Mooncake

A baked pastry with a moulded pattern on top that comes out hard and pale and is not ready for two days.

Egg. Vegetarian, but not vegan — contains egg, dairy (milk).

Ingredients

For the skin

• 200 g plain flour
• 140 g golden syrup
• 50 ml flavourless oil
• 4 ml lye water, or 1 teaspoon bicarbonate of soda dissolved in 3 teaspoons water

For the filling

• 600 g lotus seed paste or red bean paste
• 8 salted egg yolks, optional

To finish

• 1 egg yolk beaten with 1 tablespoon milk

Method

1. THEY ARE RESTED TWO DAYS BEFORE THEY ARE ANY GOOD, and anyone eating one straight from the oven concludes the recipe failed. Out of the oven the skin is pale, dry and hard. Over 48 hours in a sealed tin the syrup draws moisture out of the filling and back into the skin, which goes soft, dark and glossy. That is half the method, not an optional improvement.
2. THE SKIN DOUGH IS RESTED, NOT KNEADED. No gluten development is wanted at all; worked dough loses the pattern in the mould.
3. Golden syrup, oil and lye water whisked together until completely combined and slightly paler.
4. Flour sieved in and folded through only until no dry flour shows. It will be very soft and sticky. Covered and rested 2 hours at room temperature, after which it firms to something handleable.
5. If using egg yolks, steamed 8 minutes and cooled.
6. Filling divided into 8 and flattened; a yolk wrapped inside each if using, and rolled smooth. Skin dough divided into 8.
7. A skin piece pressed thin between two sheets of cling film, the filling ball set on it, and the skin eased up and around with the thumbs until it meets. ROUGHLY ONE PART SKIN TO THREE PARTS FILLING -- a thicker skin bakes dry and never softens properly.
8. Dusted very lightly with flour, pressed firmly into the mould, and released onto a lined tray.
9. Oven to 180C. Baked 5 minutes to set the pattern.
10. Out, cooled 10 minutes, then brushed VERY thinly with the egg wash -- a loaded brush pools in the pattern and bakes into a blur. Back in 12 to 15 minutes until golden at the edges.
11. Cooled completely on a rack, then into an airtight tin, and left two days before one is cut.

Our own recipe. This one was written for this site rather than taken from anywhere, so there is no source to point you at. The quantities and the order of the steps are choices, not the only way to do it.

Filed under China · All recipes