Cookies

A week passed.

To cut to the conclusion, the stream was sailing along smoothly.

Of course, if you only considered the income, it would be a failure, but the number of viewers was gradually increasing, so ultimately, everything was okay.

I rolled around on my bed, thinking about what to make for the cooking stream.

I mean the stream where I'd promised to make homemade dishes, not the cooking stream I did every day.

I had originally planned to do it the day after the idea came up.

But I figured that, since this was also a form of promotion, deliberately drawing it out without letting it go on too long would be a good opportunity from a streaming perspective, so I extended the period.

Lately, though, I feel like I've been doing more things besides cooking than actual cooking... It's probably just my imagination.

That isn't important, so let's think about the cooking first.

Tomorrow was the promised day, and I still hadn't decided what to make.

I'd thought of all sorts of dishes by now, but although I called it homemade cooking, there were actually far too many restrictions.

Just the ones that immediately came to mind included being shippable, not spoiling easily, and changing very little in transit.

When I considered all that, desserts were the only option left, and among those, cookies seemed the most suitable.

Hmm. Should I seriously consider doing something like a viewer-participation stream after all?

There was so little I could do.

It wasn't important right now, so I put that off and returned to the menu.

I thought of other alternatives, but in the end I arrived back at my original idea.

“Then let's play it safe and make cookies.”

I'd called it safe, but having too few varieties would be disappointing, so how about three kinds? Let's just make them by slightly changing the ingredients.

“Expensive.”

I logged into a shopping app on my phone and started adding ingredients one by one. The price came out higher than I'd expected.

The chocolate made up the largest portion of the cost.

I paid without worrying about it.

If I thought only about the money, it was true that I'd be taking a loss.

Still, now that I'd been streaming for quite a while, I felt like a solid core audience was gradually forming.

Even an idiot couldn't help but notice that whenever I turned on the stream, a decent number of people would always show up.

I might snap at them out loud, but deep down, I was grateful to my viewers. Since I was doing this anyway, I should do it properly.

‘It's been a while since I've baked. Cookies are easy, though, so I'm not particularly nervous.’

What worried me more than making them was whether these guys would eat the food and disappear.

I spent a lot of money making these, so if I catch you eating them and running off to another room, you're dead, okay?

***

The chat window was livelier than usual today.

It had only been this fast during the Great Invasion before, and old memories came flooding back.

-Open the door!!

-I'm her husband I'm her husband I'm her husband

-Honey, why is the snack you said you'd give me being held by the man next door?

-Damn, it's already fucking legendary from the start today

I wondered why the chat was so intense today, then realized the title itself was packed with bait.

Looking at the viewer count, there were more people than usual.

The effect was undeniable.

I waited for a while, confirmed that no more people were coming in, and turned on the microphone.

“Hello. The shop is awfully crowded today.”

-For real lol

-Jispi, are we going to space? Jispi, are we going to space?

-These fucking bastards are so loud even though they never watched before. I watched from the beginning, even promoted it, donated, subscribed, and watched back when the channel was tiny. I'm special. These bastards are only watching because they have nothing else to watch, and they're pissing me off by cluttering the chat

Uh... yeah, sorry. Don't get too worked up.

Let's start cooking before it gets even louder.

This time, technically it's baking, but anyway, let's begin.

-It's not going to be something like Pepero cookies like everyone else, right?

-Mom trusts our Jian. She must've prepared something so fucking awesome it'd make you do two hundred backflips

-I woke all the grandpas and grandmas sleeping in the house and now we're watching the stream together.

-For real, I'm wearing diapers

-Drrrrumroll

Wow. Why were they expecting so much? Even the boys who used to say that Korea would be reunified by the time they grew up and they wouldn't have to serve in the military weren't this optimistic.

“Hahh. Sorry, but I was going to make cookies, and so many of you seem disappointed. It's because I'm inadequate... sniff. Shall we call it a day?”

-Nnnnnnnnnnnnnno

-Who the fuuuuuck is it!

-If you knew that, do a naked dogeza as an apology < You're out lol

-Jian, kick out all these ungrateful bastards and send them only to me. I'll bite and lick them all for you

You could've started with that. But you all kind of expected this anyway, didn't you?

When I said I'd do something else once we got a little closer, the chat was flooded with gasps.

Don't take it that way.

Let's begin in earnest.

“I'll toast the flour first.”

-?

-??

-Lol, is this actually safe to eat?

-Jian, I'm sorry. I won't do it again, so just send me some big-brand snacks instead.

Do these people still not trust me? Though, come to think of it, I haven't really shown them anything.

I mean, in a world where people sell bathwater, homemade cookies are the icing on the cake. And I'm telling you, this is right.

Ignoring the chat's complaints, I divided the flour among trays, leveled it out, and put it in the oven.

“I prefer cookies with a slightly crumbly texture to hard cookies.

To get that, you have to bake the dough for a short time, but then the flour might not cook through, right?”

If that happens, the cookies will have a raw flour smell and a powdery taste. Depending on the person eating them, they might even get an upset stomach.

“That's why I give it a preliminary bake like this.”

-Cooking again, Ttobongbap, hi

-Ahh

-What a pain in the ass

-Let's just buy them

I put the butter that had been left at room temperature into a baking bowl, moved it so it was clearly visible on camera, and pressed it lightly with a spatula.

The butter sank in exactly along the shape of the press.

A perfect pomade consistency.

“See that? This is the state the butter needs to be in for today's cookies. Naughty, right?”

-Ooh.

-Kinda hot.

-Would.

-Lol, you fucking lunatics

I agreed. Honestly, seeing butter in its pomade state was kind of... something.

Among the perverts in the chat, a normal question appeared.

-Can't you melt the butter and use it?

“You can. But you shouldn't use melted butter with the method I'm using. Taste is a matter of preference, so I won't say it's right or wrong, but if you use melted butter in this recipe, it'll taste weird and you'll regret it.”

Today, I was unintentionally practicing political correctness.

I explained as I poured brown sugar and dark brown sugar, leaving out white sugar, into the butter.

“Each type of sugar has a different texture and flavor, but it would be difficult for a household to keep all of them on hand, right? Just use whatever you have.”

-Whoa, that's a ton of sugar ㄷㄷ

-My teeth are rotting just looking at it

-Anyone who knows the truth about baking ㄱ-

-Hmm, is it really right to put that much sugar in?;;

“This is actually using less. If you look at American recipes, they put in almost as much sugar as flour. Honestly, that does taste better.”

It's only a trade-off between taste and health, so I reduce it.

If a Korean ate American-style, their pancreas wouldn't survive.

I mixed the butter and sugar with a spatula. When I lightly scraped it, I couldn't feel the sugar's gritty texture.

“The thing to watch out for here is not to melt the sugar completely. It only needs to be mixed into the butter enough that you feel it's incorporated.”

If you want smooth cookies, melt it completely. Otherwise, mix it just enough.

I poured in half the beaten egg mixture and mixed it with the butter.

After confirming that there was no separation, I added the remaining egg mixture, vanilla extract, and salt, then mixed everything thoroughly as before.

“I usually buy vanilla beans and make my own, but they're expensive. You can find cheap vanilla extract online, so just use that.”

I divided the finished butter dough into three portions.

“This basic butter dough is done. Now, if you want chocolate, just add chocolate here and you're good.”

-Why chocolate? Let's go with the original.

-Haha, all I need to add is Jian's love

(This viewer has been banned.)

-Lol, fucking hell

First, the original.

I sifted in one tray's worth of baked flour and mixed it until no dry flour remained visible.

Then I chopped two-thirds of the dark chocolate into rough chunks and finely chopped the rest before adding it.

This way, the chocolate has a variety of textures, which upgrades the flavor of the cookies.

I also added toasted walnuts and mixed them in.

I covered the finished dough tightly with plastic wrap so no moisture would form, then sent it to the refrigerator.

Next up, chocolate.

It's the same as before, but with cocoa powder added.

Oh, in case anyone's wondering, let's mention this too.

“Don't use sugary stuff like Jeti, the kind you mix into milk.”

-Don't? We absolutely have to.

This time, I added white chocolate and sliced almonds.

After treating it the same way as before, it was time for the last batch.

Matcha.

I added the remaining white and dark chocolate together, and used macadamias for the nuts.

Anyway, I sent this one to join its friends in the refrigerator too.

I took out the dough I'd put in first and divided it into fist-sized portions.

Each portion weighed roughly 200 grams, enough for twelve cookies.

I made thirty-six balls in total and put them in the freezer for a moment.

-Are these ice cookies?

-Why freeze them?

“I'm not freezing them solid. The temperature rose when I portioned them just now, so I put them in to bring it down quickly.”

After finishing a boring, pedantic explanation about how the texture changed depending on the butter's temperature and whatnot,

“When I bake the first batch, the rest will go back into the refrigerator.”

And that's it for the cookies.

Once the oven finished preheating, I just had to put the trays in and bake them.

Now, shall we get to the main event?

“At last, it's time for the drawing! I shall staaart reading your stories!”

-Kyaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa

-Let's fucking gooooo!

-I dropped 200 upvotes, no rigging

To give a realistic reaction, I restrained myself and didn't even enter the café.

What kinds of stories had been posted? When I entered the café in anticipation,

“Oh. There are quite a few.”

I'd worried that only five people would write posts and those same five would receive the prizes, so it was a relief to see that there were quite a few entries.

The number of café members had increased quite a bit too. It looked like someone had promoted the event.

Now it was time to start reading the posts.

As I browsed the list, I found one with an overwhelming number of recommendations.

The title itself felt ominous. This is okay to broadcast, right?

Half curious and half afraid, I clicked on the post.

My mother passed away yesterday. Or perhaps the day before.