Moon cakes (the baked type)


Mooncake pastry

Mix bicarbonate of soda, alkaline water, vegetable oil and sugar syrup. Leave aside for 5 hours.

• Bicarbonate of soda = sodium bicarbonate = baking soda (not baking powder)
• Alkaline water = lye water (it tastes absolutely disgusting)
• Veg oil : recipe calls for corn oil - I used Naturel's Sunflower & Canola Oil Blend
• Sugar syrup : recipe calls for "golden syrup", which is, technically, the same thing. I bought Phoon Huat's house brand sugar syrup (it's cheaper than the other golden syrups) and is a darker brown.
• I also added half a capful of vanilla extract (not in the recipe) cos I thought the smell of the dough was so uninteresting.

Mix in plain flour - the dough will be stiff & smooth but too sticky to handle and form with hands. Leave aside for 6-7 hours for the dough to "rest"

After an overnight "rest", the dough is harder & less sticky. Definitely easier to form little balls with.

Filling

Red bean paste or lotus paste, with or without seeds...

• Make your own or buy them ready-made.
• Made tau sar (see earlier post) myself and bought "white lotus paste" (? white??).
• Added melon seeds (aka "kua chee"), pumpkin seeds and sunflower seeds at Jennie's request.
• Roll them into little balls

Moulds

Bought the moulds from Phoon Huat.

New moulds - soak overnight in water (rinse a couple of times before soaking).

Smear a thin layer of oil over the insides (or just pour the oil in, decant & wipe away the excess)

Putting everything together

• Have a small bowl of plain flour ready (to dip the balls in); lightly dust palms with some flour.
• Form a ball of dough slightly smaller than the ball of filling and flatten it on palm.
• Wrap the dough around the filling and pat/roll it into a ball; dip it into flour, wipe away excess flour.
• Stuff it into the mould and press firmly into the mould (if not pressed firmly, the imprint of the pattern won't be distinct.
• Grab the mould by the handle and give the entire thing a good whack on all 5 sides, ending with a last knock to tip out the moulded dough.

I did the plain mooncake skin "biscuits" using the goldfish and pig moulds. The goldfish mould was more difficult to handle cos there were more grooves and gradations in the depths of the grooves.

Some tips

• It's easier to remove the moulded mooncake if you dust the dough ball before moulding, rather than dusting the inside the mould itself.
• See the photo below of the 3 mooncakes (R to L); no flour on dough or mould, flour in mould, flour on dough.
• Don't knock the mould too hard or you will end up with crooked/deformed mooncakes (or worse, crack your floor tiles or kitchen cabinet)
• Gauge the amount of force you need as you knock the mould on each side. With eack knock , the dough should leave the mould only slightly.

Egg glaze

• Egg yolks, bit of water and dark soya sauce (for colour) -beat and mix well.
• I added a bit of vanilla extract again cos I thought it smelled too egg-y.

Baking

• Bake for about 10 mins.
• Remove from oven, let it cool for a couple of minutes then brush on the egg glaze.
• Next time will try using one of those soft Chinese paintbrushes with fine bristles cos, this time, I couldn't get the glaze into every groove.

(Unenthusiastic) Ta da.

For some reason the pastry puffed up quite a bit. The goldfish and piglet lost most of their imprints. Maybe next time I should leave out the baking soda?

Mother knows best

• Wooden moulds apparently give nicer imprints on the dough than plastic moulds. In any case, they're definitely sturdier.
• When knocking the mould on a hard surface, put a thick padding of cloth ,e.g. towels, on the surface 1st - cushions the impact on the floor tiles!