Traditional Mooncakes

Mooncake (simplified Chinese: 月饼; traditional Chinese: 月餅; pinyin: yuè bĭng) is a Chinese bakery product traditionally eaten during the Mid-Autumn Festival (Zhongqiujie). The festival is for lunar worship and moon watching, when mooncakes are regarded as an indispensable delicacy. Mooncakes are offered between friends or on family gatherings while celebrating the festival. The Mid-Autumn Festival is one of the four most important Chinese festivals.

Mooncake (月饼) is often consumed during Mid-Autumn Festival (中秋节), with the full moon on the night of a 15th day of the 8th lunar month, as well as the traditions of moon gazing. Having many different fillings, it could also be eaten as easy desserts after a meal.

Traditional Mooncakes (recipe)

Makes 12-13 mini mooncakes (50 grams mould)

Ingredients:

For the dough:

100g of plain flour

4ml of alkaline water

70g of golden syrup

25ml of vegetable oil

¼ tsp of vanilla extract

For filling:

430g lotus paste or any paste that you like

(I'm using lotus and red bean)

Egg wash:

1 egg and 1 tbsp water

Method:

1. In a bowl, add golden syrup, alkaline water, and vanilla extract, stir to well combine. Add in oil, mix well.
2. Add in plain flour, mix with a spatula to form a soft dough. Gently knead the dough using a spatula till smooth, about 30 seconds.
3. Wrap with cling wrap and leave to rest for at least 3 hours. 
4. Preheat your oven to 180C/160CFan-forced.
5. Dust the dough with some flour. Give the dough a few light kneading to smooth it.
6. Divide dough into 15g pieces. Shape each dough into a ball. 
7. Divide the filling paste into 35g pieces. Shape each dough into a ball.
8. Roll each dough over some flour. Dust hand with flour and flatten each dough into a small disc. Wrap it around the filling and shape it into a ball. Dust hand with some flour to avoid the dough from sticking.
9. Lightly dust the wrapped dough with some flour. Place it in the mooncake mould and press the mooncake out. Place mooncake on a baking tray line with parchment paper.
10. Spray some water on the mooncakes. This will help to prevent the mooncakes from cracking during baking.
11. Bake it for 10mins. Remove from oven and leave to cool for 25 minutes. This is to prevent the filling to expand so that the crust will not crack.
12. Brush the top with some egg wash. Return to oven and continue to bake for another 12 - 15mins until golden brown.
13. Leave the mooncake to cool completely and store in air tight containers. Wait for a day for the mooncakes' skin to soften before serving.

If you want to add egg yolks in it.

1. You need to divide the egg yolks and white and steam the yolks for 5 minutes then cool.
2. Reduce the amount of filling paste. Both paste and yolk add up to 35 grams. (For mini mooncake, I suggest you to half the yolk for each cake after you cooked)
3. Flatten the round paste, in the center add one egg yolk. Roll into ball.
4. Follow the rest of the steps in the video.

recipe from www.youtube.com/zatayayummy