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“Are you sure that you want me to help you with this?” Gabriel asked.
“Of course. Why wouldn’t I?” Nathalie said, having dressed down, and completed with an apron.
“Oh, it’s not like I haven’t cooked anything complex in years, let alone bake a tray of cookies.”
“Relax, Gabriel… that’s why I’m helping.” Nathalie rolled up her sleeves as she looked over the recipe. Flour, eggs, sugar, butter, baking powder, milk, and just a pinch of salt- which she had already gathered, and placed on the counter. She called for three cups of flour, first. She watched as Gabriel went to open the cabinets. When he pulled out a drinking glass, she raised a brow. “What are you doing?”
“You said cup. This is a cup.”
“Not a cup you drink from… a measuring cup.”
Gabriel said nothing, but blankly stared at Nathalie. She simply sighed, and walked over to the drawer. She fished out the set of measuring cups, and held them up. She even showed him how to measure properly. Once the cup had been emptied, she handed it over to him. He mimicked what she had just done, and was appropriately praised for it. He added a third, level cup of flour to the bowl. Nathalie added a dash of baking powder and the salt. She stirred up the dry ingredients. He grabbed an egg, and went to crack it.
“Wait wait wait! Don’t add that into that bowl.” She put a hand on his arm to dissuade him.
“Why not?”
“Because our wet ingredients must be blended together separately. She brought out a second bowl. “Put the egg down. We’re adding the butter and sugar in here first.”
“I thought you said wet ingredients. Sugar’s not wet.”
“I know, but we’re creaming the butter and sugar together.”
“Okay…” He replied, as he grabbed the softened sticks of butter. He unwrapped them, and added them into the bowl. Nathalie then poured in a cup of sugar on top. She popped the bowl in the stand mixer, and powered it on. She wasn’t too cruel to make him mix by hand. Unfortunately, the egg had rolled off the counter and onto the floor, so Gabriel had to clean that. Once the butter and sugar were sufficiently creamed and fluffy, Gabriel cracked the egg into it. When completely mixed, Gabriel decided to sneak in some vanilla. Nathalie watched as he added in what was probably far too much.
“That was far too much… but oh well. I’m sure it’ll be okay. Too much vanilla never hurt. Oh, right… okay, we can add the flour mixture.” She watched Gabriel grab the dry ingredient bow, and began to tip its contents into the bowl. “Wait, turn the mixer--” The flour came right back at him, hitting him in the face. He coughed, now coated in the flour. Thankfully he didn’t just add the entire bowl. “...Down to low, first…” She finished her sentence, with a sigh. She reduced the mixer to low, as she took over adding the flour. “Just go get the cookie cutters.” She replied, as she realized their dough was still too sticky- so she added a bit more flower as she watched their dough carefully. He at least knew where the cookie cutters were- walking to the cabinet at the end of the kitchen, and retrieving the basket of cookie cutters- Christmas trees, stars, candy canes, snowmen and snowflakes. Perfect. As he brought the cutters over, she was rolling out their fully formed cookie dough on the kitchen island, sprinkled with a bit of powdered sugar. While she was doing that, Gabriel headed to the oven, to preheat it. He figured it out all on his own, and he felt accomplished.
“Now do we get to cut them out?”
Nathalie nodded. “Yes, now we can cut them out.”
Gabriel smiled, as he began to pick up the cookie cutters. He began to stamp out the cookies with the various shapes, as Nathalie put them on the baking sheet. When he stamped out as many as he could, he realized there was plenty of dough left to make more. Nathalie instructed him to combine the scraps and flatten the cookies. They repeated this process, until they had two, large trays of cookies. Nathalie popped them in the oven, and set the timer. They worked together to clean up the kitchen, mainly putting their dirty dishes in the dishwasher. The aroma soon filled the kitchen, the potent scent of vanilla filled the air. “Mmm, those smell delicious.” He remarked, while wrapping his arms around her from behind. Since his clothes were still covered in flour, doing this caused him to get messy.
“I agree. Even if you overdid it on the vanilla.” She relaxed into him, smiling a bit. Once the timer went off, she broke away from him, gathering oven mitts and placing the cookies onto a cooling rack. After a few minutes, she gestured to him. They each picked up a warm cookie before taking a bite. Gabriel was surprised at just how good these turned out.
“These really are incredible…” He said with a grin. “And I couldn’t have done it without you.”
Nathalie concurred. “These are good. I’m sure Adrien will agree too, once they’re cooled and decorated, perhaps.”
“When can we do this again?”
Nathalie chuckled. “Maybe for your birthday. And then, we can bake a cake. You’re never too old to learn how to bake, you know.”