Mooncake or “Yue Bing” (月饼) is a traditional sweet pastry treat eaten to celebrate Mid-autumn Festival (中秋节). Depending on the region of China, these sophisticated cakes will vary in form and flavour. Today, the commonly found mooncakes sold at the local Asian supermarkets are traditional canton style. This year I’ve decided to make slightly healthier mooncakes with some vegan options.
For those who are in a rush or a looking for a particular part to this recipe these categories may help:
• Mooncake moulds
• Making lye water
• Replacing inverted sugar syrup
• Red bean paste (vegan friendly)
• Mung bean paste (vegan friendly)
• Match green tea filling (vegan friendly)
• Lotus seed paste (vegan friendly)
• Preparing salted egg yolk
• Making mooncake skin (vegan friendly)
• Assembling mooncake
• Baking mooncake
THE MID-AUTUMN FESTIVAL & MOONCAKE TRADITION
I spent the very early years of my childhood in China. A sign that the mid-autumn festival was approaching was when local shops started selling moon cakes. In the weeks leading up to the big day, family friends and neighbours drop by with mooncakes and vice versa. On the streets and in local parks, there were lanterns of every shape, colour and some even have tunes sold at make-shift roadside vendors. Mid-Autumn Festival was a time when everyone in the family gathered at my great grandmother’s house for a seemingly endless feast.
The day would start with great-grandma chopping and prepping in the kitchen, enveloping the whole house with delicious aromas. In the sunny courtyard of that well-aged house, grandma would have already set up a wooden table in front of an incense burner. On the table is an assortment of seasonal fruits, a chicken, Buddha’s delight, tea, rice wine and of course mooncakes. The day would fly by between lunch, sneaking snacks from the kitchen and going on a hunt for the best lantern we can show off that night.
Our mid-Autumn Festival dinner would always have, at a minimum, taro braised duck, steamed hairy crab, a lotus dish, poached chicken and Buddha’s delight. Each of these traditional dishes has an auspicious symbolism, and having a sample of each would bring good things to the family for the next year. While I love every one of these dishes, my favourites are always the food that comes after dinner.
Great-grandmother’s house had three-storeys and an additional rooftop balcony level on top. We can access this pot plant filled haven by going onto the third-storey rooftop and then shakily climb a tall set of half rusty metal ladder with shallow railings. After dinner, everyone chips in to help sets up a table on the rooftop in preparation for my favourite time of the day. In the neighbourhood, almost every household will be doing a similar setup to have a better view of the full moon as we celebrate.
Here, children will be running around with our lit up, sometimes singing, lanterns occasionally stopping to wolf down a piece of mooncake. The adults will be seated around a table of more food, chatting and laughing at our antics. A salty and spicy aroma will drift into our noses the arrival of my favourite dish, chilli stir fry perilla leaf with local river snails. Alternating between bites of this and mooncake was my version of food heaven.
In our family, mooncakes at the table came in two traditional flavours—salted egg yolk or ham five nuts, catering for both sweet and savoury taste preferences. I’ve always had a sweet tooth, so naturally Salted egg yolk with sweet lotus paste is my go-to preference. When it comes to salted egg yolk moon cakes, the opinions divide – those who love the yolk and those who love the lotus paste. I’m of the latter and have a habit of always removing the yolk to eat the lotus paste part straight up.
These days mooncake fillings come in all sorts of flavour options. To save me time from picking out the yolk, I tend to hunt for those that contain lotus paste filling or sweet alternatives like red bean, durian and sesame. With the passing of great-grandmother, no one has attempted homemade mooncakes, this year in a moment of nostalgia; and with covid lockdowns giving plenty of time to experiment, I decided to try my hands at it.
MAKING LYE WATER
Lye water (枧水) or Kansui is one of those weird Asian ingredients used in mooncakes. Traditional lye water is a combination of Kansui powder and alkaline. Today, it is a food-grade potassium carbonate solution. This water helps raise the alkalinity (pH) in the dough and balance out the acidity of our golden syrup. It also turns our mooncake crust into its signature golden brown colour. Some Asian grocery stores will have ready-made lye water in bottles. If they don’t, here is how I made mine.
1. Preheat oven to 120 °C (250 °F).
2. Line a baking tray with aluminium foil and spread baking soda and bake for 1 hour.
3. Wear gloves and transfer baked baking soda to an airtight jar for storage. Do not touch the baking soda with bare hands as it will irritate sensitive skin.
4. When ready to make mooncakes, use the ratio of 1 part baking soda to 4 part water; stir to mix well until soda is fully dissolved and liquid is clear.
INVERTED SUGAR SYRUP AND SUGAR SUBSTITUES
Traditionally mooncakes use a liquid sugar named inverted sugar syrup (转化糖浆). This stuff is a bit of a pain to make. I always seem to make too much then don’t know what to do with it. I found out that people have used store-bought golden syrup as a successful replacement and so I decided to go with it too. Depending on the brand, the dough may end up a little bit stickier than using inverted sugar syrup. The solution to this is as easy as sprinkling a bit more cornstarch or flour on top.
For the sake of experimenting with taste, I used some of my homemade citrus inverted sugar syrup and mixed in some store bought golden syrup to add stability to my dough. The taste was quite delicious when mixed with the bean paste. If you like to experiment with flavours you can try mixing in some infused inverted sugar syrups.
Honey can also be a replacement, but please be aware that the flavour profile of your mooncakes will change. I’m not a fan of the after taste that it gives off in my mouth. The stickiness of the dough is about the same as golden syrup. If you insist on using honey, then use one that has the least amount of floral or extracurricular flavouring (do not use ones like Manuka). Stick to your plain old sugary tasting cheap honey.
TIPS BEFORE YOU START
• Get started a week before the actual day of mid-Autumn Festival. Mooncakes need at least two days (best is around 4-5 days) for the dough and filling to rebalance its oil and sugar distribution. The wrapper will soften and gain a slightly shiny surface during this process. We call this process “hui you” (回油), roughly translating to returning of oil.
• Mooncake takes a bit of time to make. I recommend doing this over two – three days. Make your fillings on the first and second day. Create the wrapper, assemble the cake and bake it on the final.
• Always use a kitchen scale for mooncakes or they will turn out uneven. You will also have wastage and increase the chance of your mooncake not fitting the mould if you don’t weigh it.
• Use a brush to apply a light layer of flour inside mould to prevent the mooncake from sticking.
• Make sure to tap mould facing down before inserting mooncake. The tap will help prevent getting too much flour dusted on the mooncake. Overuse of flour will influence the pattern of mooncakes.
• Be warned the first mooncake will not be perfect. As each mould and environment you bake in can vary the each batch of mooncake will take a bit of adjustment. With practice you will get close to perfection.
• When cooking your filling, make sure to get as much liquid out of your final filling dough as possible. The more water that remains in your filling, the more likely that during the baking process it will form steam inside your mooncake. This will will eventually need to escape which will cause your mooncake skin to crack. A sloppy filling will also cause your mooncake to collapse and loose shape.
WHAT FILLINGS ARE TRADITIONALLY INSIDE MOONCAKES
Five Kernels or Mixed Nuts (五仁) filling is made from mixing five types of coarsely chopped nuts and seeds. The most commonly used nuts and seeds include peanuts, almonds, sesame seeds, walnuts and pumpkin seeds. These ingredients are combined using maltose syrup. Besides nuts, candied winter melon, Jinhua ham and rock sugar are also used to boost the filling.
Jujube Paste (棗泥) Jujube fruit is a type of small red date. You can buy dried and decored ones in your Asian grocer. Depending on the quality of the fruit, the paste can taste similar to red bean paste. Jujube paste can be mixed with or used as a filler for red bean pastes.
From fruit flavours to chocolates and coffee to even alcoholic centres, there are endless flavours and fillings found inside the modern mooncake. Traditionally Cantonese mooncakes have five types of fillings.
LOTUS SEED PASTE
Plain Lotus seed paste (莲蓉) is said to be the original filling for mooncakes. Lotus seeds are seeds from the lotus plant. Nutritionally, they are full of plant protein, vitamins and minerals. Traditionally this is used in Chinese medicine for its anti-inflammatory properties and antioxidants. White lotus seeds are a pricy ingredient to use. Commercially made lotus seed pastes, especially those found in mass-produced mooncakes sold at the asian stores during mid-autumn festival, often has fillers such as potatoes and kidney beans to lower production costs. Unfortunately the price of these mixed lotus seed mooncakes are still equal to daylight robbery. 100% real lotus seed paste mooncakes will ask for a high premium price.
Traditional mooncake lotus paste also use a large amount of lard making it very fatty and are not very inclusive for my vegan friends. I’ve tweaked a traditional lotus seed paste recipe to make it. In the recipe I’ve replaced the traditional lard with vegetable oil and decreased the amount of sugar to make it healthier but still retaining similar texture as traditional mooncakes. You can find the recipe to my homemade lotus seed paste here.
Lotus seed paste and salted egg yolk (莲蓉咸蛋黄) filling is considered the most luxurious and indulgent. This flavour is also the most commonly found commercial mooncakes today. The egg yolk is said to be like the moon. Premium mooncakes can sometimes come with double yokes.
RED BEAN PASTE
Red bean paste (红豆沙) is one of my all-time favourite Asian dessert fillings. I’ve made this type of paste previously when making buns and mochi. For mooncakes, I found the amount of oil needed is more than the regular dessert recipes as the texture needs to be smoother and the dough has less moisture inside. The extra oil is also for when the mooncake goes through its “hui you” (translating to returning of oil) phrase. The additional oil will soften the hard outer crust and give it the signature mooncake glow.
My red bean paste recipe is low-fat and vegan for my eco-loving friends as I’ve substituted out the lard that is traditionally used. I’ve also used rose black sugar to make it healthier and add a hit of floral flavour. You can find the full recipe to my homemade red bean paste here.
WHAT ARE THE MORE CONTEMPORARY MOONCAKE FILLINGS ?
Like most Chinese pastries with fillings, over time, more contemporary flavoured fillings have appeared in mooncakes sold for Mid-Autumn Festival. These new fillings cater to the adventurous tastes of the younger generations. Here are some of my top picks for non-traditional flavours.
MUNG BEAN PASTE
Mung bean paste is a base for many modern flavoured fillings such as matcha green tea. Once you have your mung bean paste down pat, you will find it very easy to complete all different types for flavours like earl grey, chocolate, and coffee. For the non-fans of the salted egg yolk centre (like me), flavoured centres make a great yolk replacement. There are many ways to add flavour to a mung bean paste filling (e.g. matcha, coffee, chocolate). Some methods use flavour powder (e.g. matcha powder for green tea, cocoa powder for chocolate etc) while more complex flavours that does not come in powder form like earl grey have more complex steps.
For mooncake fillings, the amount of oil needs to make the filling is more than the standard mung bean paste filling for other desserts. I have tried hard to put a healthier and vegan friendly spin on the traditional mooncake mung bean paste by replacing the lard and changing things up with the sugar.
You will need:
☐ 150g dried split skinless mung beans
☐ 1 – 3 teaspoon of Matcha powder (to taste)
☐ 200g granulated sugar (separate into 150g and 50g)
☐ 1/4 teaspoon of salt
☐ 65g vegetable oil (separate into 30g and 15 and 20g)
1. Soak in cold water overnight (or a minimum of 8 hours) 150g dried split skinless mung beans.
2. Drain and place split skinless mung beans in a pot and add water until it covers 2cm above the top layer of mung beans.
3. Bring everything to boil then turn heat to low and cook mung beans for about two hours or until, mung beans fall apart to a tender paste when lightly pressed. A good indication is when the water looks red murky, and the water volume is lower than when you started. Do not let the water dry out lower than the top layer of mung beans or you will burn the seeds. If needed, adds a little bit of hot water to prevent burning.
4. Drain cooked mung beans but keep two cups of the water. Be careful not to be burned by the steam and hot water.
5. Place mung beans in a blender with one cup of mung bean water and blend until a smooth velvety paste with no small lumps. If you are having problems blending, add the remaining cup of water.
6. Pour the blended mix into a sieve to pass into a non-stick pan. The sieve will help remove any large particles and give your paste a smoother texture.
7. Start cooking your mixture over medium heat. After a few stirs, add half of your 30g of oil and keep stirring. You must be continually stirring to prevent any of the paste from sticking and burning.
8. Add the salt and sugars. If you want it not so sweet, only add the 150g bowl. Keep stirring and folding until the sugar has melted and the paste has thickened up.
9. Add the remaining half of the 30g of oil and keep moving the paste in a stirring and folding motion. You should see the paste getting more and more dough-like as the liquids evaporate.
10. If you are finding your paste to be sticking to the pan and hard to move around, add the remaining 15g of oil and incorporate it into the paste by a folding motion. If your paste moves as one dough-like form and does not stick, do not add the additional oil. When the oil and paste have thoroughly combined, and the water inside has mostly evaporated; the paste should move around as one full dough-like clump. This dough-like clump should be easy to move around the pan as one, and you should be able to see that there’s not a lot of liquid inside. The filling is now ready.
11 (a). For mung bean paste: Move the mung bean paste into a sealable glass or ceramic container to cool and store in the fridge for late use. If stored correctly it can be stored for a week.
11 (b). For matcha green tea/ other flavoured paste: Mix matcha powder into 20g oil until everything is smoothly incorporated with no lumps.
12. Pour the green tea oil mix into your mung bean paste and mix in a folding motion like how the oil in step 10 was folded. Combine until the green colour is fully even with no more light and dark streaks. Move the green tea paste into a sealable glass or ceramic container to cool and store in the fridge for late use. If stored correctly it can be stored for a week.
• Save a small amount of cooking water to help you blend. The cooking water will give it a better flavour than plain water.
• Make sure to keep stirring/flipping the filling paste as you cook to prevent burning. As soon as you have burnt bits, your filling will be bitter and unpleasant.
• Use a non-stick pan to fry your filling. Any other pans will increase the chance of burnt filling and is a pain to wash later. Make sure the finished paste is quite dry and can be foldable into a block with ease. Extra moisture in the paste will cause the mooncakes to crack during baking.
Black Sesame (黑芝麻) is one of those classic Chinese dessert ingredient that adds a unique nutty flavour to mooncake fillings. White sesame is one of the components of the traditional five-nut mooncake. Like the matcha filling, the black sesame filling uses mung bean paste as a base. While it tends to overpower many mooncake fillings, it’s delicious when paired with red bean or salted yolk.
Matcha/Green tea (抹茶/绿茶) is one of my all-time favourite flavours of any Asian dessert. It is a popular mooncake flavour in Japan, Taiwan and Singapore. Matcha flavour was originally only in snow-skin-styled mooncakes, but with its growing popularity among the younger generation, many bakeries now offer the taste in Cantonese-style mooncakes. I recommend pairing other flavours with bigger mooncakes like 100g – 180g. Some of my favourite pairings are with red bean, sesame, pineapple and even salted yolk!
Pineapple (凤梨) is a staple ingredient in traditional fruit-filling mooncakes. It is the same jammy, sweet, fragrant and tart filling in the famous Taiwanese pineapple cakes. Traditionally, only Chinese pineapples or ‘fengli’ (凤梨) are the only types of pineapple inside the filling. This breed of pineapple is sweeter, juicer and more intense in fragrance. In Australia, this gem is almost impossible to find fresh. They sometimes come frozen at the Chinese grocers/supermarkets. Their closest replacement would be the small Thai pineapples that are super sweet. But if all else fails, you can use the ordinary pineapple. Just remember to add lemon juice and a lot of sugar.
Earl Grey (伯爵茶), while technically not a traditional Chinese tea, is my second go-to tea flavour for desserts (in case you have not worked it out yet, I’m a bit of a tea addict). The floral scent mixed with the slightly bitter note of black tea makes for an excellent mooncake flavour. Unlike matcha, the matcha filling, Earl grey, is only commercially available in snow-skinned mooncakes catering to a younger generation of foodies. I have decided to experiment and took the Earl grey filling into the traditional Cantonese mooncake realm (cue the fainting grandmas and the angry uncles). Out of all the pairings, I’ve found Earl grey is a match made in heaven with pineapple.
TIPS FOR MAKING MOONCAKE FILLING
• Soak the lotus seed or any beans you are using for filling overnight to help shorten the cooking process.
• Make sure to break open each lotus seed and remove the yellow/green centre stem to prevent your filling turning bitter. You will still have to open them to check even if the packet says the seeds are already cleaned.
• Drain cooked seeds or beans after cooking to reduce time on the frying process later.
PREPARING THE SALTED EGG YOLK
For many people, salted egg yolk is what makes a mooncake. There are few options for preparing the salted egg yolk. What you choose depends on your preferences on texture and how much work you feel like doing. Some Asian stores will see packaged ready-to-use salted egg yolks. I prefer to use raw salted duck eggs and prepare the yolks myself. I find the easiest method that gets consistent results is steaming. If you would like to experiment with different methods to see what suits you, here are different way you can prepare the yolk:
Preparation by steaming:
1. Crack salted egg into a bowl.
2. Gently pick up egg yolk with fingers and place in a separate plate.
3. Pour in small amounts of Chinese white cooking wine and wash any remaining egg white membrane off the yolk by gently turning/ rolling the yolk with fingers.
4. Once yolks are washed, placed them in a baking paper lined plate. Make sure yolks are not touching.
5. Bring water to boil in a wok, pot or steamer and place plate of egg yolks in then cover with lid.
6. Steam for 6 minutes and remove plate of egg yolks and set aside to cool before making mooncake.
Preparation by baking:
1. Preheat oven to 190 degrees C (375 degrees F)
2. Crack open a raw salted egg and remove the hardened yolk.
3. Clean the remaining whites and membrane around the yolk with water and pat dry with a paper towel.
4. Place yolk on a lined baking tray and spray with Chinese white cooking wine.
5. Bake for approximately 8 minutes or until a ring of bubbles appear around the bottom of the yolks.
6. Remove yolks and leave to cool before making mooncakes.
Preparation by boiling:
1. Place full, uncracked eggs in a pot of cold water and bring to the boil.
2. Once boiling, turn the heat down to medium and cook for 6 minutes.
3. Prepare a bowl of cold water with ice. Drain and transfer cooked eggs from hot water immediately into the cold water.
4. Once cool enough to touch, crack and peel both shell and egg whites. Be gentle when removing the egg whites so you do not damage the shape of the cooked yolk.
Preparation for premium salted duck eggs:
There is also a type of luxurious salted egg yolk mooncake which when cut open, the duck egg seeps a small amount of golden egg oil. To make this happen, the salted duck egg you choose needs to be top quality pasteurised egg. These mooncake also has a sorter use by date than standard cooked egg yolk mooncakes. You can then prepare the yolks with this method:
1. Crack open a raw salted egg and remove the hardened yolk.
2. Clean the remaining whites and membrane around the yolk with a bowl of water and pat dry with a paper towel. Leave egg yolk raw.
MAKING TRADITIONAL MOONCAKE SKIN
Mooncake skin varies in style and texture. The two most common crusts made for commercial mooncakes are snow skin and traditional lye water pastry. Snow skin is popular among the younger generation as it has a chewy mochi-like texture. I choose to make the most traditional Cantonese mooncake pastry partly out of nostalgic reasons but also because my family prefers it.
What you need:
☐ (for traditional/original taste) 480g golden syrup
☐ (for infused flavour taste)* 200g flavour infused inverted sugar syrup
☐ (for infused flavour taste)* 280g golden syrup
☐ 180g peanut oil (you can also use a non-scented oil like vegetable oil)
☐ 4g lye water
☐ 690g cake flour (separate into 680g and 10g)
1. For traditional/original taste: Mix golden syrup into a large bowl and mix with a whisk until both no longer separated and the liquid starts to whiten.
1.* For infused flavour taste: Mix flavoured infused inverted sugar syrup, golden syrup into a large bowl and mix with a whisk until both no longer separated and the liquid starts to whiten.
2. Add lye water and continue mix ingredients until they are well combined.
3. Add 680g of flour, an eighth at a time, while mixing the ingredients with a spatular in a folding movement. Make sure the ingredients are well incorporated each time before adding the next one-eighth of the batch of flour.
4. When the folded mixture forms a smooth non-sticky dough, cover the bowl with a damp towel or cling wrap and let the dough rest for 20 minutes. The dough is ready to use after rest.
WHAT MOONCAKE MOULD TO CHOOSE ?
Mooncakes get their patterns and shape from mooncake moulds. Traditional mooncake moulds are thick wooden blocks with the body and design of mooncake carved into them. These are hard to use and create a bit of noise when unmoulding mooncakes. These days, online stores like Amazon and eBay sell plastic mooncake moulds which look like tall fondant shape cutters. These are much easier to control, clean and unmould your mooncakes.
TRADITIONAL WOODEN MOULDS
I was lucky enough to have some traditional wooden mooncake moulds sitting in my cooking toolbox. My mother purchased these years ago on a trip to a rural part of China. Embarrassingly this is the first time I put them to work. For wooden moulds, you will need to use a soft brush to lightly dust your mould with flour each time before the mooncake is placed in for shaping. Without the layer of flour, you will not be able to remove your mooncake unless you use a knife to cut it out. Unlike the modern plastic mooncake moulds, traditional moulds need a particular routine before it can start shaping mooncakes. This routine needs to be done at least 8 hours before moulding mooncakes to prevent your mooncake from sticking. Here is how to prepare and maintain a traditional wooden mooncake mould.
1. Use a clean hairdryer on cold setting and blow possible loose wooden particles and dust from inside and outside of the mould.
2. Use a soft bristle brush to brush all likely remaining dust particles from inside and outside of the mould.
3. Wipe inside and outside of the mould with a damp cloth.
4. Place the mould into a tray and cover with olive oil. Let it soak for 8 hours or overnight.
5. Remove mould from oil 2 hours before moulding mooncake and flip mould carved side facing down on an oven cooling rack to remove excess oil. You can keep the olive oil for when you maintain the mould.
6. After use, repeat steps 1 to 5. Use a toothpick or skewer to clean out any remaining clumps of flour or dough in the pattern work. Do not wash your mould in water; this will make it crack and damage the mould. Once the oil has dried on the surface, wipe with a dry paper towel and store mould in a cool, dry area.
PLASTIC MOULDS
Plastic moulds eliminates endless banging and ongoing oiling work that wooden moulds need. It is also the easier, cleaner and quicker way to get a perfectly shaped mooncake for beginners. The dough comes off easier from the plastic surface so if you have correctly floured the surface of your mooncake, there is no need to flour your mould as well. Another bonus is the pattern grooves are deeper so the chances of your mooncakes coming out with their shape and design in tacked is very high. They are easily found off Amazon and eBay for very reasonable prices. I ordered a few in different sizes and designs and found they were super easy to use. I personally found the plastic mould saves me lots of time as I don’t need to spend time trying to get the mooncake to come out without damaging the pattern and shape. Conclusion, if you are a beginner or in a rush, just plastic moulds.
ASSEMBLING MOONCAKES
Once both fillings and dough are ready, we can start to assemble and bake the mooncake. Experts like my great grandmother will be able to roll the dough skins super thin and wrap the fillings with no holes and cracks. The professional mooncake bakers’ 3:7 for wrapper to filling as a ratio. For beginners and those who are not too confident, using a 1:1 ratio with wrapper and filling is your best bet.
Each mooncake mould will hold a different weight and size or mooncake. You will need to sacrifice your first few mooncakes to work out the weight your mould needs. My moulds worked out to be approximately 40g. Using the beginner’s formula, I would need 20g of filling with 20g of crust dough to make one mooncake. With this in mind, here is how to assemble and bake your mooncakes.
You will need:
☐ Your choice of mooncake filling
☐ Your prepared and rested mooncake dough
☐ A small amount of cake flour
☐ 2 normal egg yolk
☐ 1 medium egg
☐ 1/4 teaspoon salt
☐ A spray bottle with cold water
☐ A soft bristle brush
☐ A kitchen scale
☐ A rolling pin
☐ Mooncake mould(s)
FOR SINGLE FILLING MOONCAKES:
1. Using a kitchen scale divide and measure your filling and mooncake dough according to the 1:1 ratio needed to fit your mooncake mould.
2. Roll filling into a ball and leave aside.
3. Roll mooncake dough into a ball and flatten with a rolling pin into a round wrapper. Make sure your wrapper is large enough to wrap around the filling ball.
4. Tightly wrap mooncake dough wrapper around the filling ball, making sure there are no air pockets inside. Seal any remaining opening by gently pushing the edges of the wrapper into each other until the gap is covered.
5. Gently roll mooncake ball in your hands to smooth out and conceal the joint line.
6. Coat dough in a fine layer of cake flour by rolling it. Brush off any excess flour.
7.* For wooden moulds only: Use a soft bristle brush, dust on a fine layer of cake flour into the mooncake mould. Tap mooncake mould (with mooncake opening side face down) against a bench surface to remove excess flour.
8. Place mooncake into mould and press until the outer surface is flat and the pattern is imprinted on the mooncake. For traditional wooden moulds, tap with medium force against a bench surface each side of the mould to loosen mooncake. Then with the mooncake facing down and one hand underneath ready to catch the mooncake, tap mould against the side of a bench top to release mooncake.
9. Place mooncake onto a lined baking tray.
FOR SALTED EGG YOLK & DOUBLE FILLING MOONCAKES:
1. Using a kitchen scale divide and measure your filling and mooncake dough according to the ratio needed to fit your mooncake mould. For salted egg yolk mooncakes, weigh your egg yolk and minus that weight from your filling paste (e.g. if I need 20g filling weight to make up my mooncake and my egg yolk is 10g, I will need 10g of my filling paste). For the double paste filling mooncakes, divide your total filling weight into thirds and use one third for inner filling and two thirds for outer filling (e.g. if I need 30g filling weight to make up my mooncake, my inner filling paste will be 10g, and my outer filling paste will be 20g)
2. Roll inner fillings into a ball and leave aside.
3. Roll outer fillings into a ball and flatten with a rolling pin into a round wrapper. Make sure your wrapper is large enough to wrap around the filling ball.
4. Tightly wrap mooncake outer filling wrapper around the inner filling ball, making sure there are no air pockets inside. Seal any remaining opening by gently pushing the edges of the wrapper into each other until the gap is covered.
5. Gently roll filling ball in your hands to smooth out and conceal the joint line.
6. Roll mooncake dough into a ball and flatten with a rolling pin into a round wrapper. Make sure your wrapper is large enough to wrap around the filling ball.
7. Tightly wrap mooncake dough wrapper around the filling ball, making sure there are no air pockets inside. Seal any remaining opening by gently pushing the edges of the wrapper into each other until the gap is covered.
8. Gently roll mooncake ball in your hands to smooth out and conceal the joint line.
9. Coat dough in a fine layer of cake flour by rolling it. Brush off any excess flour.
10. Use a soft bristle brush, dust on a fine layer of cake flour into the mooncake mould. Tap mooncake mould (with mooncake opening side face down) against a bench surface to remove excess flour.
11. Place mooncake into mould and press until the outer surface is flat and the pattern is imprinted on the mooncake. For traditional wooden moulds, tap with medium force against a bench surface each side of the mould to loosen mooncake. Then with the mooncake facing down and one hand underneath ready to catch the mooncake, tap mould against the side of a bench top to release mooncake.
12. Place mooncake onto a lined baking tray.
BAKING & STORING MOONCAKES
1. Preheat oven to 200 °C or 392 °F
2. Using a spray bottle on mist setting, spray moon cake with a dusting of water. This will help prevent your mooncake from cracking a burning.
3. Place mooncakes in the middle rack of your oven and bake for 8-10 minutes.
4. Remove mooncakes and let it cool for 20 minutes. This will prevent the water vapours in the cooked filling from cracking your mooncake skin. Turn your oven down to 180°C and leave your oven door open with a small gap to let the oven temperature drop.
5. While mooncakes are cooling, mix egg yokes with egg and salt. This will be your egg wash.
6. After cooling period, brush a thin layer of egg wash on the top of your mooncake. Make sure there are no bubbles or clumps of egg wash as this will blur your mooncake’s pattern.
7. Place your egg washed mookcakes into the oven and bake for 5 minutes.
8. Remove mooncakes and let it cool for 20 minutes.
9. After the second cooling period, place your mooncakes into the oven for a final 5 minutes.
10. Take out mooncakes and let it rest until it is completely cooled.
11. Place cooled mooncake into a paper towel lined airtight container with paper towel between each layer of mooncake if you are stacking them. Store mooncakes in a dark, cool and dry place and let it sit for a week to redistribute the oil inside and soften up the filling and skin. If you are in a rush, let the mooncake sit for at least 2 days before eating.