In the morning, my son got up and I asked him what he wanted to eat. He replied, "Eat the wedding cake." This kind of wedding cake is a traditional food in Jiaodong area. It is in our home, but it has a long history.
My grandparents are all native Jiaodong people. When I was a child, my grandmother would make her own wedding cake for us to eat during the holidays. At that time, she also had a set of flower patterns, which I think were mostly left by her elders. Carved from peach wood, there are various shapes such as small animals and small flowers. The cakes made are these shapes, which are fun and delicious. Therefore, grandma called this wedding cake "clever flower". I often beg my grandma to make me "smart flowers". Unfortunately, after so many years, I don't know where this set of flower patterns has gone.
Over the years, grandma is old and no longer makes her own wedding cake. When we want to eat, we have to buy it outside. Buying wedding cakes is also very particular. Only those cakes that look neat and sound like Jiaodong people will be delicious.
Last year, a colleague of mine, whose mother's hometown is Jiaodong, and I learned how to make our own wedding cake in Jiaodong. I finally got the authentic Jiaodong wedding cake this time. To make this wedding cake in Jiaodong, the key point is not to use water and flour, but to use eggs entirely. The cake made in this way is soft and delicious, and it won't go bad after a long time. The manufacturing steps are as follows:
1, eggs, sugar, peanut oil, stir well. I usually use four eggs with four spoonfuls of sugar and four spoonfuls of peanut oil. You can also put honey. ) put it in a microwave oven and heat it to about 30 degrees.
2. Pour the above things into the flour with baking powder and stir evenly with chopsticks. I use self-raising flour, so I don't add yeast. )
3. Knead into smooth dough and put it in a warm place. It takes half a day in winter and about two hours in summer. )
4. When the dough is twice as big, take it out and knead it repeatedly.
5. Cut into small dough and press it into pancakes with a thickness of about 1 cm and a diameter of 6 cm by hand.
6. Put it in an electric baking pan and bake on both sides.
As for the origin of this wedding cake, I only know that it was made for relatives and friends in Jiaodong during weddings, giving birth to children and other happy events. There is still a lot of concern.
Like the folk customs of many nationalities and regions, the most solemn folk custom in Jiaodong is marriage, and the food that carries the most folk customs is marriage. The most striking feature of wedding food is that it is jubilant, convenient for everyone to share, and can also show the bride's exquisite craftsmanship. Speaking of "wife cakes grab beans" must sound strange to outsiders. If the "Jiaodong wedding cake" on the market, many people are definitely lacking, but the name and essence have been commercialized, and only a little concept of "happiness" in Jiaodong folk customs has been intercepted.
Daughter-in-law cakes and daughter-in-law beans are necessary things for daughters of Jiaodong families to get married, but they are not necessarily made by their own daughters. Generally, close relatives such as mother, aunt, menstruation, menstruation and sisters get together and work happily. Of course, the daughter who is looking forward to becoming a bride will also participate with shame and happiness. My mother was often asked to help because of her good noodle skills, so when I was a child, I often had the opportunity to feel the process and scene of making daughter-in-law cakes and catching beans, and I was familiar with its making process.
First of all, it should be quantified according to the number of relatives and popularity density of the bride and groom, just like how many wedding candy and cigarettes the city plans to distribute. Because the rural customs are mellow and often distributed in the whole village, the output is generally a lot. First, prepare one or even several cauldrons and choose the best white flour. The key is reliable old flour starter. Yajia will mix the old dough twists of the bride and groom in advance to make new dough twists, which are specially used to make daughter-in-law cakes and catch beans. This kind of old face with good wishes will make the face look particularly good. What must not be ignored is that a large amount of fragrant peanut oil and fresh eggs should be added to the noodles, and then a proper amount of water should be added, and then the mixed noodles should be preheated on the kang, and they can be cooked when the noodles are "opened".
In my hometown, daughter-in-law cakes are also called "tea cakes", but they have nothing to do with tea and are closely related to teacups. Put the dough on the panel and knead it repeatedly until it becomes very soft and uniform, cut it into pieces with appropriate size, roll it into a cake with a rolling pin about half a centimeter thick, then find a ceramic teacup with appropriate size and press it hard on the cake to get a round cake, and so on. The tea cake with the same size and thickness is ready and put aside to "sober up". Pancakes are also a technical job. Fire slowly. When the cake is in the pot, be sure to turn it over frequently. If it is burnt or undercooked, it will make the bride's face dull.
The preliminary work of making gravy beans is the same as that of daughter-in-law cakes, but the cake makers are different. Cut the rolled bread into strips about half a centimeter wide with a kitchen knife, and then cut the strips into diamond-shaped pieces with symmetrical sizes, which look as big as peanuts. After cutting, they are evenly spread out and "awake". Frying in a pot after waking up is like frying peanuts, but it's still very difficult not to stick your hands, which requires a skill. Some people just blow them up. Aside from the topic, there is also a kind of food in Jiaodong called "Da Gua Ge". The production process is the same as "fighting", except that the diamond-shaped block is cut into larger pieces and branded into pancakes. The "big catch" is generally designed for people who go out to take exams as dry food, which means that they are easily "caught" and hope to be the number one scholar.
What's the use of daughter-in-law cakes and beans? Of course, it is used at critical times. Jiaodong custom, on the morning of the wedding, the groom takes a bus to the bride's house to get married. After the banquet, he takes the bride back to his home. The bride's door is not easy to get out. The whole village will spontaneously gather in front of the bride's house, and the groom must often distribute cigarettes to clear the way for the bride. Similarly, the groom's door is not so easy to enter. The whole village of the groom is waiting to see the bride, so the bride must show her hand. Daughter-in-law cakes and gravy beans prepared by the bride's family come in handy. The groom's family helped the bride distribute cakes and gravy beans to the onlookers. People will judge whether the bride is clever or not according to her own taste and appearance.
When the bride got married, the groom's family sent several children door to door in order to show the villagers, thank the neighbors for their care and show off the bride's craftsmanship. The bride's red bag goes with cakes and beans, and maybe some colorful cakes.
People usually joke with some big girls who wait for the word, and also say, "When do you eat your daughter-in-law's cake and catch beans?" Therefore, in Jiaodong, daughter-in-law cakes and grabbing beans are synonymous with marriage, full of "happiness" flavor. However, nowadays, with the popularity of various new wedding fashions, this meaning seems to be gradually fading. Even if people still care about this traditional form, they have found a way to save trouble. Some businesses have taken a fancy to the business opportunities. Many dim sum workshops can use imported materials to process daughter-in-law cakes and catch beans, some of them are baked and fried, and even bagged daughter-in-law cakes and catch beans like packaged wedding candy appear in the market, which is convenient for wedding people. The appearance has changed and the taste has changed, but the original concept has been retained. It is always lucky that the ancient customs have not disappeared.