[Closed Post: Cinnamon Roll]

[timebethine]

A few days' recovery have left Laertes feeling refreshed enough to return to his baking, although not quite ready to dive into anything particularly complicated. Thus, he abandons the more complex direktørsnegl recipe he'd been meaning to try in favor of perfecting the humble cinnamon roll.

The days are getting shorter--even Laertes can feel it, though his sense of time is poor. He can no longer rely on the sunrise to wake him at a decent hour for baking, and so today he's up a little before the sun, kneading the bready dough by hand rather than using the paddle of the stand mixer in the hopes that the physical exertion will wake him up a little. It's not working particularly well; his eyelids keep drooping.

Comments

[timebethine]

"Why so? It brought Tress spores from her world, which I think is less like ours than Narnia."

[quote_gentle_unquote]

Susan goes to set the oven to preheat for her biscuits. She flicks a glance at him. "Why, because Narnia is no more."

[timebethine]

"But it was, once," he says. "In thine era of science and calamitous war, I would be no more, if I ever was to begin with. Dead upon the floor of a stage a thousand times over--yet here I am. I was, once, and therefore, here I may be again."

[quote_gentle_unquote]

"Perhaps," Susan allows. "But our world goes on turning, even if we have exited it to live in another. When Lucy was here she told me Narnia burned, flooded, and froze, and even the stars fell from the skies. I suppose that feels more impossibly inaccessible to me." She waves a hand, somewhat airily even though she doesn't feel particularly flippant about anything. "Or maybe I've just not wrapped my head around it all."

[timebethine]

"Then let us approach this in a spirit of inquiry," says Laertes, scraping bacon out of the skillet and turning off the stove. "Name some food that can only be found in Narnia. Describe it to me, and I shall try to produce it from thy description. I have not thy sense that Narnia is unreachable; I may be able to bring forth whatever thou canst not."

[quote_gentle_unquote]

"Oh! I meant - I've found some Narnian things, too, but never on purpose," Susan says. She's thinking, though. "There was an ancient old tree in the Lantern-Waste near the Western Wilds. It yielded fruits that looked like pale brown dates but tasted like the richest toffee, with a soft, sweet center instead of a pit."

[timebethine]

Laertes considers what she's describing for a long moment, the way he had the pavenders. He tries to imagine the taste--the sweet richness of dates and toffee, the soft chewiness of the center. The light caramel color, and the tautness of the skin; he's never seen what dates look like on the palm, but he imagines them full in their ripeness.

The first thing he pulls out from the refrigerator is a plate of dates stuffed with pistachio paste, cream cheese, and brown sugar, which look extremely tempting; however, he can easily tell they're not what Susan is looking for. He concentrates again, and pulls out something that looks halfway between a date and a fig. "This?" He asks, passing the fruit to her.

[quote_gentle_unquote]

It's close but wrong, somehow, but it takes until Susan breaks the fruit open and tries a bite that she realizes what. "I'd forgotten," she says. "When at their ripest, the fruits had a syrupy juice that would get all over absolutely everything."

[timebethine]

"The same taste of toffee in the juice? Or a different sweetness?"

[quote_gentle_unquote]

"The same taste, I think," Susan says, then shakes her head. "Maybe a smidge treacley?"

[timebethine]

Laertes closes his eyes and tries to envision it. Less like a fig--less a bright, fruity taste, and more rich and caramel-like. Just verging on bitterness. He pictures the stickiness on his fingers, the give of it between his teeth. Then, reaching into the refrigerator once more, he pulls out a soft fruit like a pale, overripe date, gleaming with sticky syrup. "Try this."

[quote_gentle_unquote]

Susan takes it; it's so ripe it nearly falls apart in her hand. She leans over the island to bite into it, cupping her other hand under her chin to catch any juice. Her eyelashes flutter as she sinks her teeth into its flesh. It's cold from the icebox, but with her eyes closed, she can picture the heat of the sun on her cheeks and Lucy's idle, chiding disregard for her own clothes as she exhorted Susan to just dig in, already.

She swallows, wipes a drip of juice off her chin with her thumb, and, opening her eyes, stares at Laertes.

[timebethine]

"Was it right?"

[quote_gentle_unquote]

"Yes," hoarse.

[timebethine]

"Try it," he says gently, and gestures her to the refrigerator. "Choose another thing. We've shown that it can be done."

[quote_gentle_unquote]

So Susan concentrates as hard as she can - but instead of fensey when she opens the door, she only sees a bundle of dill, which isn't even particularly close. She tries again, and produces oregano. With an impatient little sigh, she glares at the icebox -

This time, at least, she manages to produce a second toffee-fruit. This, she offers to Laertes, in case he should like to try it, too.

[timebethine]

Laertes takes it, turning to eat it over the sink--the juice bursts out when he bites into it, and he can't help laughing as it drips down his chin. "This is a marvel," he says, and licks his fingers clean of the toffee-tasting syrup. "There's nothing like it. We should have stuffed the cinnamon rolls with this, instead of raisins."

[quote_gentle_unquote]

"I learned where it came from, the first time we left Narnia," Susan says, smiling (small, but genuine) at the look on Laertes's face. "From the old professor we were staying with. He'd planted a piece of toffee candy in the earth when Narnia was still brand-new - barely an hour or two old - and it grew into an entire tree." She blinks twice, and then lets her smile widen. "Next time: toffee-fruit buns."

[timebethine]

"It's a promise," says Laertes. "I wonder--is this a new world, too? Is that why it answers our wishes so readily?"

[quote_gentle_unquote]

"It looks rather old, but that's no way to judge newness," Susan says, thoughtfully. "The professor said that Narnia looked lived-in barely a day after Aslan sang it into existence. And the sheds that appeared suddenly behind the orchards did so full of old things and looking rather like they'd blow over in the first stiff wind."

[timebethine]

"How might we test that? If--if we planted a confection in the earth, in springtime, would we see it sprout into a bonbon tree?"

[quote_gentle_unquote]

"From what I understand, the fierce growth in Narnia stopped within a few days. But I say that's no reason we shouldn't try. This isn't Narnia."

[timebethine]

"At worst, we'd only have wasted a bit of chocolate," says Laertes, grinning. "We can spend the winter devising tests, and undertake them in a torrent in spring."

[quote_gentle_unquote]

"I do rather like the way you think," Susan decides. "I had no idea so many people here were so prone to experimentation."

[timebethine]

"Tress and Claudius taught me the logic of it," says Laertes. "Are there others?"