Traditional Mooncake

Pastry Ingredients:
175g Hong Kong Flour
45g 100%Groundnut oil
100g Golden Syrup
1/2 + 1/8 tsp Alkaline water

Eggwash :
1 eggyolk + 2tsp eggwhite + 1 tbsp water + 1/2 tsp groundnut oil. Mixed well and strained.

Filling :
550g Readymade  Lotus Paste
50g Melon Seed
See notes 4 for custard filling

Methods:
Pre heat oven 175°C
Lay parchment paper on a baking tray.

I am using 68g mould. Made 12 small mooncakes.


1. Place syrup in a bowl. Add alkaline water. Stir until combined. Add oil and continue to stir until combine. Set aside.

2. Sift flour into a big bowl. Add the syrup mixture into flour. Using a spatula combine them into a soft dough. Wrap the dough into a plastic bag or cling wrap and let it rest in fridge for at least an hour. I rest mine in fridge for half a day and sometime overnight.

3. Combine lotus paste  with melon seed. Mix them well combined. Divide the lotus paste filling into 47g. Shape into balls and set aside.

4. After the dough has rested, divide the dough into 21g. If you are new to mooncake making, you can use 25g. But the thinner the pastry is, the better the results.

5. Take a pastry ball and flatten it with your palm(please wear glove for hygiene purpose). Place a lotus ball in the middle of the flatten dough. Wrap the lotus filling inside the pastry and roll it into smooth ball. See notes 1.

6. Place the mooncake ball onto the baking tray laid with parchment paper. Use the mooncake mould and press over it gently, then release the mooncake on the tray.  Continue the rest until they are all done

7. Bake the mooncakes in 175°C for 10mins until you see the side is lightly brown as shown in the picture as follow. Remove from oven and let the mooncake cool down for 10min to half an hour. I prefer half hour.  See notes 2.

8. After 10mins or  half hour, eggwash the mooncake with a brush. Return to oven and continue to bake for another 10-15mins or until it is golden brown. See notes 3

Some notes:
1. As the dough is only 30% of the filling, so this will need a little patience to slowly move the pastry dough in order to cover the whole lotus filling. Patience will make perfect 😊 and you will be very happy when you see the results.  Making mooncake is a way of training your patience.😊😊😍. Wrapping process is important to prevent "elephant" leg after baked. Pay more attention and you will be rewarded with beautiful mooncakes.

2. I have done spraying water and without before first bake. However, I do not see any different. So, I will do without the water spraying for traditional mooncake. Unlike custard mooncake, spraying water is a MUST. Spraying some water onto mooncake before bake will prevent mooncake from cracking during baking due to the filling expanded.

3.  Be gentle when eggwash. For mooncake, thin eggwash is better than thick. So, for here it is NOT the more the merrier😊. Less is better😊.

This is the result of too generous with eggwash. The pattern was still very clear after 1st bake. However, 2nd bake after eggwash due to generousity of eggwash, the print of the pattern expanded and became blurr. No worries,  the taste of mooncake is not affected. It is only the look is ruin. 😐

4. I have tried wrapping a piece of homemade custard  into the lotus paste. This combination made very perfect mooncake and it tasted really good. The portion is lotus paste 32g and homemade custard 15g. This become the healthier version of salted eggyolk. For alternative and healthier choice 😊.

Enjoy! Share with me if you have use this recipe. I would be happy to see your mooncakes.😊

You may like to try this recipe too :
1. Snow-skin Mooncake

Baked Custard Mooncake

Have wanted to make baked custard mooncake since last year. Finally today I fulfill that "dream". 

Viewed through many blogs, both English and Chinese, and also You Tube.  This is my Baked Custard mooncake.

Custard Filling:

25g soften butter

60g caster sugar

3 egg yolks

1 tbsp homemade condensed milk 

100ml coconut milk

20g plain flour 

15g custard powder

10g tapioca flour 

In a bowl, combine flour, custard powder and tapioca flour with a whisk.  In another bowl, use a wooden spoon, stir or beat the butter and sugar until it form a light creamy texture. Add egg one at a time and beat until combined. Add in condensed milk, coconut milk and mix them well.  Sift flour mixture into the egg mixture and mix until well combined. 

2. Pour the mixture into a bowl and steam over medium heat for 25 mins. Stir every 5 mins during steaming process.  Set aside for mixture to cool a little.

3. While the custard is still warm, wear a  powder free vinyl glove and knead or press custard until smooth. Then wrap it in a plastic bag or cling wrap. Chill it in the refrigerator for over night or minimum half hour before use.

Pastry:

110g soften salted butter

68g icing sugar
20ml groundnut oil

1 whole egg

1/2 tsp vanilla essence

230g all purpose flour 

38g custard powder

1/4 tsp baking powder

1/4 sea salt

Egg wash :

1 egg yolk + 2 tbsp water + 1 tsp milk, mix well and strained.

1. In a food processor pulse function, cream butter , oil and sugar into light creamy texture. Add beaten egg and vanilla essence and sea salt, then continue pulse function to well combined. (You may use hand whisk or mixer)

2. Sift plain flour, custard powder and baking powder into a big bowl. Add the butter mixture into flour mixture and mix them will a spatula until it form a soft dough. Wrap dough into a plastic bag or wrap with cling wrap and let it rest in the fridge for at least an hour. I rest mine for half a day. 

3. Divide the custard filling into 20g each and pastry dough into 36g each. Shape each into balls. Set aside. Note: for baked custard, in order to have crispy custard, the pastry need to be thicker. Therefore, filling is less than pastry unlike traditional mooncake.

4. Take a pastry ball and flatten it with your palm(please wear glove for hygiene purpose). Place a custard ball in the middle of the flatten dough. Wrap the custard filling inside the pastry and roll them into smooth ball. 

5. Prepare some plain flour in a plate. Roll the round mooncake on the flour. Shake away any excess flour. Place the mooncake ball onto the baking tray laid with parchment paper. Use the mooncake mould and press over it gently, then release the mooncake on the tray.  Continue the rest until they are all done.

6. Preheat the oven to 180°C. Spray some water onto the mooncakes just before putting into the oven and bake for 10min. Remove the mooncake from oven. Turn oven temperature down to 175°C. Allow the mooncakes to cool slightly on the tray for 10 mins. Brush eggwash onto the mooncakes. Return the mooncake into oven and bake for another 15mins.  The cooling process is necessary to prevent the filling expand and pastry crack. As I did not wait for 10mins. So they crack during 2nd baking. Lesson learnt.

This is after 10min after first baked, the colour was a little more pale before eggwash. 

Enjoy!😊 Share with me if you have use this recipe. I will be glad hear from you.😊

You may like to view my other posts:

1.Purple-sweet-potato-snow-skin-mooncake

2. Traditional Mooncake

Purple Sweet Potato Snow Skin Mooncake. 紫蕃薯冰皮月饼

Ingredients 用料 (冰皮 Snow Skin)
45g Glutinous Rice Flour 糯米粉45克
35g White Rice Flour 粘米粉35克（大米粉）
20g Wheat Starch 小麦淀粉20克（澄面）
18g Vegetable Oil 植物油18克
185g Milk 牛奶185克
35g Icing sugar 糖粉50克

Filling ingredients馅用料:
1 whole purple sweet potato without peel about 80g 一个80克紫色蕃薯
10 gm sugar 糖10克
15g vegetable oil 植物油15克
15g coconut cream 椰浆15克
10gwheat starch 小麦淀粉10克
10g water 水10克

Or

220g lotus paste 莲蓉馅220克
15g melon seeds 瓜子15克

Method for Purple Potatoes Filling紫蕃薯馅做法:
1. Place washed purple potatoes with skin into a small pot and cover the potato with enough water. Boil it over a stove for half an hour or until potato is cooked. 将紫蕃薯放进一个小锅， 加水盖过蕃薯煮熟。


2. Remove potato from fire once it is cooked. Peel off the skin. Use a fork to smash the potato while it is hot. 将煮熟的紫薯去皮。乘热用勺子压成泥。


3. Press sweet potato through a fine sieve. Set aside  a tablespoon of potato. Add sugar into the rest.  Mix wheat starch with water, then pour into the mashed sweet potato. Stir in coconut cream and oil. Transfer to a non-stick pan and cook over medium heat. Stir occasionally until most of the moist is dried up and the wheat starch is cooked through. Cover with plastic wrap and chill in fridge for later use.然后过筛一遍成幼滑薯蓉。加糖。澄麵粉加水先拌勻，跟椰奶一起拌入紫薯蓉中，最後加油。转置不黏底锅中，用中火炒至澄麵粉熟透和乾身。蓋好，放入雪櫃中，備用。

Method for snow skin 制作冰皮
1. Combine milk, vegetable oil (sunflower/corn oil) and icing sugar together. Do not use olive or peanut oil. As the aroma for the oil is too strong.
将牛奶、植物油（选择如玉米油、葵花籽油等色浅无味的植物油，不要用橄榄油、花生油等有特殊气味的油）、糖粉倒入碗里，搅拌均匀




2. Combine glutinous rice flour, white rice flour and wheat starch  in a bowl. Add the above 1 and also 1 tablespoon purple smashed potato into flour and mix them well.
糯米粉、粘米粉、小麦淀粉倒入另一个碗里。将上一步的牛奶混合物和紫蕃薯慢慢倒入粉类里，边倒边搅拌，直到混合均匀

3. Sieve the liquid mixture 1-2 times
混合好的粉浆，过筛1-2遍

4. After sieved, cover the bowl of mixture with cling wrap and put into boiling water to steam for 25min.
过筛后，静置半个小时。表面盖上保鲜膜，放入烧开水的蒸锅，大火蒸25分钟

5. Immediately after steam, remove from heat and use a pair of chop stick to stir the dough into a smooth dough.
蒸好的面糊，趁热用筷子用力搅拌，直到变得顺滑均匀

6 Let the dough cool down and then store in fridge.
面糊冷却后使用。同样，如果想尽快冷却，可摊薄在盘子里，放入冰箱

7. Prepare some kou fen (fried glutinous flour). You may fry some glutinous flour in low fire  if you do not have ready made kou fen. Remove from heat once it turn light yellow. Kou Fen is done.
准备一些糕粉，如果没有现成的糕粉，将糯米粉放入锅里小火翻炒，炒到微微发黄。蘸少许品尝，没有生粉味道，就表示熟了。冷却后即为糕粉

8. Add melon seeds to lotus paste.
将瓜子加进莲蓉馅。

9. When the snow skin dough is cold, divide the dough and lotus paste filling into small portion. Snow skin is 25g and lotus filling is 47g and purple sweet potato filling is 47g
冷却后的冰皮面糊与莲蓉馅和紫蕃薯馅分别分成小份. 则冰皮分成25克1份，莲蓉馅分成47克1份,  紫蕃薯馅分成47克1份。

10. Put snow skin dough on hand and flatten it. Place filling on the snow skin. Wrap the lotus filling with the skin.
将冰皮放在手心压扁。然后把莲蓉馅或紫蕃薯馅放在冰皮上。用冰皮把馅 包起来，收口捏紧

11. Sprinkle some kou fen(cooked glutinous flour) into mould, shake  off excess flour. Lightly coat mooncake with cooked kou fen. Shake off any excess flour. Place into a mooncake mould. Press to print the pattern. Repeat this step until finish all the dough and fillings. Store the mooncakes into an air-tight container. Refrigerate for few hour. Serve it cold.
月饼模里撒一些糕粉，晃一晃，使糕粉均匀的沾在月饼模上，再把月饼模在手心磕一磕，将多余的糕粉磕出来。把包好的面团放入月饼模。压出月饼形状。到这一步，冰皮月饼就做好了。做好的冰皮月饼，放冰箱冷藏数小时后再食用，口感最佳。

You may be interested in my other post:
1.Snow-skin-mooncake (Instant Method)

Snow Skin Mooncake (Cook method)冰皮月饼

Ingredients 用料 (冰皮 Snow Skin)
45g Glutinous Rice Flour 糯米粉45克
35g White Rice Flour 粘米粉35克（大米粉）
20g Wheat Starch 小麦淀粉20克（澄面）
18g Vegetable Oil 植物油18克
185g Milk 牛奶185克
50g Icing sugar 糖粉50克(too sweet should reduce to 35g)

Filling:
450g lotus paste 莲蓉馅450克
20g melon seeds 瓜子20克

Method for snow skin 制作冰皮
1. Combine milk, vegetable oil (sunflower/corn oil) and icing sugar together. Do not use olive or peanut oil. As the aroma for the oil is too strong.
将牛奶、植物油（选择如玉米油、葵花籽油等色浅无味的植物油，不要用橄榄油、花生油等有特殊气味的油）、糖粉倒入碗里，搅拌均匀

2. Combine glutinous rice flour, white rice flour and wheat starch  in a bowl. Add above 1 into flour and mix them well.
糯米粉、粘米粉、小麦淀粉倒入另一个碗里。将上一步的牛奶混合物慢慢倒入粉类里，边倒边搅拌，直到混合均匀

3. Sieve the liquid mixture 1-2 times
混合好的粉浆，过筛1-2遍

4. After sieved, cover the bowl of mixture with cling wrap and put into boiling water to steam for 25min.
过筛后，静置半个小时。表面盖上保鲜膜，放入烧开水的蒸锅，大火蒸25分钟

5. Immediately after steam, remove from heat and use a pair of chop stick to stir the dough into a smooth dough.
蒸好的面糊，趁热用筷子用力搅拌，直到变得顺滑均匀

6 Let the dough cool down and then store in fridge.
面糊冷却后使用。同样，如果想尽快冷却，可摊薄在盘子里，放入冰箱

7. Prepare some kou fen (fried glutinous flour). You may fry some glutinous flour in low fire  if you do not have ready made kou fen. Remove from heat once it turn light yellow. Kou Fen is done.
准备一些糕粉，如果没有现成的糕粉，将糯米粉放入锅里小火翻炒，炒到微微发黄。蘸少许品尝，没有生粉味道，就表示熟了。冷却后即为糕粉

8. Add melon seeds to lotus paste.
将瓜子加进莲蓉馅。

9. When the snow skin dough is cold, divide the dough and lotus paste filling into small portion. Snow skin is 25g and lotus filling is 47g.
冷却后的冰皮面糊与莲蓉馅分别分成小份. 则冰皮分成25克1份，莲蓉馅分成47克1份

10. Put snow skin dough on hand and flatten it. Place filling on the snow skin. Wrap the lotus filling with the skin.
将冰皮放在手心压扁。然后把莲蓉馅放在冰皮上。用冰皮把 莲蓉馅 包起来，收口捏紧

11. Sprinkle some kou fen(cooked glutinous flour) into mould, shake  off excess flour. Lightly coat mooncake with cooked kou fen. Shake off any excess flour. Place into a mooncake mould. Press to print the pattern. Repeat this step until finish all the dough and fillings. Store the mooncakes into an air-tight container. Refrigerate for few hour. Serve it cold.
月饼模里撒一些糕粉，晃一晃，使糕粉均匀的沾在月饼模上，再把月饼模在手心磕一磕，将多余的糕粉磕出来。把包好的面团放入月饼模。压出月饼形状。到这一步，冰皮月饼就做好了。做好的冰皮月饼，放冰箱冷藏数小时后再食用，口感最佳。

Snow Skin Mooncake (Instant method)

Ingredients:

90 gm. Fried/Cooked Glutinous Rice Flour (Kao Fen/Kou Fien 糕粉)
10 gm. Wheat Starch (Steam for 2min)

30 gm. Shortening
40 gm. Icing sugar
200 gm. Ice-cream soda or 7-up *(see note 1)
1/2 tsp Banana essence(Original recipe called for pandan essence)
1 tablespoon milk(Not in original recipe)

Filling:

500 gm. lotus paste
30 gm. melon seeds

Method:

(1) Sift the glutinous rice flour/kou fien and wheat starch into a big bowl.
(2) Add icing sugar and shortening into flour and rub with  your finger till it look like bread crumb.
(3) Add banana essence and milk into soft drink.

(4)Pour in ice-cream soda(soft drink) into the flour mixture and mix into  a soft dough. Cover it with cling wrap and place in the fridge for 15min(optional)
(5) Divide the dough. Use a weighing machine and weigh 25g each. Apro 12 portions
(6) Divide the lotus paste fillings into 12 portions of 47g.(I am using a 73g mold)
(7) Flatten each dough and wrap with lotus paste filling. Press into a mooncake mould then press it out/ knock out depend on the kind of mould you use.
(8) Keep in airtight container. Chill before serving.

Note : best to consume snow skin mooncake within 3-4 days

Recipe of dough adapted from Aunty Yochana rainbow snow skin mooncake

Filling bought from Phoon Huat

If you prefer to homemade the lotus paste, you may check this link from bigheadmagicmad.blogspot.sg

http://bigheadmagicmad.blogspot.sg/2013/09/homemade-lotus-paste-mooncake.html?m=1

Note 1 : You can replace the frizzy drink with syrup water. That is, 80-100g sugar melt in 180-200g of water by boiling. Leave to cool. Keep in fridge to make cold syrup. However, omit the 40g icing sugar if you are using syrup water.