TRADITIONAL CHINESE MOONCAKES

Traditional Chinese mooncakes are usually eaten during the mid-Autumn festival when the moon is the brightest and fullest.  For me, I have never been fond of mooncakes.  I think that the storebought mooncakes that I ate had this aftertaste that felt like I had just eaten a mouthful of lard.

A good friend and mooncake affionado showed me how mooncakes were made and it was an epiphany.  Julie's filling weren't too sweet and had a variety of nuts in.  In her red bean mooncake, she had incorporated roses from her garden and it was heavenly!  She even made a filling with cranberries, pumpkin seeds and a variety of nuts.  Who knew?!  I now do enjoy eating homemade mooncakes!

My lesson with Julie showed me that making mooncakes was easy and homemade mooncakes could not even compare to store bought ones.

Tips for making traditional Chinese mooncakes.

I learned that mooncakes are made with either a 50 gram weight or a 100 gram weight.  This makes the recipe very mathematic...very Chinese!  The dough weight is usually half the weight of the filling.

Dough

When making the dough, use cake flour instead of all purpose flour.  Due to the lower protein level in cake flour, the amount of gluten is less which results in a crumbly, soft textured crust.  This also makes it easy to make into a ball when encasing the filling.

Alkaline water is also used in the dough recipe.  The alkaline water is said to react with the dark corn syrup, neutralizing the acidity of the syrup which removes the sour taste.

The dough needs to rest for at least 2 hours.  4 hours is ideal, until it is soft and limp!  This makes it easier to handle when enclosing the ball of filling.

Fillings

For this recipe, store-bought fillings are used with add-ins.  Add-ins such as nuts and bits of dried fruit can be added to enhance the flavor and texture of the mooncakes.  Julie has made some unique fillings such as infusing rose petals into her red bean paste and also make a filling with a five ingredient combination of cranberries, sunflower seeds and nuts.

Roll the filling into a ball before encasing it into the dough.  This helps keep the crust fairly uniform around the filling.  If the filling seems to be too soft, briefly freeze the filling to harden it slightly so that it is more manageable.  These store-bought fillings can be found at  Asian grocery stores.

Salted duck eggs are also added to the center of the filling to look like the full moon.  Use the same technique as enclosing the filling to enclose the duck egg so that the duck egg is centered in the filling.  

Mooncake molds

The mooncake molds come in 50 gram and 100 gram sizes as well as both square and round shapes.  It is best to purchase a set that has both the 50 gram and 100 gram sizes for variety.  Mooncakes that have the salted duck egg need to be 100 grams,

Shaping the mooncakes

When shaping the mooncakes, the work surface should be well floured and the dough balls with the filling should also be well floured too to avoid getting stuck in the mold.

When pressing down on the lever to create the pattern, one hand should be holding down the mold while pressure is given.  If insufficient pressure is placesd on the lever, the pattern will be indistinct.  However, if too much pressure is placed on the lever, the mooncake will ooze out from the bottom!

Baking the mooncakes

Before the initial bake, spritz water onto the mooncakes to prevent cracking.

The mooncakes require 3 bakings.  The 1st baking sets the dough.  The 2nd baking is the first application of egg wash to get the golden brown color.  This is done twice.  Between each baking, the mooncakes should cool down before the egg wash is applied to avoid cooking the egg upon application.

After the mooncakes are done baking, cool them completely before placing them in a sealed container or individual bags.  Allow these mooncakes to sit for 3-5 days to allow the crust to soften.  Enjoy and Happy Mid-Autumn Festival.  If you've come up with your own yummy filling creation, please let me know in the comment section.