will be open to suggestions?" Alphonse said helpfully. "It probably wouldn't hurt to ask if you have anything in mind."

One of Sakurazaki's eyes slide shut thoughtfully. "I'll have to keep my mind open to things I might want to do, then..."

The idle chit-chat makes the time go by pretty quickly and suddenly Sakurazaki's realizes with a gasp, "Oh! They're probably done now!" She reaches for the oven mitts.

Alphonse pulled the oven door open for her, glancing inside before stepping aside for Sakurazaki to pull the pan out. "Now for the moment of truth."

Grinning, Sakurazaki reaches in to retrieve it. "I'm not sure if I can handle it!" Chuckle disippating as she straightens, she considers the pan of brownies in her hands before setting it down on the stovetop. Her head tilts. "How can you tell if they're done?"

She can tell that they look signficantly better than her last attempt. She flushes with a proud grin.

"Well, I guess the only way to tell is to find out," Alphonse took a fork and broke off a tiny piece, and after blowing it down for it to cool, popped it in his mouth. "They taste done to me!"

Nervously, Sakurazaki follows Alphonse's example.

"Hey! They're actually edible!" She laughs.

"See? They came out fine!" Alphonse grinned. "Now all that's left is to cut them into a buncha squares."

There's another light laugh. "That's definately my area."

She brandishes a knife and has the brownies cut into perfect squares within a few seconds, accomplished with only a few very swift, consise moves.

Not exactly how her masters imagined her using that technique, but practicality was important, right?

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