Traditional mooncakes

 Mooncake festival is coming soon. I bet every bakers is making mooncakes at home to eat or send as gifts to someone, be it relatives, siblings, neighbours or friends.

Here, I'm making traditional mooncakes. Mooncakes are not my favourite, but I do love to make for the festival every year. The only paste that I like are red bean and lotus paste. In the past, I do not eat much mooncakes because they are too sweet. Now I can bake my own mooncakes and adjust the sweetness. My late papa loves mooncakes a lot, especially this traditional one and he will always buy the  red bean fillings because it is cheap and affordable and nice. I really hate mooncakes at that time. They are too sweet for my liking. After I started making my own mooncakes, I ate quite a lot from that day onwards. Well, just considered once in a year of sweetness although most manufacturers now have also lessen the sugar to "Less Sweet". 

 For the unacquainted, the celebration falls on the 15th day of the eighth month

 of the lunar calendar on September 21 this year.It is also known as mid-autumn festival.Each year during this time,the moon is at the roundest and brightess.

My family will gather together and enjoy eating mooncakes in front of our house outside and at the same time gazing at the moon while drinking tea too.

These days not many people want to celebrate the festival.Every year we hung lanterns all over our gate,but I never see my neighbours doing that.Even the youngsters are not interested in this kind of

festival or any other festivals,unlike the olden days when the older generation will sit together with their family and eat mooncakes and chat together all throughout the night with the moon above them.

What eye catching in recent years are the boxes of mooncakes are getting lovelier and more prettier.

People came out with ideas of making beautiful and colourful mooncakes too. Too pretty to be eaten away!. Come to think of it, I'm a very dull person. I can only make a few simple types and not creative, and one thing I know for sure is our family don't like mooncakes with salted egg yolk.

Mooncakes are getting more and more expensive. Don't you want to make your own? Follow the recipe below. It is very simple. If you don't want to make your own fillings, go buy the pre-made one.

Dough Ingredients:

100g Low protein flour (cake flour)

60g Golden syrup

30g Cooking oil

½ tsp. Alkaline water (lye water)

Divide into 4 with each 48g

Filling:

460g Lotus seed paste (4 x 115g each)

Some Almond Flakes

Egg Wash:

1 egg yolk + 1 tbsp water

Mix golden syrup, cooking oil and alkaline water. Sieve in flour and mix well until all ingredients fully combined into dough. Do not over knead/mix.

1.  Wrap with cling wrap, rest the dough for 2 hours.

 2. Mix lotus seed paste/red bean paste with some almond flakes.

 3. Place dough between cling warp and roll out evenly into 2-3mm thin disc shape with a rolling pin.

 4. Wrap mooncake filling with dough.Put some flour to the wrapped dough.

 5. Shape mooncake with mooncake mould.

6.  Bake in preheated oven at 160°C/320°F for 10 minutes. Spray mooncake with some water to avoid         crust from cracking during the baking process.

7.  Remove from oven and brush with egg wash.

 8. Bake for another 10 minutes or until golden brown.

 Crust of Mooncake will become softer and shiny after 2-3 days in air-tight container and ready to be served.

Red Bean Filling Recipe: (Yield 400g, 4 portions, 100g each)

Recipe of red bean paste adapted from mykitchen101en.com (I copy it down here, but I used ready made filling instead cos I was lazy to cook that day) (This is for future reference)

150 g red bean (soak overnight)

600 ml water

110 g granulated sugar

55 g cooking oil

15 g glutinous rice flour + 3 Tbsp. of water

¼ tsp salt

Instructions for red bean paste:

1 Wash and rinse red bean, soak overnight in the refrigerator. Soaking will reduce the time to cook and soften the beans.

2 Drain the soaked red bean, add in 600ml water, bring to the boil, reduce to low heat and cook for 2 hours until bean soften.

3 Slightly cool the cooked red bean and process using a blender until smooth.

4 Sieve the red bean paste through a fine mesh strainer to remove skin; this will give you a fine and smooth red bean paste.

5 Add in 110g sugar, 55g cooking oil, 15g of glutinous rice flour with 3 tablespoons of water and ¼ tsp of salt. Cook over medium heat for about 30 minutes, stirring constantly until a smooth and shiny paste formed. Cooking time may vary. Red bean paste can be prepared in advance and store refrigerated in airtight container.

SHANGHAI MOONCAKES

 

One of the few mooncakes that I like are Shanghai mooncakes,Teowchew La Pia and Feng Cui Ping.

I got this recipe from Baking Tai Tai blog.I leave out the salted egg yolk,and I replace the sesame 

seeds with pumpkin seeds for the decorations.For the filling,at first I wanted to use red bean paste,

but then decided to use green bean paste instead.

I can assured you that this is a very good recipe.The Shanghai mooncakes tasted great and everyone

loves it.Compared to my previous Shanghai mooncakes recipe,this one is a winner.

This recipe yields 12 mooncakes.

INGREDIENTS;

300g plain flour

40g custard powder

1 tsp baking powder

80g icing sugar

1 egg,lightly beaten

150g butter/unsalted or salted(skip salt if use salt butter)

1/4 tsp salt(if using unsalted)

1/2 tsp vanilla extract/essence

a few pumpkin seeds for decorations

Measure dough 57g each

FILLING;

 Green bean paste or paste of your choice,preferably lotus paste(52g each)

EGG GLAZE;

1 egg yolk

1 tsp milk

METHOD;

1.  Sift flour with baking powder,custard powder,and salt into a mixing bowl.

2.  Sift icing sugar and mix well into the flour mixture.

3.  Add in butter..Rub till it resembles like breadcrumbs

4.  Make a well in the centre,and add in lightly beaten egg.Combine into a soft dough without

     kneading.Let it to rest for 30 mins.

5.  Divide dough into 57 grams each..Roll into balls.

6.  Divide paste into 52 grams each..Roll into balls.

7.  Wrap the filling and shape into dome.Arrange them into lined baking tray with parchment paper

     or lightly greased baking tray.Decorate with some pumpkin seeds.

8.  Bake in pre-heated oven 180°C with top and bottom heat for 10 mins.Take out from oven and

     let rest for 5 mins.

9.  Brush them with egg glaze and return to the oven and bake for another 25-30 mins or until

     golden brown.

MINI FLAKY MOONCAKES

I love this mooncakes.Among all those mooncakes,this is the one that capture my heart for eating mooncakes.I don't quite like mooncakes.It never interest me.I have said that before in my previous

mooncake's post.Mooncakes are sweet and has only a thin crust filled with sweet fillings.

This flaky mooncakes is of Teochew origin as is what I heard.I'm not a mooncakes expert,but people said it is a Teochew mooncakes,so it is a Teochew mooncakes then. It is often sold in long tubes and

every year I would buy this type of mooncakes.and that's the only mooncake that I eat,but then I've

come to like other mooncakes too as time goes by.My taste has change to many

other types of mooncakes too.Not only that,after becoming a mother,I began making my own mooncakes year after year.My children all love mooncakes and during mooncake's festival,we would

celebrate it and bring various types of mooncakes to the outside front porch of our house to eat and

enjoy gazing at the moon.The moon would usually be full on this day.We would also hang some lanterns on a pole and if it's not enough,we would go to a park where dozens of people frock there

to hang lanterns on the trees which make it more merrier.Sadly,this year we will not be going to that

park to hang the lanterns on trees because of the coronavirus pandemic.

This mini flaky mooncakes is usually sold in paper tubes and has 10 pieces inside There is also a 

bigger one like the shape of a disc,but thicker than the disc and usually is of mung bean filling,but

can be red bean filling too or green peas paste filling.I've made 2 disc shape(pic shown with red marking).

INGREDIENTS;

WATER PASTRY;

200 g Plain Flour

100 g Shortening

100 ml Water

OIL PASTRY;

200 g Plain Flour

130 g Shortening

FILLING;

840 g Mung Bean paste

EGG WASH;

egg + water


1.  Mix water pastry ingredients together and let rest for 10 mins.

2.  Divide into 30 small balls.

3.  Next mix the oil ingredients together and divide into 30 small balls too.
 
NOTE: You calculate your dough and divide into how balls you want.I want a smaller mooncakes
like the store bought one,so I made smaller mooncakes.If you want bigger mooncakes,you make
bigger one.The oil pastry maybe smaller portion a bit than the water pastry.

4.  For the fillings,I used about 29-30 g each.

5.  Wrap one ball of oil pastry to water pastry.Seal the edges and shape into a ball.Roll flat with                   rolling pin and roll into a swiss roll.Then roll flat with rolling pin again and roll like a swiss
     roll again.Now make round shape and put the filling in to wrap and seal.Use hands to shape
     into round ball.Lightly flatten the ball with your hand.Can chop red mark on top of it if you want.

6.  Glaze with egg wash.

7.  Bake in pre-heated oven 180°C for about 20-25 mins.

The result you get after baked is flaky skin mooncakes and when you bite,some flakes will drop drop as you bite.Enjoy eating mooncakes."HAPPY MOONCAKES FESTIVAL"

SPIRAL TEOCHEW YAM MOONCAKES-BAKED AND DEEP-FRIED METHOD

These are Teochew Spiral Yam Mooncake

 I baked two versions of mooncakes 3 days ago.One is the deep-fried version and one is the baked versions.Both turned out fine,but I must say the baked version tasted more like mooncakes than the
deep-fried version.

I think it looked like roses and snail.Compared to other bakers,mine look very different from theirs
from the top.Such a pity that mine don't have the Jupiter look.I'm just happy that I can achieved the
spiral look rather than not looking spiral at all.I will be trying once more and I hope to get a better
look.

My mooncakes here is just using yam as the filling and no salted egg yolks.Our family dislikes
salted egg yolks inside the mooncakes,so I opted it out to make everyone happy and be able to enjoy

the mooncakes,.I know a lot of people like to put salted egg yolks in the center of the filling and it 

also looks like it represents the moon and it does look more prettier.

The baked one is more whitish in colour.I didn't expect the baked one to have the obvious spiral,because people say if you bake rather than deep-fried, the spiral won't be that obvious,but

 here it is proven that it is spiral as well.Perhaps I should use colouring to make it more colourful and beautiful.

INGREDIENTS;

Skin:

Ingredients A

240 g high protein flour,sieved
1 tbsp castor sugar
130 ml water
50 g shortening
1 tsp lime juice

Ingredients B

240 g superfine flour,sieved
170 g shortening/lard

1.  Mix in ingredients A to a bowl.Leave for 20 minutes. Divide into 8 portions.

2.  Mix ingredients B to a bowl. Form a dough.Divide into 8 portions.

3.  Flatten dough A to wrap up dough B.Flatten lengthwise and roll up like Swiss roll.Flatten
     lengthwise again . Cut into half and stack up. Flatten lengthwise and roll up like Swiss  roll  again.

     Leave for 10 minutes and divide into two.This makes 16 portions.

Filling:

1 kg cooked yam,(steamed and mashed)

400g sugar

180g oil

16 cooked salted egg yolks(I skip)

Oil for frying

Filling:

1.  Cook mashed yam with sugar and oil till dry and leaves sides of wok.Leave to cool.

2.  Divide into 100g portion and wrap up with one salted egg yolk(if Using).

3.  Flatten skin and wrap up filling. Deep-fry till golden brown. 

Notes: I take 5 out to bake in the oven.Temperature and time is 180°C for 25-30 minutes.
             The skin is still white after baking,but still flaky.
            Recipe adapted from Her World magazine many years ago and kept until now.

FENG CUI PING-MOONCAKES

Now I can proudly presents you my Hong Choi Pia.Wow! After so many years I finally found the

recipe.Thanks to my daughter who help me to google search in chinese.I had a hard time finding for this recipe as I found that no one has posted out this recipe but yes,there's at least 3-4 bloggers who did posted it online.Typing in english or pinyin for the words "Feng Cui Ping",or "Hong Choi Pia" didn't help in my search,but typing in chinese,she easily found the recipe,so I happily make
for the first time and with success except it was too thick and a bit too sweet.

This was way too thick.(above pic)The taste is not wrong.

Today I try to make another batch with the same recipe but I lessen the sugar by 40g.I also made it much thinner than the first batch,that was only yesterday.Yesterday,I only yield 4 pieces of pancakes,but today I can yield to 8 pieces because I made it smaller and thinner,hence can get 8 pieces.

Makes 4 small and 4 big pieces.

It may still look like it is too thick,but in actual fact,it is not so.This is the standard size.

By the way,when you stored bought this pancake mooncakes,it is written as 5-spice mooncake on the packaging.Therefore,I've added some 5-spice powder to it.

The recipe was adapted from: Here
From: Here and also: Here

I refer to all the above mention websites.They are all very similar.

First,I make the dough ready,then I began crystallizing the sugar for the filling,and the final stage is the wrapping,rolling and pan frying the pancakes.The glutinous rice flour have to be cooked too before adding in.

I do not wish to write a long post but jump to recipes:

THE SKIN;

300 G plain flour
100 G vegetable shortening
100 G hot water
1 big tbsps icing sugar
1 big tbsps maltose

In a big mixing bowl,add veg shortening,plain flour,maltose,icing sugar and hot water.Slightly mix
using a tablespoon.Knead until it form a soft dough and set aside for later use.

CRYSTALLIZED SUGAR;

260 G caster sugar
60 G water

In a cooking pot or saucepan,add in the sugar and the water.Stir and melt the sugar to crystallized.

THE FILLING;

1 tbsp+ orange zest from 1 orange
75 G cooked glutinous rice flour(fried)
150 G plain flour
100 G roasted sesame seeds(white or black seeds mixed will also do)
1 tbsp maltose
1/3 tsp 5 spice powder(optional)
Crystallalized sugar

In a bowl,mix the crystallized sugar and maltose together.Add 40g of water and let it slightly dissolved.

In another mixing bowl,mix flour,cooked glutinous rice flour,5 spice powder,roasted sesame seeds and orange zest.

Make a hole in the center and pour in the liquid mixture and mix until smooth.Divide into 8 balls.

Divide the dough to 8 balls as same with the fillings.  Flatten the dough and wrap the fillings in with the dough.Using rolling pin,roll each balls into a round shape.

Pan fry the pancakes under low fire on both sides until cooked and brown in colour.

Teochew Mooncake

This is my first try of spiral teochew mooncakes,and it doesn't look any spiral to me.The fillings consists of purple sweet potato instead of yam.I couldn't find yam.Substitute first.
Try the yam one later. The skin are not sweet,to the disappointment of my children.

 Pastry recipes adapted from magazine.

Ingredients A

240 g high protein flour,sieved
1 tbsp castor sugar
130 ml water
50 g shortening
1 tsp lime juice

Ingredients B

240 g superfine flour,sieved
170 g shortening

Filling recipe by me:

375 g purple sweet potato
90 g sugar
30 g wheat starch
20 ml water
50 g coconut milk
40 ml veg oil

1.Peeled the skin of the sweet potato and cut into cubes.Steam till softened.While it is still hot,put sugar and mix.Mashed with a fork.Mix the wheat starch with the water and pour to the sweet potato.Add the coconut milk and oil and stir to a smooth paste.Cover and chill in the fridge.

Skin:

1.Mix ingredients A together.Leave for 20 minutes.Divide into 8 portions.
2.Mix ingredients B together.Divide into 8 portions.
3.Flatten dough A.Put dough B onto it and wrap it up.Flatten length-wise.Roll it like a swiss
roll.Flatten again length-wise.Cut into half and stack up. Flatten length-wise and roll like
a swiss roll again.Leave for 10 minutes.Divide into 2.This makes 16 portions.
4.Flatten one skin and put the fillings in.Wrap it out.Repeat the rest till finished.
5.Bake in a preheated oven 170°C for about 20-25 minutes till slightly brown.You can also 
deep-fry if no oven.

Kam Tui Mooncakes

NUTS
135 g winter melon ,whole
135 g small almonds,whole
135 g walnuts,chopped into quarters

INGREDIENTS A

2 candied oranges,cut into small cubes
240 g candied gourd or sugar melon,diced small
180 g toasted sesame seeds

190 g castor sugar
1/2 can Hunan ham,cut into small cubes

INGREDIENTS B

2 tbsps water
2 tbsps oil
2 tbsps brandy
1/2 tsp salt
1 tbsp sesame paste
2 tsps rose jam
2 tsps golden syrup

180 g commercial cooked glutinous rice flour(kao fun)

Put nuts onto cookie tray and roast in a 150°C oven for 45-60 minutes.Allow to cool.

Combine nuts with A ingredients and mix in castor sugar and ham.Combine B ingredients and add 
to nuts and ham mixture.Let stand for 1-2 hours.

Stir in the cook glutinous rice and mix well.Form into round balls approximately 120 g each.

Proceed with pastry and baking with traditional mooncakes.

Recipe adapted from Betty Yew

Shanghai mooncakes

Mooncakes festival is coming soon.Not long ago,I've got some thoughts of making Shanghai mooncakes..Even though it's still weeks away,I started trying it out.I've never make any Shanghai mooncakes before,or that I have but I can't remember?I've got the recipe copied 
down from a book many years ago.

 My recipe book has now been put to good use.I've kept it for too long and  it has now turned  a bit yellow.

Recipe:

250 g butter
140 g icing sugar
1 egg,beaten
1 tsp vanilla essence

Sifted Ingredients:(combined)

400 g plain flour     
50 g custard flour

100 g each lotus paste or any other paste(roll into balls)
1 beaten egg for glazing
Melon flakes

Cream butter and icing sugar,mix in beaten egg and vanilla essence.Mix in combined sifted 
flour.

Divide dough into 50 g portions and roll into balls.Roll out between sheets of plastic wrap.
Wrap the dough around 100 g balls of lotus paste.Shape up into round balls and place on
a baking tray.
Brush with egg glaze and sprinkle melon seeds onto it.
Bake in 200°C oven for 20 minutes until golden brown. 

Moon Cake Festival

Moon Cake

This year mooncake day falls on the 8th of September,2014.This year,I indulge myself in making mooncakes.Yes,lots and lots of them.I really put my heart into it.Two years ago,I did not make it quite successfully.The skin of the mooncakes were thick and were nor so beautiful.but today,I've achieved my accomplishment!I can't say I am a pro yet.

When I was young,I do not like mooncakes,but my late father loves mooncakes so much that he always bought it himself every year.Even if it were just a piece(but I think he bought it in a pack of 3)At that time, the mooncakes were all very sweet(I think he must have love the sweetness very much).As I grew older,I began to slowly like mooncakes.

Nowadays,they have lessen the sugar.There were also not many varieties to choose from back then,only I can remembered certain types of paste like lotus,red beans or green beans paste,then chocolate ,yam,durian and then getting more and more varieties like dragon fruit,green tea,custard,just to name a few.I couldn't name it all.I found out that the custard one is the most delicious.Then,also came the snowskin type with no bake.Very colourful!You can make many colours as you like.



 

custard paste mooncake





Snowskin mooncake



There's also the jelly mooncake.Oh!Life is getting colourful and beautiful!

For the mooncake pastry:(small mooncake ,makes 10)

150g self-raising flour
60g golden syrup
60g honey syrup
1tsp alkaline water
20g canola oil(3 tbsp)

Mehod:

Mix well golden syrup,honey,oil and alkaline water.Then put in the self-raising flour and mix with a spatula.Cover with a clean plastic wrap.Leave to rest for half an hour.
Roll the dough into long strip and divide into 10 pieces.(each weighing about 30g)Make into small round balls.

For the filling:

300g lotus paste
50g almond flakes

Mix the lotus paste and almond flakes together into a dough.Roll into long strips and divide to 10 round balls each( weighing about 40g)
Now take a ball of pastry,flatten it and put the filling in.Seal the edges and make to round balls again.
Press it in the press mould to form the shape.Bake it in the oven at 200°C for 5 mins.Take it out and glaze with egg wash.Put it back into the oven and bake it for 10 mins or until it turns golden brown.
(do the sames for the red bean fillings)

CUSTARD MOONCAKES
(I found this recipe from youtube)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=81xenrWsEL8

Note:I skip the salted egg yolk because I don't like it.

CUSTARD MOONCAKES RECIPE:

Fillings:16-18 pcs

60g sugar
25 g custard powder
25 g milk powder
20 g cake flour 
110 ml coconut milk
40 g unsalted butter

1 egg yolk
1/4 tsp salt
8 salted duck egg yolk

Skin:16-18 pcs

230 g cake flour
130 g unsalted butter
75 g sugar
1/2 egg
25 ml coconut milk
20 g custard powder

Method For The Filling:

1.Put custard powder,milk powder,cake powder,sugar and salt in a bowl.
2.In another bowl,beat egg with coconut milk.Add to the flour mixture.
3.Cut the salted egg yolk into small pieces and put into a bowl together with the unsalted
butter.Steam the salted egg mixture and the custard mixture for 15-20 minutes.Take 
out and mix the yolk mixture into the custard mixture.Cover and leave overnight in
the refrigerator.
4.Knead into a dough and measure 20 g per piece.

Method For The Skin:

1.In a bowl,beat butter and sugar together.Add egg,coconut milk,cake flour and custard
powder togrther.Mix well to form a dough.
2.Refrigerate for 1/2 hour.Measure 25 g per piece.Flatten and put the custard ball and wrap
it up into a ball.Press with a mooncake cutter onto a baking tray lined with greaseproof
paper.
Bake at pre-heated oven 200°C for 10 minutes.

Note:As I want a fuller shape using the same mooncake press as the uploader,I used 25 g skin dough and 30 g custard fillings.Can also reduced to 24 g skin dough and 29 g custard fillings.I find it more nice looking taller than shorter.

SNOW SKIN MOONCAKE:
(I have forgotten where this recepi came from,I think taken from the shop where I buy the mooncakes ingredients.They always gave free recepies)

150g koh fen(cooked glutinous rice flour)
150g icing sugar
50g shortening
few drops of pandan essence/colouring
200ml iced water

1.Sieve koh fen and icing sugar in a large bowl.
2.Mix all ingredients into a dough.Let it rest for 10 mins in the fridge.
3.Scale 35g of dough and wrap with 50g of filling.
4.Shape it using the press mooncakes moulds.
5.Refrigerate to have a nice cool mooncakes.

This year we celebrated it in style,under the moonlite eating mooncakes with tea.Lanterns were hung everywhere around our house.Fortunatley,there were no rain.



This is for my daughter who couldn't drink tea,
but drink chrysanthemum tea instead

This year we ate a lot of mooncakes

1.I make a lot of mooncakes

2.we ate free at the church

3.given free by Hotlink(mobile)at a park

The next day,we went to a park called friendship park where a lot of youngters and elderly people went there to hand lanterns on the tree.Every year,people of all sorts of life flock to the park here to celebtate the mid-auturm festival.The park lit brightly and beautifully.There were lanterns everywhere.Many of the younsters played the flying lantern called "Kung Ming Tern" in chinese.(almost like the shape of a hot air balloon,if that's how you called it)This year was different.I noticed a new restaurant opened at the park.The restaurant was kept emptied for a long time and now someone reopened it making it more merrier!There were also lion dance.
I,on the other hand,went there to sell drinks.





The mould that I used

I hope to make a better mooncakes again next year.