Mooncakes

From Red House Spice

Ingredients

For the dough

• 150 g Golden syrup
• ½ tsp Lye water (potassium carbonate solution)
• 50 ml Neutral cooking oil
• 220 g All-purpose flour (plain flour)

If you can't find lye water (aka Kansui), you can make a subsitute by baking baking soda (bicarbonate of soda) for an hour then dissolving it in 4 times the volume of water.

For the lotus seed paste

• 100 g Dried lotus seed
• 75 g Sugar
• 50 ml Neutral cooking oil

For the salted eggs

• 20 Duck eggs / salted egg yolks

Additional bits

• 1 Egg yolk for egg wash
• Corn starch for dusting

Directions

Salted egg yolks

These can be bought ready cooked at Chinese food stores, or you can boil duck eggs or salted yolks, boil them and remove the shell and whites, or separate them and bake the yolks.

Lotus bean paste

Again, this can be bought ready-made, or you can also use red bean paste or black sesame paste.

To make your own:

1. Soak: Soak dried lotus seeds in water overnight to reduce the cooking time.
2. Cook: Simmer them in water for 30 to 40 minutes until they become soft, then drain off the water.
3. Blend: Put the cooked seeds into a food processor and blend them into a fine paste. Add a little water if you find it difficult to blend.
4. Fry: Transfer the paste to a non-stick pan. Cook over medium heat. During this process, add sugar and oil in two batches. Make sure to constantly stir and fold the paste. This helps to evenly evaporate the moisture and avoid burning.
5. Cool: Once the paste becomes quite dry and easily foldable into a solid block, remove it from the heat. Leave to cool completely.

• NOTE: Make sure the cooked paste isn’t too wet as it would make assembly very challenging. It also causes excess steam during baking, thus affecting the look of the mooncakes.

Dough

1. First, mix golden syrup, lye water, and oil until well combined. Add flour to the mixture and knead briefly to form a dough. It should be soft, smooth but not sticky.
2. Cover the dough with plastic wrap and rest for 30 minutes. This helps to relax the gluten making it more elastic. Otherwise, you may find it easy to tear or crack.

• NOTE: Be aware that you may need to adjust the quantity of the flour depending on the thickness of your syrup and the liquid absorption capacity of your flour.

Assemble the mooncakes

I would recommend going to the Red House Spice website for this, to see their illustrations and video. The basic steps are:

The dough filling ratio

Once you have all the parts ready, you will need to measure and divide the dough and filling into small portions.

The dough filling ratio varies depending on personal preferences. It can be 2:8, 3:7, or 4:6. I always enjoy the taste of the dough so my recipe goes for the 4:6 ratio. That means for a 50g mooncake, the dough weighs 20g and the total weight of the lotus paste and egg yolk should be 30g (you can increase it to 35g).

Also, this ratio makes it easier to assemble. You’ll have enough dough to securely seal the filling thus avoiding leaking.

How to shape them

1. Shape a portion of lotus seed paste into a round wrapper.
2. Put a salted egg yolk in the middle. # Gently push the paste upwards to seal the yolk completely.
3. Flatten a piece of dough into a wrapper. Use the same method to tightly wrap and seal the filling.
4. Coat the assembled ball with a thin layer of cornstarch. Put it into a mooncake mold.
5. With the opening facing down, place the mold over a baking sheet. Press the handle to shape the cake. Then lift the mold and press again to release the cake.

• NOTE: If your mooncake mould makes 100g mooncakes, double the dough and filling quantity for each cake. Also, you may use two salted yolks to make it extra luxurious.

Bake the mooncakes

1. Preheat the oven to 375°F /190°C. Bake them for 5 minutes to harden the top of the mooncakes so the egg wash won’t ruit the delicate pattern.
2. Take them out and brush a layer of the egg wash. Put them back into the oven. # Reduce the heat to 320°F/160°C and bake for a further 5 minutes. Then brush another layer of egg wash.
3. The last baking process takes another 10-15 minutes. I suggest you check at 10 minutes. They are done once evenly golden brown.

Rest the mooncakes

Let the mooncakes cool on a mesh rack. After that, you’ll find them quite dry to touch. Don’t rush to eat them. It’s essential to rest them further. Store them in airtight containers for 1 to 2 days. During this period, mooncakes become softer and gain a nice shiny appearance. Chineses call this process “Huí Yóu/回油”, meaning “the return of oil”.

Leftover mooncakes can be stored in the fridge for up to 2 weeks. Bring back to room temperature before serving.