クリームパン作り方

I'm experimenting to see how alignment works to show translation. Tables in Blogger are such a pain.

This recipe assumes that you kind of know what it will look like in the end, but if you've never seen one, parts will seem pretty weird. The end product should look something like the thing at left if you decide to start dicing them up or something. There's a reference to a seam later on, and you can see it at the far right of the upper pastry.

[From http://plaza.rakuten.co.jp/butterbread/9000]

１０～１２個分
＜中身のカスタードクリームを作る＞

Makes 10-12 individual servings
Custard filling

１．薄力粉３０ｇを茶こしでふるっておく。

Sift 30 grams of pastry [low-viscosity] flour

２．卵黄２個、砂糖６０ｇ、ふるった薄力粉３０ｇを鍋に入れてから火にかけ、牛乳３００ｃｃを少しずつ泡だて器で混ぜながら加えていく。途中でヘラに替えてもったりするまでかき混ぜながら煮る。

Put two eggs, 60 grams of sugar, and the strained flower into a saucepan and apply heat. Slowly add 300cc of milk while stirring. Boil until thickened enough to stand a spatula [not kidding]

３．火からおろし、バターまたはマーガリン１０ｇと、バニラエッセンス２，３滴をヘラでよく混ぜる。

Remove from heat and add 10g of butter or margarine, as well as 2 or three drops of vanilla essence. Stir well with a spatula.

４．蓋をしてそのまま冷ましておく。

Cover and cool as-is.

＊あればバニラビーンズの方がエッセンスよりも香りが良い。

If you have them, vanilla beans make for a better smell than vanilla essence.

＜ホームベーカリーで生地を作る＞

Making the dough in a home bakery [real ovens aren't common here]

以下を機械に投入。生地づくりコースを選ぶ。

This assumes you have a bread machine. Select "dough course".

１．ドライイースト　５ｇ (dry yeast)
２．強力粉　２５０ｇ (pastry (low-viscosity) yeast)
３．砂糖　　大さじ２ (two tablespoons sugar)
４．塩　　　小さじ１/２ (one-half (.5) teaspoon salt)
５．マーガリン　２０ｇ (margarin)
６．卵　　　１個 (one egg)
７．水　　　１２０ｃｃ (water)

生地ができたら、包丁で１０～１２等分にカットし、生地を周りから丸めこむように丸める。布をかけて２０分放置。（ベンチタイム）

Once the dough is done, use a kitchen knife to cut into 10-12 equal portions and round each one into a circle. Put a cloth on them and let set for 20 minutes. (benchtime)

軽く丸め直し、円く平らにのばし（円のふちのほうを薄く）、カスタードクリームを割とたっぷりめに包み込んで下を閉じる。少し平らになるように軽く押し、 端に3か所切れ込みを入れてグローブ型にする。天板に並べ、２次発酵約５０分。（オーブンの発酵機能を使うか、ビニールをふわっとかけてこたつに入れるか する。気温が２８度くらいならビニールかけて常温で放置できる。）

Lightly fix them to be more circular, then stretch so the edges are thinner and fill relatively full with the custard filling, wrap and close under. [f you look at the picture at the top of the page, you can see the seam at the right side of the one that's been cut in half.] Lightly flatten them and cut three incisions [see picture at left] and make into a rough globe shape. Line them up on a baking tray [a cookie sheet, I guess?] and let ferment for about 50 minutes. You can put them in the oven for this time if you want, but you'll want to make sure to cover them lightly with plastic wrap and keep the temperature around 28 degrees [that's Celsius!].

２倍に膨れたら、１８０度のオーブンで約１３分焼く。

When they have doubled in size, bake them in the oven for about 13 minutes at 180 degrees. [again, Celsius!]

Creamy Essay

I've tried to be fairly true to the Japanese as I wrote it without embellishing it or making it sound too much more natural than it fails to be. I did this mostly so that I could make sure that there were no serious gaps in the writing that I was just missing because I couldn't evaluate the writing as a whole. Or something.
Now, I'm not saying that there are no fairly serious gaps where you're just like "Wait, what?" But they're not serious enough for me to want to reflow each paragraph.

When you're dealing with Asian names written in roman letters, last names are sometimes written in all-uppercase letters for clarity, as I have done here.

菓子クリームパン！ ウィルロクド	Pastry Cream Bread! William Lockwood
もし一年前の私は「クリームパンって、何のことですか」と聞かれたら、答える事ができなかったはずだ。日本に来る前には「クリームパン」と聞いた事がなかったので知らないのは当たり前の事かもしれない。去年２００８には初めてクリームパンを見たのだ。クラスのみんあにはちょっと信じがたいだろう。	If you were to ask me a year ago "What kind of thing is a kuriimu pan?", I don't expect I could've answered. I hadn't heard the word before coming to Japan, so I think that my not knowing may be kind of a given. Last year, 2008, I saw cream-pan for the first time. Kind of hard to believe, right?
さて、クリームパンの発明に関すして話したいと思う。日本に１４世紀に中国からまんじゅうと言う食べ物が伝わった。当初、肉しかに詰められていなかったが日本人の口に合うようにあんこに詰められて来て、日本のまんじゅうが発明された。１６世紀にポルトガルからの探検者が日本へ火縄銃や宗教やパン、つまり技術と文化を日本に持って来た。その時に日本人の初めてパンを見た。もう少し後、日本は鎖国を始めた結果、パンは外国文化の一部として禁ずられたので約三百年間にほとんだなかった。でも、あんまんじゅうはのこっていた。	Okay, I'd like to talk about the invention of cream-pan. In the 14th century, the Chinese brought a food called manjuu ["steamed yeast bun", a super-soft bread-thing]. In the beginning, they were just filled with meat, but came to be filled with anko ["sweet bean paste", the Japanese version of corn syrup, basically. It's in everything.] in order to suit Japanese tastes and thus was the Japanese manjuu invented. In the 16th century, Portuguese explorers came to Japan and brought matchlock muskets, religion, and bread, in other words, culture and technology, with them. At that time, the Japanese people first saw bread. A little later, Japan started its seclusive phase and bread was forgotten about for about three hundred years. But anko-filled manjuu remained.
１９世紀の明治時代に侍の地位が政府にとられた。その前に侍だった人々は武士ではなくなって来たら、新しい就職を探された。その中の一人、木村安兵衛は西洋文化を普及させたほうがいい思っていたため１８６９年に日本の初めてのパン屋を作った。パン屋の名前は「文英堂」だって、すぐ「木村屋」に変わった。木村屋の新しいパンの種類として、アンパンが発明されて、毎日売り切れていたくらい大人気だった。	In the 19th century, during the Meiji period, samurai were stripped of their rank by the government. People who were previously samurai, when they came to lose their status as warriors, were forced to seek out new employment. One of those people, Yasubei KIMURA, thought that Western culture should be spread and, in 1869, made Japan's first bakery. It's name was "Bun Ei Dou" ["sentence","beauty","hall". Go figure.], but soon changed it to Shop Kimura [kimura-ya]. As a new kind of bread from Shop Kimura, the anpan [bread, filled with anko] was invented and was so hugely popular that it sold out every day.
１８７５年に天皇の侍従が木村屋に行ったら、天皇にアンパンをあげようと申し入れた。桜はずっと前から日本の印だったので、木村屋は新しい桜アンパンを作った。天皇と皇后がその桜アンパンを食べたら、もちろんおいしかったので、その時から木村屋のアンパンを注文して引き続いた。この出来事でアンパンは全国の人気できた。現在でもアンパンはまだ一番人気のある菓子パンだ。	In 1875, the emperor's chamberlain went to Shop Kimura and suggested that they give some anpan to the emperor. Because the cherry blossom has long been a symbol of Japan, Shop Kimura made a new kind of sakura anpan. When the emperor and empress ate that sakura anpan, it was, of course delicious, so from then for a long time they ordered anpan from Shop Kimura. By way of this big event, anpan gained nationwide popularity. Even today, it's the most popular of pastries in Japan.
今までの話は日本の菓子パンの全員に関する長話だった。アンパンは大人気になったら、さまざまな中身と作り方の変更をされて見た。その菓子パン実験によって、今日ジャンパンやメロンパンなどを食べられる。	The story up until now was the long story about all of Japan's pastries. When anpan became really popular, various fillings and recipes were tried. Because of those pastry experiments, you can eat pastries like melon pan and jamu pan [basically a sealed PB&J sandwich, hold the PB).
その一種はクリームパンだ。１９０４年に中村屋で働いていた相(そう)馬(ま)愛(あい)蔵(ぞう)と言うパン屋さんがカスタードを中身として試した。もちろん、すばらしくおいしかった。その慶事あったからずっと日本の全国にはクリームパンも人気のあるパンだった。というのは、現在日本の三番目人気だ。	One of those types was cream bread. In 1904, a baker working at Shop Nakamura, Aizou SOUMA. tried custard as a filling. Of course, it was wonderfully delicious. Since that auspicious day, cream bread has also been a popular pastry in all of Japan Japan. That is to say, even today, it's the third most popular pastry.
でも、日本に来る前クリームパン聞いたことすらないからそれら全然知らなかったのだろう。私の日本にいる二日に学校の前のショップ９９で証明写真を撮りに行ったと店の中のおいしそうな物は多そうだったため、できたらさっそく行きたかった。戻ったとき、三十秒うちにカスタードメロンパンを見つけて、買った。今でも、それは私の一番好きなクリームパンだ。	But before I came to Japan, I hadn't even heard of cream bread, right? On my second day of being here in Japan, I went to the Shop99 in front of the school to get some ID photographs taken and inside the store there seemed to be a lot of delicious-looking things in the store, so I wanted to come back without delay if possible. When I went back, within 30 seconds, I found a castard melon cream bread and bought it. Even now, that's my favorite cream bread.

Political Debate

I went to get pastries last night and ended up getting in what was at times a rather heated political debate with a the clerk at the pastry shop.

At first we were just talking about random stuff, and we eventually got onto the topic of water usage during bathing. She feels that Americans waste vast quantities of water by only bathing in bathwater once.

This is a great example of cross-cultural weirdness. For a Westerner, I think the idea of using the same bathwater that was just used by three other people is kind of gross. For a Japanese, not doing that is a terrible waste of water, and they don't seriously consider our cultural aversion to reusing bathing water as a valid point because, to someone raised with that kind of tradition, it's just silly. I'm speaking in sweeping generalizations here, of course, but I thought it was an interesting point.

On the other hand, I was able to counter by pointing out that Japanese shower before they take a bath, and that shower is as long as many people's entire bathing process. In other words, the shower at the beginning of their shared-bath thing may use a similar amount of water to what someone in the US might use in their shower.

At one point, we were talking about congress and various houses and whatnot, but I have neither the vocabulary nor the knowledge for a lengthy discussion on such things.

A bit after that, she said that she was someone disturbed by the fact that America drafts only black people and the poor into the military. When I was shocked by this, she said "I see there are many things Americans don't know", which I have to admit, I thought was kind of rude. I slowly managed to batter some sense into her (this is, of course, assuming that I am more knowledgeable about it than she is) about what the draft is and how it isn't currently implemented, and how the Selective Service works, and how it doesn't.

Later, she played the "You nuked us!" card and even knows history well enough to play the "You firebombed us!" card to trump the "You nuked us!" card.

Clerk: Attacking civilians... There should be a better way.
Me: I think it was done to lower the morale and try and convince the Japanese government to stop fighting in the war.
Clerk: Still.
Me: I agree, but that's how World War II* was fought.
Clerk: But napalm? Think of all the people, just sitting in their houses in fear, with no way out. And Japan is made of wood, so it's all the worse. It just burned completely.
Me: Yeah, but if you look at that from the enemy's point of view... That's good thinking, isn't it?
Clerk: Civilians.
Me: Yes.

It was quite an interesting discussion, and I enjoyed it. Further, it was very good practice, I think, and I felt I was doing a surprising job of holding up my end of it, which really shows the advances my Japanese has made from the first day of class last semester. I had to ask her to slow down a couple of times, but when people start getting upset, they're hard to understand no matter the language.

Oh, and the pastries were delicious, as always.

*第二次世界大戦 dai ni-ji sekai tai-sen Or "major second worldly big-ass war" Thank you, Okada! I don't what other vocab I remember from her class, but I've been wanting to use that one in discussion for two years now.