#i see some vanilla extract and i go oooh

[trashyswitch]

Gingerbread Heros

Chase Brody discovers that Jackieboy Man has a soft spot for gingerbread cookies...a soft spot that turns into playfully childish behaviour!

As Chase let’s the man help with the baking and decorating, Chase takes advantage of the rare, Christmas-y occasion.

Chase was checking pantry by pantry, with the recipe in hand, for the ingredients on his list. So far, he had found the flour, the baking powder, ground cinnamon, margarine, brown sugar, an egg, and the vanilla extract out on the counter with a bowl nearby. Now was the part he dreaded: the shopping...

Chase wrote a list of what he needed to complete the recipe: -ground ginger -ground nutmeg -ground cloves -molasses

He folded it, put it in his pocket, and started to put on his coat.

“Hey Chase!” Someone cheered behind him. Chase turned around, to see a sweaty Jackie behind him.

“Hey Jackie!” Chase greeted.

“You going out?” Jackie asked.

Chase looked down at his coat. “Does it look like it?” He replied in a teasing tone.

Jackie rolled his eyes. “You got a point...where are you going?” Jackie asked.

“Shopping. I’m gonna make some gingerbread cookies, and I’m missing a few things.” Chase replied.

“Oooh! Gingerbread cookies? I’m down for that! Can I join?” Jackie asked.

Chase lowered his eyebrows slightly and narrowed his eyes. “It’s not that exciting. Not yet, anyway.” Chase warned as he put his hat on. “But if you really want to, you can co-“

“YES! GINGERBREAD COOKIES!” Jackie shouted, throwing his fists in the air and flying in circles excitedly.

Chase smiled and chuckled at the childish behaviour. “You coming?” Chase asked.

“Oh ya! Coming!” Jackie replied quickly, before flying into his room to change.

“There’s a ground, perfectly renovated and laminated for your feet you know!” Chase yelled with a big smile, towards the room.

“OH SHUT UP!” Jackie shouted back as he put his other foot into the correct pant leg. Chase let out a short laugh as he waited for the superhero to get dressed for going out. Chase put his ankle boots on and tied the laces.

“Ready!” Jackie declared, fully dressed in his coat, boots, hat and mitts. Though, there was something still on his face...

“Uh...you have the mask on your face still, you know that right?” Chase pointed out. Jackie’s smile dropped as his hand felt the felt mask around his face.

“Oops...” Jackie mumbled as he pulled the mask off his face.

“Come on, you nut job.” Chase said.

Jackie followed Chase out the door, and closed it. Locking the door, he removed the key, put it in his pocket, and speed-walked past Chase. He opened the car door and held it open.

“Ladies first.” Jackie said politely.

“Oh, shove it, Irish asshole.” Chase shot back, with a teasy smile.

Jackie gasped, placing a hand onto his chest. “How dare you? You know what? Since women are sO iNdEpEnDeNt, You can close your own door.” Jackie replied with a smirk, before letting go of the door and walking over to the passenger door. Chase rolled his eyes. His smile got wider as he reached out and closed his door.

A few minutes past before the duo reached the local grocery store. They got out of the car, grabbed a grocery basket and went to the spices area.

“Alright. We need ground ginger, ground nutmeg, and ground cloves.” Chase explained. Jackie nodded, and looked around at the many containers and bags of spices. Pretty soon, Jackie’s eyes fell onto the ground cloves.

“Found the ground cloves!” Jackie cheered.

“Awesome! I already found the ground nutmeg.” Chase replied. Chase took one look up, and came across a bag of ground ginger! He grabbed it from the shelf, and placed both spices into the basket.

Next, the duo were off to the baking section. Jackie immediately got distracted by the different things offered there, while Chase focused on what he needed: vanilla extract. He looked around, grabbed the little bottle of vanilla extract off the shelf and lightly threw it into the basket.

“Chase! They have different colored frosting!” Jackie exclaimed, bouncing around and pointing at the tubes of frosting on the shelf. “Red, blue, orange, GREEN?! CHASE! THEY HAVE GREEN!” Jackie exclaimed excitedly, grabbing one of every frosting tube colour and carrying it in his arms.

Chase chuckled and shook his head.

“We don’t need every colour, do we?” Chase asked the childish superhero.

“Yes we do! Gingerbread men should be decorated with all the colours, so they can look their absolute best!” Jackie argued.

Chase sighed with an amused smile. “Could we include ‘gingerbread women’ to the mix, then?” Chase asked, attempting to compromise.

Jackie sprinted up to the man, and dropped all the tubes of frosting into the basket. “Of course! And gingerbread children?” Jackie asked, running up to the selection of cookie cutters and grabbing a smaller gingerbread man cookie cutter off the shelf.

“Yup. And maybe...” Chase trailed off, walking over to the selection, and grabbing a collection of Avengers* cookie cutters. “...Some superhero cookies as well?” Chase offered.

Jackie’s jaw dropped, as the little cookie cutter fell out of his hand and onto the floor.

“THEY HAVE THESE?! NO WAY!” Jackie exclaimed, grabbing the package and spinning with it in his arms. Chase pulled out his phone to record the reaction.

“YES! Avengers* cookies! And we should make sure to get white! We need white for Captain America’s Shield, Thor’s thunder, and Iron Man’s eyes, right?!” Jackie asked excitedly.

“Yup. Grab whatever you want.” Chase replied.

“YAAAASSSS!” Jackie shouted, jumping up and down and clapping his hands in the middle of the store aisle. He sprinted up to Chase and gave him a big squeeze, before grabbing the rest of the colours he needed for the cookies.

Though the trip to the store lasted a little longer than expected, it was definitely worth every second. Jackie unloaded the groceries and placed the new ingredients in the previous pile, while Jackie pulled out a pair of scissors and practically destroyed the cardboard package.

“Slow down there, speedy Sonic! We still need to make the gingerbread!” Chase warned.

“Oh! Right!” Jackie reacted, putting the cookie cutters down and joining Chase.

Chase pulled the recipe out of a binder, and placed it onto a wooden stand.

“Step 1: Sift together the flour, baking powder, ginger, nutmeg, cloves, and cinnamon; set aside.” Chase read aloud.

“Okay.” Jackie replied, separating the dry ingredients from the wet ingredients. Chase grabbed the plastic measuring cups and the teaspoons out of the drawer, and placed them aside.

Chase got started on the first ingredient: 6 cups all-purpose flour. He grabbed the cup sized measuring cup, opened the big bag of flour, and dipped the cup into the bag. He used his finger to flatten out the top, and dumped it into the bowl. Chase repeated this 5 more times, and placed the measuring cup aside.

Next, Chase grabbed the tablespoon cup, and the baking powder. He put the cup into the baking powder, grabbed the right amount, and placed it into the bowl.

“Done.” Chase said.

To end it off, Jackie put the tablespoon of ground ginger, and the teaspoons of ground cloves, ground nutmeg, and ground cinnamon into the bowl. Grabbing the whisk, he sifted the dry ingredients together and placed it aside.

“I’ll get the butter melted!” Jackie declared, grabbing the butter and placing it into the microwave.

“Thanks! ‘In a medium bowl, mix together the butter, molasses, brown sugar, water, egg, and vanilla extract until smooth. Gradually stir in the dry ingredients, until they are completely absorbed.’ Sounds easy enough.” Chase said.

Chase grabbed the beater bowl and the correct steel measuring cup, and placed the needed items in. Next, he cracked the egg into the bowl, and threw the egg into the trash. While Chase washed his hands, Jackie put the vanilla extract into the bowl and placed the bowl into the beater.

After drying his hands with a towel, he locked the beater head in, and turned the beater on.

Jackie pulled out his phone, turned on Slo-mo and recorded a video of the beater beating the gingerbread mix. He continued the recording for a few more seconds, before ending it.

“Hey Chase! Look at this!” Jackie said, turning the video on and showing his friend.

“That’s pretty cool!” Chase reacted.

While he was waiting, Jackie sprinkled some flour onto the counter and placed the rolling pin and the cookie cutters nearby.

Soon, the beater was finished mixing the batter. Chase turned the beater off, pulled the dough out of the bowl and laid it on the powdered counter. Chase split the dough into 3 pieces, placed the other 2 pieces aside and started rolling out the first piece.

“The trick for rolling out gingerbread dough, is you want the dough as flat and level as possible, so the cookies are level.” Chase explained.

“Huh...okay.” Jackie reacted, watching the man flatten the dough with his hands and the rolling pin.

After a few more minutes, the dough was level enough for the cookie cutters. So, Jackie grabbed the Captain America cookie cutter, and pushed it down into the dough. While Jackie was shaping the cookies, Chase ripped off a couple pieces of parchment paper, and placed them onto the baking pans.

“Alright. You can place the cookies onto the pans when you are ready.” Chase said to Jackie, who had most of the dough covered with every single cookie cutter in the house.

“Yay! Avengers cookies!” Jackie exclaimed before wiggling the cookie cutter, picking it up and slowly taking the mould out of the plastic cutter. After another couple seconds, the mould had fallen onto the parchment paper with a short crinkle sound, and Jackie moved onto the rest of the cut out cookies.

It took a while...but soon, the duo had two batches of cookies ready for the oven. As soon as the oven made the familiar beeping noise, Chase put the oven mitts on, put the batches of cookies onto the middle rack, and closed the oven.

‘10:00’ Chase types onto the oven, before celebrating by throwing both fists in the air.

“We’re done!” Jackie yelled excitedly.

“Not quite. The cookies are done, but we still need to wait for them to finish. Then, comes the fun part!” Chase replied.

“Wait- making the gingerbread wasn’t fun for you?” Jackie asked, in a curious, but pity tone of voice.

Chase turned around. “Yes! Making the cookies was fun. But decorating is a lot more fun.” Chase clarified.

“Oooh...” Jackie replied.

While they waited, Chase and Jackie played a game of Uno. They managed to do almost 6 rounds, with Jackie winning 3 and Chase winning 2. Now, you may think ‘That’s odd...who would’ve won the last game?’ Well...that answer remained unclear, for the stove timer ended in the middle of their game, and the gust of wind from getting up and sprinting had thrown the cards absolutely everywhere...

Chase ran to the stove, turned off the timer, pulled the oven gloves on and opened the oven door. After the heat wave hit and faded, Chase eyed up the cookies eagerly. Jackie, who was waiting behind him, was clapping his hands in excitement and anticipation.

They were ready. Chase pulled the baking pan out of the oven and placed them onto the stove. After putting all the cookies onto the cooling racks, they placed the pans and spatulas onto the stovetop to cool down.

Next, Chase grabbed the new icing tubes and started removing the lids. Jackie went to the baking drawer, and found a couple more colours: grey and purple. They took the time to clean up the flour and the cookie cutters, and put the bowls under some hot water to sit.

Once the gingerbread was cooled enough, the two bakers got to work!

Jackie immediately got started on the Captain America cookie. He spun the red and white icing in circles, and carefully drew a star in the middle. Lastly, he filled in the spaces outside the star with blue, and placed it onto an empty plate.

Meanwhile, Chase had started working on the Iron Man cookie. He had already finished the red parts of the helmet, and comfortably gripped the yellow tube. As the icing came out of the tube, Chase controlled the icing as it covered the blank part of the helmet. In a minute or so, Chase removed the yellow tube, eyeing up the finished Iron Man helmet cookie.

The two adults continued to cover the cookies in their respectful colours. Jackie started sneaking bits of icing into his mouth before putting them down, and Chase had started looking up the avengers logos to get the cookies as accurate as possible.

Before they knew it, all the cookies were finished. Jackie and Chase lifted their fist in celebration as they eyed up their work. The cookies turned out better than they expected! They had a Hulk cookie, a Captain America cookie, a Spider-Man cookie, an Iron Man cookie, even a Thor Mjolnir cookie! There were a few gingerbread men, a few gingerbread ‘woman’, a couple gingerbread kids, and a couple gingerbread trees to end it off. All of the gingerbread cookies were laid flat onto 2 big plates, free for the icing to harden and for their roommates to grab and go whenever they want.

“You want one?” Chase asked.

“Wait, really?!” Jackie reacted, clapping his fists together with a big, suspenseful smile on his face.

“Well, ya! Feel free to grab one! We made them!” Chase clarified.

Jackie threw his fists in the air. “YES!” He shouted, before grabbing the Captain America cookie and taking a big bite. Upon actually tasting it, Jackie’s entire body practically melted! It was SO GOOD! One of the best gingerbread cookies he’s ever tasted!

Chase chuckled as he watched. “Is it good?” Chase asked.

“Mm hmm!” Jackie replied, giving him a thumbs up with his free hand.

Chase decided to grab one of his own. He took a bite of the Black Panther cookie, and lifted his eyebrows in happiness and surprise: It was really good! Like, not only actually edible, but almost addicting! After finishing the first cookie, Chase was ridiculously tempted to have another one. But, he pushed his temptation aside and focused on cleaning up the icing tubes.

He put the lids onto a few of the tubes, and put them away. When turning around to face the tubes, he put a few more of the lids onto them. But after putting the lids on, he noticed that there was an extra lid. Curious, Chase looked up, to see Jackie holding the red tube of icing, squeezing it into his mouth. Chase sighed, rubbed his nose and shook his head with a smile.

“Give me the tube please.” Chase ordered. Jackie closed his mouth, leading to some red icing getting onto his lips. Jackie’s mouth twisted into a nervous grin, as he scratched his head and slowly backed away.

“Give it! Give it here!” Chase ordered, holding his hand out. Jackie took off sprinting, giggling as he ran away with the tube of icing. Chase followed suit, creating a playful chase scene. Jackie jumped over all the furniture in front of him, and even flew over the table to get away from him.

“HEY! That’s cheating!” Chase accused. Jackie laughed at the claim, and spun around the sofa. Jackie ran for the coffee table, and jumped. He slid across it Steve Urkel style, and tried to land on his feet. But, he didn’t anticipate the Uno cards being right where they were before: on the ground. So, he ended up stepping on the Uno cards. Quickly, he jumped up and flew, but his back hit the low roof and knocked him right back down. He fell onto the back of the couch, and slid right behind the couch.

Chase slowed to a walking pace, walking over to the space behind the couch. He climbed up onto the couch cushions, and eyed up Jackie, who had gotten himself stuck behind the couch.

“Peek a boo!” Chase cooed. Jackie gulped and held the tube in his hand tightly. “You gonna give me the icing?” Chase asked. Jackie’s eyes frowned, before a smile showed up on his lips. He shook his head confidently. Chase’s smile turned into a mischievous smirk, as he left the spot for a minute. He picked up a nearby reaching tool, and the long Swiffer* duster. Walking back to the couch, he climbed onto the cushions, looked back behind the couch, and showed the superhero the items.

“What are those for?” Jackie asked, pointing at them.

“To do this!” Chase replied. He lowered the reaching tool down to the red hero, and tried to grab the tube. However, Jackie was moving the tube left and right, to dodge the item. Anticipating it wouldn’t work, Chase moved the reaching tool towards his shirt, grabbed the bottom of the shirt, and slowly lifted it. Jackie’s one eyebrow raised, curious to what he was gonna do.

Next, Jackie lowered the yellow feather duster down and fluttered it back and forth on his bare belly.

“Hehehehey! Dohohon’t you dahahahare!” Jackie laughed, twisting to the side and curling into a ball.

“Oh, I dare! I dare to even touch those reeeeaally ticklish feet! It’s a shame you baked those cookies in your bare feet!” Chase teased, dragging the feather duster down to his bare feet. As soon as the duster went under his feet, Jackie’s giggling got louder.

“EEEEEEKK! Hahahahahaha! Thahahahahat tihihihihickles!” Jackie said through his laughter, shaking his head as he laughed.

“It DOES?! REALLY?! I CAN’T BELIEVE IT! HOW COULD THIS-” Chase mocked, stopping mid sentence to flutter the feather duster even more. “-TICKLE?!” Chase ended sarcastically with a smile. Jackie’s face turned slightly red as his laughter turned to cackles. “Perhaps someone’s feet are ticklish? Is THAT it? Oh! What an amazing discovery! I shall take advantage of this right away!” Chase exclaimed sarcastically. He lifted the feather duster away from the feet, removed the removable duster to reveal the clamps underneath, and lowered the extendable stock down to his feet again. Next, he used the clamps on the end of the stick, to scratch the inner arch and soles of his feet.

Jackie’s eyes widened as he threw his head back. “OH GAHAHAHAD! NOHOHOHOHOHO! AAAAHHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!” Jackie bursted out immediately, squirming frantically.

“You gonna surrender the icing yet?” Chase asked. Jackie attempted to glare at the man, but failed to thanks to his laughter taking over every part of his face.

“NEHEHEHEHEVER!” Jackie yelled through his laughter.

“Very well.” Chase said, shrugging his shoulders, and removed the duster. He pulled the feather duster back to himself, put the feather duster onto the clamps once again, and reached the feather down. Suddenly, Chase shoved the feather duster into Jackie’s face and used the reaching tool to poke and prod at Jackie’s sides and stomach.

“AAAH! WAHAHA! WAIT! DOHOHON’T! NOT THERE! OH GEEZ- BAAAHAHAHAHAHA!” Jackie yelled. His voice was jumping up and down as he reacted to each and every poke and prod from the clamp tool.

Then, to end it off, Chase shoved his tool into the right side, and slightly clamped down, let go, clamped down, let go, and repeated these actions to squeeze his ticklish side.

Jackie’s wise smile grew bigger as his arms flailed just about everywhere, with the tube in his right hand as it flailed. In the middle of his flailing, he dropped the tube of icing onto the ground beside him.

Chase removed the reaching tool, picked up the tube and lifted it away, along with the feather duster.

“Thank you.” Chase said, before putting the lid on the tube and getting off the couch to put it away.

Jackie stayed behind the couch for a few minutes longer, before flying himself up and back into the kitchen.

“Feeling better?” Chase asked, with a smile.

“You suck man.” Jackie replied.

Chase looked up at Jackie, and let out a sudden laugh. “What?” Jackie asked.

“You still have icing on your face! It looks like you’re wearing crappy lipstick!” Chase exclaimed, pointing at Jackie’s lips. Jackie’s eyes widened as he wiped his ‘lipstick’ off his mouth with his sleeve.

“Merry Christmas, Santa.” Chase said as he walked by the superhero and put something in his hand. Jackie looked down at his hand, rolled his eyes and smiling.

“Har dee har har.” Jackie said back, before twisting the lid off the tube of white icing. He put some icing onto his hand, and spread it onto his face.

“HEY CHASE! LOOK!” Jackie yelled. Chase turned around, and bursted out laughing at the silly sight. Jackie had white icing spread onto his chin and upper lip, to imitate a white moustache and beard.

“MERRY NATIONAL BURGLAR DAY! THE DAY WHERE SANTA GETS PRAISED FOR YEARLY MISCONDUCT!” Jackie yelled.

Chase and Jackie laughed at his remark. He wasn’t wrong. The Santa Present thing was a way of teaching kids ‘slave labor, talking children and breaking into their houses to give them gifts is perfectly okay!’. But, that was just adult logic. Kids don’t fully understand any of that Law and Order stuff, and care more for the idea that a big man dressed in red will give them whatever toys they want. Kids, man! You love ‘em! Even the adult-sized ones!

[ichliebeschwanz]

title: dreaming

fandom/ship: hetalia/gerita

genre: drabble

"Eehehehe!"

Romano snarled in irritation, kicking at his brother's shins again. His brother mumbled and shifted in his sleep, but didn't wake.

"Germanyyy, I'm getting tired from all this marching, it's been hooooours, let's stop and have some fun now, ve. Look, look, this is the perfect spot . . ."

"Shut. UP," Romano growled, squashing his pillow onto his own head, trying to drown out the noise. Bad enough that Veneziano rambled nonstop while he was awake, but the fact that he was constantly doing that while asleep too was just too fucking much for him. Especially since he was usually rambling about that stupid potato-obsessed freak.

Several minutes passed. To Romano's immense relief, it was in slience. Gradually, he relaxed, hoping he'd finally get the the chance to fall asleep before the moron next to him started back up again.

Romano was drifting gently, hovering between the realms of wake and sleep, when a mumbling voice next to him snapped him out of it again.

"Germanyyyy . . ."

Oh, for fuck's sake. Romano squinted his eyes tightly shut and sighed. Should he shake the idiot awake again? It didn't seem to do much good. He would always fall back asleep again in just a few minutes and just resume babbling.

"Oooh, Germany . . . mmmm, yes . . ."

Romano paled a little. He didn't like how that last part had sounded.

"Aaah . . . ngggh. D-d-dio santo, Germany . . ."

Yeah okay no, that sounded gross. Romno grabbed his pillow and whacked at his brother with it, hard.

"Wake up, idiot!"

Veneziano made a loud noise, so Romano assumed smacking him with the pillow had been sufficient for waking him. However, he soon learned that sadly, he was mistaken.

"Cazzo. Harder, Germany, harder . . ."

Romano, horrified, yanked at the covers til his brother went flying off the bed.

"STOP IT YOU SICK POTATO-SUCKER!"

Italy cried out as he hit the floor, startled and shocked, looking around in confusion.

"Wh-what . . . what?"

"You're banned from bed until you can stop fantasizing about your gross, stupid boyfriend!"

Italy gazed up at the angry man, still entirely confused.

"Romano? Why are you yelling at me? I don't understand . . ."

"Don't play dumb with me! You know exactly why I'm yelling!! Go finish your nasty dreams on the couch!"

Go finish his . . . dreams? Italy thought a moment. He felt vague flashes of memory.

"I guess I was dreaming, ve. It was nice, I think. Oh, and Germany was there. He was . . .he . . ."

As he trailed off, his eyes widened a little and a blush crept up slowly over his face--

"Uhh . . ."

"DON'T FREAKING TELL ME ABOUT IT, JUST LEAVE!"

Germany fumbled around for his bathrobe as the doorbell rang again. He finally located it and tossed it on. He abandoned his search for his slippers and quickly descended the stairs instead, calming his barking dogs on the way.

When he opened the door, he was surpirsed to find Italy standing there. The surprise wasn't so much at seeing Italy showing up at his house at 3am. The surprise was more in finding him actually ringing the doorbell instead of just . . . showing up in his bed somehow.

He even was dressed in his little striped pajamas, rather than buck-naked. Germany looked him over with a concerned eye.

"Italy? Are you all right?"

The country nodded.

"Hi Germany. Could I sleep here tonight? Brother kicked me out of bed and told me to sleep on the couch but our couch has a lumpy cushion and I can't fall asleep on it."

Wordlessly, Germany stood to one side and ushered Italy to come in. Italy grinned and bounded into the house.

After locking the door again, Germany turned and watched Italy playing with the lab for a bit. The odd man had apparently forgotten his troubles in the blink of an eye. Germany was almost reluctant to remind him, but cleared his throat.

"Italy, why did your brother refuse to allow you access to your own bed?"

Italy, smooshing the dog’s face goofily, glanced up.

"Oh, um. Sometimes I talk in my sleep and it wakes him up. You don't mind though, do you Germany?"

Germany brushed back his messey, bedraggled hair as he thought. Cetainly, it was not uncommon to hear Italy quietly mumbling as he slept, but he could hardly imagine anyone finding it disruptive. If anything, it was just sort of endearing and adorable.

"E-er," Germany started, trying to shut down his train of thought,

"I don't mind. But I am a heavy sleeper, so not much bothers me."

Italy looked very happy with this reponse.

"~Aah! You're way much more fun to sleep with. I wish I could sleep here all the time."

"Let's not make it a habit," Germany cautioned. It was already dangerously approaching a habit at the rate Italy showed up here.

"Would you like anything to snack on?" he asked, changing the subject. Food was pretty much always a safe bet with Italy.

"Do you have any of those cookies left?"

Several minutes later, Italy was perched on a stool at the kitchen counter nibbling on a cinnamon cookie while Germany heated some chocolate and milk over the stove.

"Germany always makes the best hot chocolate."

He frowned as he whisked the milk carefully.

"I don't do anything special."

"You must do something, it's always extra strong and nice."

He dotted a few drops of vanilla extract in and continued stirring.

"Really, it's a simple recipe, I think you give me too much credit."

"Hmm . . . you made these cookies too, didn't you?"

Germany glanced over at him.

". . .yes."

"And they're amazing too! Germany is a wonderful cook. You don't want to admit it?"

Germany stared down into the pot of hot chocolate, embarassed at the praise.

"I just follow recipies very precisely," he insisted stubbornly.

Italy laughed.

"We should cook together sometime, we would make great things together. I can show you the bolognese recipe I use when I make you those dinners."

Germany looked at him a moment, his heart smooshing into a dumb little mush. He'd always been reluctant to admit his fondness for baking and cooking, and certainly didn't think he'd measure up to Italy's talents in the kitchen. But Italy wished to actually collaborate? And share his family recipes? It was . . . touching, honestly.

"I'd like that," he answered gently, pouring out the chocolate into two mugs and sliding one over to Italy.

"Here. Be sure to drink it before it gets cold."

"Ow ow ow ow ow! It's too hot!"

"Nonsense. I used a thermometer."

Italy whined, still trying to drink it but failing.

"Aah, ooh! But it buuuurns! Blow on it for me?"

Germany sighed, but he took Italy's mug anyway and blew at the steam wafting off it. He doubted it made much difference, but after a minute handed it back to Italy, which seemed to satisfy him.

"Ah, thank you Germany~"

He sipped gingerly at the hot cocoa and then reported cheerfully,

"Perfetto!"

Germany gave a small nod of satisfaction, and then sipped his own drink. He made a careful mental note to reduce the temperature by five degrees next time.

"Do you and your brother fight often like this?"

Italy glanced up at him with his bright amber eyes, as if confused, but then seemed to remember. He laughed a little and busied himself with dunking his cookie in his hot chocolate.

"Oh, eh heh, you don't need to worry. My brother loves me very much, he's just hot-blooded. I think yelling is one of his favorite things."

"Hm."

Germany sipped his cocoa and settled down on a stool across from Italy.

"I can understand, I suppose. My brother and I don't always get along very smoothly either."

Italy nodded vigorously.

"Brothers are just like that. It is how they show they care, I think."

Germany briefly pondered some of his own family bickerings.

"Maybe. I always thought it was because I was so different from my brother. Sometimes it's hard to believe we're related."

"Mmm, yeah . . .that's true."

"Actually," Germany added,

"I thought much the same when I met your brother. It was very strange to see you both. He's so . . . . dour. And you're so . . . ah . . ."

Italy leaned his chin on a hand, looking at him eagerly.

"Yes?"

Germany cursed himself as he struggled to knit words together.

"Um . . . you're. Well, you know, you're very Italy."

Italy frowned in confusion.

"Well we're both Italy, actually--"

"Grahh, that's not what I-- I just mean, you're completely different. He can be so bleak and  bitter. You couldn't be further from that. You are a brightness that fills the room."

Germany thoughtfully sipped his drink and continued,

"I just find it curious--"

"G-germany," Italy blurted, intterupting. Germany stopped and noticed Italy's wide eyes and absolutely enormous smile-- he was even tearing up a little. Why in the world? . . . Germany mentally played back what he had just said.

And found himself sort of wanting to disappear.

"U-uh. That is, I . . ."

Italy flung himself over the counter, hugging Germany and nearly spilling both drinks in the process, proclaiming,

"I knew Germany cared!~ He's fluffy and as sweet as cannoli siciliani!”

Germany wriggled in Italy's grip and complained,

"Italy, you're going to make a mess! Get off!"

"Hehehehe!"

Crash!

"Oops."

Germany sighed.

By the time the two had finished their late-night snack (and Germany had cleaned up the mess) and went to bed, it was probably more accurate to say it was early morning then late night. Still, Germany had no pressing morning meetings tomorrow, so it didn’t trouble him too terribly. 

“Goodnight, Germany!”

He reached up and switched the light on his nightstand off.

“Goodnight.”

“Thank you for the cookies and hot chocolate.”

“You’re welcome.”

There was a pause.

“And thank you again for letting me sleep here!”

“. . . you’re welcome.”

Pause.

“Oh also I’ll try to dream quietly tonight!”

“Mmhm.”

Pause. Germany waited. The silence expanded. He sighed in relief, sinking further in his pillow.

Italy’s voice returned,

“Oh and if I don’t, you can always let me know and I’ll--”

“ITALY! BE QUIET!”

“--oh, aaah, sorry, sorry!”

The room fell silent again, the final words hanging in the air. Germany started to feel slightly bad over how harshly he’d snapped at him. 

Ugh. It was hardly his fault. Italy had been rambling. 

. . . it wasn’t a very nice final thing to hear before falling asleep, though. 

Germany sighed, trying to end things on a more neutral note.

“I already told you, you don’t need to worry about that. Your dreaming won’t wake me. So relax.”

“Okay, well Romano said I was really really loud, but okay, I won’t worry. I’ll try to have boring dreams anyway though, I’ll think about boring things, that way I’ll be nice and quiet.”

Germany rolled his eyes.

“What were you dreaming so loudly over anyway?” 

Italy rolled over in bed, stealing a little of the blankets as he replied,

“Oh, it was kind of weird, you were spanking me with a pasta spoon.”

Germany sat bolt-upright and made a choking noise.

“WH-WHAT.”

“Yeah, for some reason I wanted you to keep doing it. Funny, ve.”

Germany croaked.

“Anyway, goodnight Germany! Sleep well!”

[breadmaps]

Pâte à choux

So many choux/shoe puns. So little time.

Choux (shoo)! A basic french pastry used for eclairs, cream puffs/profiteroles, certain donuts, and croquembouche, a hilarious french pastry tree that is…eaten? by? someone?

Choux means cabbage in French because of cream puffs are…round. 

Moving on.

Choux uses a combo of eggs, water, butter, and flour (and sometimes some salt/sugar) to make a wet sticky dough that uses its own moisture to rise. As moisture in the dough becomes steam in the hot oven, the dough rises and air pockets are created within.

The interesting thing about choux is that you can adjust the water/butter/egg ratios to change the consistency of your finished product. If you want more of a sturdy choux to hold a heavy/moist filling, use more flour. If you want more of a crisp pastry, sub an egg white for one of the eggs.

Sounds sensible!

Attempt #1:

1) My Choux ingredients: King Arthur Flour Baking Companion (Recipe here)

6oz flour

1 stick butter

4 whole eggs

1 cup water

¼ tsp salt

2) My Pastry Cream/ Creme Patissiere ingredients: Basic recipe here 

1 ½ cups whole milk

½ cup sugar

¼ cup flour

¼ teaspoon salt

4 large egg yolks

1 teaspoon vanilla extract 

For my first attempt at choux, I chose to make a basic vanilla pastry cream and choux puffs. The cream was a basic custard recipe and came out nicely. I think if I were to make it again I would experiment with different flavors as I felt that the amount of vanilla extract tasted a bit artificial. 

Still, it thickened nicely in the fridge and maintained a good creamy texture.

For the choux, I decided to use about 6 ounces of flour which was a bit more than the 1.25C called for. I was looking for a stiffer pastry that would hold up with the heavy weight of the pastry cream. 

What a rebel I was. Yielding my flour bag with reckless abandon. 

….

I also wanted the puffs to be able to keep for a few days since we’re just two people and moist batters, while delicate and delicious, definitely yield a result that is more suited to quicker consumption. Otherwise, it will get sad and soggy and lose its crispiness overnight. 

Ok. So more flour. Makes sense!

The choux came together really easily and took all 4 eggs well. Piping was sort of goofy because I still haven’t bought any legitimate piping bags and have been using gallon-sized Ziplocs. 

Plus, the extra flour made the batter really thick and super sticky. So they were er…uniquely shaped on the tray. >_>

I cooked on 425 for 15 minutes, reduced to 375 for an additional 15 and then cooled in the oven with the door cracked. While cooling, I cut a small slit in each puff to let out some of the steam to keep the pastry nice and firm. It’s a good thing I did, too, because even after cooling I could feel the moisture in a couple of the puffs that I cut fully open. 

Piping the custard proved difficult. “You should just buy a cheap pastry bag” I hear you saying wisely. 

You’re right, I really should. 

Particularly because, instead of just cutting the puffs open, I constructed a device using a metal oil pouring spout in the tip of my Ziploc bag through which I forced the creme pat into the puffs.

It was actually surprisingly successful until I realized that I had WAY more puff real estate than cream and I was only going to be able to fill about 5 of the cavernous puffs that I had created. 

So I did what anyone would do: filled four, ate three in rapid succession and left everything on the counter to deal with later. 

OK! Lessons Learned: 

1) You really can mess around with the flour/butter/egg ratio to make a different consistency with seemingly solid results. This makes it a particularly forgiving creation. 

2) You should let some of the steam out after they’re done baking. I was worried to do this at first because I thought they would somehow collapse like sad little dutch babies (a real food, I swear). But they didn’t and were likely all the better for it. 

3) My puffs were fairly cavernous. In a good way! But that meant I needed more cream than anticipated. They were basically hollow little shells with about a golf ball size of space in the middle (give or take). 

That’s part of the charm, though, since they are leavened by steam! Lots of room for filling!

4) Sugar. I think I would add some into the batter next time. For some reason, the recipe as-is reminded me keenly of the taste of second-day Bisquick pancakes. They may benefit from a little sugar to sweeten them up. Either that or using an icing of some sort on top.

5) Bonus tip: don’t eat so much custard. You will feel sick for hours. 

What I will try next time: 

1) Experimenting with different moisture to flour ratios. I’d like to try making a lighter, more delicate choux puff with a light filing. I’m interested to see how egg whites would affect the outcome, as well as using less flour and more water/butter. maybe even a 2:1 ratio. Dangerous. 

2) Using an actual piping bag for uniform results. Alternatively, I think an ice cream scoop with a lever would be helpful in denser versions of the dough (like mine) to keep the finished product from looking like Peeps that are in the process of exploding.

3) Savory puffs. Yes. I’m not a huge sweets person but I will eat my weight in cheese/salt/pepper/olive oil/prosciutto. I think maybe a smaller puff for these to accommodate the sharper flavors. But how would I arrange the filling? Soft cheese with chives? ham? hmm.

4) Whipped cream filling rather than custard. I’ve never been particularly huge on custard filled choux. No idea why but I would always go for the cake donut rather than the Boston creme. I think I’m going to cut my current puffs open and fill them with some whipped cream so that they don’t er…go to waste.

Oooh! Maybe some fresh fruit in there too! Mango! Strawberries! Blueberries!

How healthy I am! 

Onward!