As an ancient cultural capital, Nanjing's Qinhuai snacks are also world-famous, and when it comes to Nanjing's snacks, we have to mention plum blossom cake, which is a taste that children who grew up in Nanjing can never forget, and it is also a full of youth memories. I still remember the old Matai Street Night Market full of delicious snacks, and every time you go, you have to buy a plum blossom cake to be complete. Looking at the moment when the hexagonal iron stove opens, I feel that I have waited for a century, and I have to taste it while walking.
Plum blossom cake originated in the Ming Dynasty and developed into the Qing Dynasty, which became the most famous traditional cake snack in the Jiangnan region. Legend has it that when the Qianlong Emperor went down to Jiangnan, he saw that its shape was like a plum blossom, the color was attractive, pretending to taste, the entrance was sweet but not greasy, soft and crisp, the aftertaste was endless, better than the palace royal point, clapping hands and praising the fast. Because of its shape like a plum blossom, it was given the name plum blossom cake, which has been passed down to this day. It uses fine flour, yeast flour and water to mix into a pulp, injects a hot plum blossom mold, adds bean paste, fresh meat, vegetable lard, roses and other fillings, and then fills it with sizing, sprinkles sugar, red and green melon shreds, and uses a hot iron plate to cover the cake mold and bake it. This cake is golden yellow, shaped like a plum blossom, soft and delicious, suitable for all ages.
Today's plum blossom cake inherits the traditional production method at the same time, but also added small lantern, green red fruit, pine nut kernels, etc., so that its taste is more delicious, the outside is tender, and there are more than a dozen preparation methods such as bean paste, jam, nuts, etc., with flour, bean paste, white sugar and other more than a dozen raw materials baked by special stoves. The lantern above is very sticky, the raisins are fragrant, the bean paste inside is very fine, the caramelized aroma of melted white sugar, plus colorful embellishments, the red bean paste (or jam) wrapped in a somewhat tough shell, the soft and cottony taste, the concentrated sweet aroma, the hot filling pleasure of all the taste buds to be put in the mouth.
Ingredient recipe of plum blossom cake:
Fine white flour, bean paste, white sugar, sugar pork plate diced oil, red and green silk, alkali, soybean oil.
Preparation Method:
1: Put 2 kg of flour into the bucket, add an equal amount of warm water, stir well with a long-handled iron spoon, let stand for 5-6 hours, then add 2 kg of flour and 3 kg of warm water, stir vigorously until the batter is even. After dissolving the alkali, pour it into the bucket and mix well, pour it into the copper pot and set aside. Pour soybean oil into the container and add 50 grams of water to make water and oil.
2, put the mold together with the iron lid on the furnace with medium heat, use a brush dipped in water and oil to apply the mold hole again, take a copper pot to inject the batter into the mold hole in turn (only half a hole), then lift the mold, slowly rotate, so that the batter is evenly stuck to the hole wall, and then placed on the stove, the bamboo piece is inserted into the hole to scrape the battery to the four walls of the hole. Then add 35 grams of bean paste, 5 grams of sugar pork plate oil cubes in each hole, and then take 15 grams of white sugar and sprinkle them evenly in each hole, then fill the holes with a batter, sprinkle about 15 grams of red and green silk, cover and burn for 2 minutes, open the lid and then evenly sprinkle 15 grams of white sugar, cover the iron lid and burn for 3 minutes to cook. Open the lid and use a shovel to separate the plum cake from the mold, pick it up and plate it.
Today's new Nanjing City is not a place where plum blossom cakes can be bought everywhere. Fortunately, the two long-established brands on Matai Street are still there, but the addresses have been relocated.
1, Zuo Master plum blossom cake: Zuo Master plum blossom cake in Tongjia Lane. Master Zuo's plum blossom cake has a lot of dates and many small lanterns, so he can eat a lot of small lanterns every time. However, it is not sung when it is baked, and the little lantern is sticky and sticky, without the feeling of burnt aroma, but it is still delicious. And the price is not expensive, just 3 yuan a piece. In the winter, it is often a pot of good cooking and suddenly there is no more, and Master Zuo's only bean paste filling, so there is no choice to bother.
2, Lu's plum blossom cake: in the old gate east, its filling is mainly purple potato, bean paste and fruit three kinds, the top is covered with small balls, q bullet soft glutinous, red and green silk and red dates under the embellishment, cute and delicious.
3. Sun's Plum Blossom Cake: Located in Matai Street (near Beijing Hualian). This shop is the most famous plum blossom cake in Nanjing, and almost every time I go there, it is a big pomp and circumstance. Especially in winter, there is definitely a queue here. When roasted, the aroma is overflowing, soft and sticky to eat, the little Lantern is soft and smooth, chewy, especially delicious.
A small plum blossom cake, the sweetness carries the green onion years of Nanjing people, and one bite is full of happy memories. Remember to come to Nanjing to feel it.