Custard Mooncake

It is very delicious,  I especially love the texture and flavour of the custard. The soft, thin pastry skin, flavoured with a hint of syrup is the best. It is interesting to do egg wash 3 times and  a syrup wash. I was tired in the end :)
Overall, it is something worth going through and I  would like to do it again next year.

Gongzai (Doll) Mooncake

These are the soft textured version of the Gongzai Mooncake. They are plain but full of syrup flavour, and it gets more intense the longer you keep it.  They are good to keep for quite a number of weeks.

Kluang Mooncake

Another tasty mooncake here.  Just be sure to slice after it is completely cooled as the crust is soft, which may be separated easily when it is still hot.
Thanks to My Little Space !

Traditional Mooncake ( Cantonese style)

I know I can't go wrong with Christines's recipes,  it turned out very good on the third day. This is what we want, a very thin and shinny layer of pastry.

Taiwanese Style Mooncake

                                      They are crispy, can be eaten straight after baked.

Shanghai Cheesy Mooncake

This is quite a quick and easy mooncake to bake, very tasty too.
Once it is baked, it can be eaten right away.

Simple Chocolate Chiffon cake

Substituting part of the oil to applesauce worked just as good. Plain is always the best for my chiffon cake, but not my children, too bad :) Go for it if you like to top with icing!

Coconut mini mooncake

I am still experimenting with more mooncakes, this has grated coconut caramelised with sugar creating the kind of aroma...simply delicious on mini bite size mooncakes.

Brownish caramelised filling, the aroma is beautiful.
bite sized just right for a mouthful.

Adapted from:  Nasilemaklover ( with slight alteration)
Ingredients ( I used my 100g mould to assemble 50g recipe, 30g filling and 20g pastry)

For the pastry:
130g Hong Kong Flour
90g Golden syrup
30g oil
1/4 lye water


Method:
1.  Sift flour in a mixing bowl.
2.  Mix syrup, oil and lye water well, slowly pour into the flour.
3. Use a spatula or hand (with gloves on), mix until it forms a soft dough. Cover and let it rest for an hour ( I left it overnight).
4. Weigh 20g each and roll into a ball.


Steps for assembling:

Sit dough ball in between cling wrap,  roll it out like this

Grib and shift cling wrap to help fold the dough ball

not this side but, at the opposite side to seal the end

Fill a bit of cooked glutinous rice (kor fun) into the mould, dust excess flour off.
Insert dough ball and use your palm gently flatten it to ensure dough is firmly locked in the mould.
Slowly press to unlock mooncake out of the mould.

Here you go.

after 2 to 3 days, the texture of the pastry turns just perfect.
You can now have one :)

For the filling:
15g cooking oil
70g sugar
150g grated coconut
40g cooked glutinous rice flour ( Kor Fun)
30g water
10g roasted sesame seeds

Egg wash ( 1 egg yolk and 1 teaspoon milk), beaten

This brush is pretty good for egg washing mooncakes

Method:
1. Mix grated coconut with cook glutinous rice flour together. Set aside.
2. Add oil and sugar in a saucepan, cook until sugar dissolved. ( I caramelised it)
3. Remove from heat and add in roasted sesame seeds, mix well.  Let it cool.
4. Weigh each 30g each and roll into ball.





















To assemble mooncake:
1.  Flatten the dough ball and place a coconut fillig in the centre, wrap, seal and shape into a ball.
2.  Lightly flour the mould, dust off excess by tapping the mould.
3.  Place the mooncake ball into the mould and flatten it.
4.  Press twice to release mooncake off the mould.
5.  Bake at pre-heated oven at 180C for 7 minutes ( I had a quick water spray just before baking).
6.  Remove mooncake out from oven and let it cool for at least 15 minutes.
7.  Egg wash the whole mooncake and bake at pre-heated oven 170C for 15 to 20 minutes or until golden brown ( I did egg wash twice).
8.  Remove mooncake from oven, immediately transfer to wire rack to cool. Serve after one or 2 days in room temperature allowing the mooncake to get softened that way ( I waited 3 days for mine).

I made another batch after the first attempt, really good.

Chocolate snowskin mooncake ( cinnamon)

As a  new beginner making mooncakes, I was excited to have made this for all my students on Mooncake festival, thinking this would be something they might like...  cute little starbucks pictures on it,  lots of chocolate, nuts and Aussie kids' favourite cinnamonnnn.....!!

For me, I always make my filling and pastry one or two days ahead.  So, it was quite easy to manage mooncake making.

There were a lot of fellow bloggers who made chocolate snowskin mooncakes for the recent festival,  I read so many of it and  decided to use my snowskin mooncake recipe with slight alterations. Tested and tasted along the way as I made this, here's the final product :)

Dark hazelnut is for the centre filling and milk chocolate is part of the pastry ingredients

With a very low heat, I sat my bowl on the pan with one inch water, keep stirring until well dissolved.

Transfer to a  bowl and let it sit in a water bath, to cool completely. Gradually pour into sifted flour and mix well.
Drain through a fine sieve into a pan below.

 Steam for 20 minutes on high heat.
 Scrape paste out when it's done and let it cool a bit and do a quick knead just to bring the paste into a dough shape.
Wrap with cling wrap and store in the fridge for later use ( I kept it overnight).

Here are the main ingredients.
 As you can see, I made a few batches all in one go!

Wrap chopped chunky dark hazelnut choc inside the mung bean paste 

Next, choc pastry wrap over the mung bean paste

With beautiful strong flavour of chocolate and cinnamon......

Ingredients for pastry:
note:  This recipe is tailored for 50g mould ( you may try 30g filling, 20g pastry). I doubled the ingredients for my 100g mould ( 60g filling, 40g pastry).

1.  Milk   250g
2.  Castor sugar  50g
3.  Condensed milk  40g
4.  Rice bran oil  10g
5.  Glutinous rice flour 70g ( not cooked type)
6.  Rice flour  50g
7.  Cake flour  20g
8.  1 tablespoon cocoa powder
9.  1 teaspoon cinnamon powder
10.  milk chocolate bars 50g (for pastry)
11. coarsely chopped dark hazelnut chocolate  ( for the filling)

* prepare some cooked glutinous rice flour for assembling mould.

A good gift for my students

PASTRY
Method:
note:  I am using steaming method which takes one extra step to get mooncake done. Without shortening, minumum oil is used, so it is quite a healthy version.

1.  Combine all sifted flours together.  Set sside.
2.  Using double boiler method ( I sat my bowl on the cooking pan with one inch water,  slow heat) stir, mix and dissolve all ingredients here:  castor sugar, condensed milk, milk, oil, cocoa powder, cinnamon powder and milk chocolate).  Let it cool completely in water bath.
3. Gradually pour into the flours, mix until well combined.
5. Drain through a fine sieve into a pan.
6. Transfer pan to steam on high heat, 20 to 30 minutes ( 20 minutes for mine).
7. When it's done, let it cool down a bit, quick knead just to bring into a dough shape.  Wrap with cling wrap and store in fridge for later use.
8. Weigh 60g filling, 40g pastry each. Wrap chunky choc inside the filling and pastry over the filling each.
9. Place a pastry dough between cling film and roll it out into a thin round slice.
10.  Wrap a ball of filling with the skin, dab it into the cooked glutinous flour prepared.
11. Place it onto the mould and press gently in the corners before pushing the cake out of the mould.

Note: you can do pastry or filling / both one day in advance, just make sure they are wrapped and stored in fridge.

Method for the filling:
Refer to : homemade mung bean paste ( for 50g mould)

Fish Doll mooncake (plain)

Mooncake festival may have ended but we still can get Mooncakes easily in the Asian grocery shops and Asian bakery shops here.  Theres still many people at home baking mooncakes, just for the pleasure of doing it.  I have not stopped baking them yet.  For a late starter like me, it gets more exciting the more I bake.

Recipe from:  Kimmy-cooking pleasure ( slight alteration in method)
Ingredients:

300g sifted cake flour
240g golden syrup
75g vegetable oil
1/2 teaspoon lye water
1 egg + 1 tablespoon milk well whisked

Method:

1.  In a mixing bowl, add in syrup, oil and lye water.  Mix until well combined.  Cover and rest for at least 5 hours.

2.   Add in sifted flour and knead into soft dough ( do not over knead). Cover the dough, let it rest for at least 5 hours ( I left it overnight).

3.  For my fish doll, I divided into 35g per dough.  Roll each into a ball. Dust mooncake mould with some flour.  Press dough into mould. Tap lightly to unmould. Arrange in a baking tray.

4.  Bake in pre-heated oven for 170C deg. for 10 minutes.  Remove out from oven, let it rest for 15 minutes.  Egg wash twice, quick water spray on mooncakes, back in the pre-heated oven of 160C. for another 20 minutes or until golden brown ( all ovens varies).

5. Let it cool completely on wire rack.  Store in air-tight container and it is good to keep for weeks.

6. Enjoy!

Australian native plant, bottle brush

Traditional mooncake ( homemade red bean paste with pine nuts)

Time flies so quickly, Mooncake festival is just around the corner.  Most bloggers must have finished their DIY Mooncakes by this time while I am a rather late starter. I just started and finding more and more joy doing so, haha.  I am definitely continuing this for the next couple of weeks.

                    Another kind of Magnolia tree I saw sitting behind the church in city. So beautiful..
                   

SiuKitchen that I follow is always has a healthier, less sugar, less oil version. Thats what I like.
Happy Mooncake Festival to everyone!

Filling (red bean paste):

Red beans 480g
Sugar 140g ( or 20g more if you like)
1 teaspoon  bicarbonate of soda
4 tablespoons of oil

Method:

1.  Soak beans overnight.
2.  Put some water on the pot and boil beans with bicarbonate of soda added in the water, change to low heat to simmer until beans become tender.
3.  Let it cool a little,  add sugar and transfer to food processor and blend until it is paste like.
4.  Transfer paste to a pan, using slow heat with a little oil at a time, fry until paste become dry, smooth and glossy.
6.  Rest paste in a bowl for later use.  ( I did the filling a day in advance).



























                                                                     Before baked
                                   





Pastry:  ( I used 100g mould)

Hong Kong flour  (sifted)  380g
Golden syrup  220g
Oil  90g
Lye water  1 teaspoon



Last note:  1. Prepare a little cooked glutinous rice flour for assembly mooncakes into the mould.
                  2. Prepare egg wash ( one whole egg whisked with one teaspoon water ).



Method:
1.  Mix lye water with syrup well.
2.  Add syrup mixture into sifted flour and mixed.  ( note: knead gently and very briefly, over mixed would results dry pastry in the end).
3.  Mix into dough like,  wrapped and set aside for at least 30 minutes.  ( I actually did this a night in advance, just make sure it is wrap well and still chilled in fridge).
4.  Divide into 70g filling ( with toasted pine nuts), 30g pastry. ( I may like to try 40g pastry, 60g filling next round, it is up to your choice ).
5.  Spread some cooked glutinous flour all over the inside corners and facing of the mould.  Dust flour off by tapping the mould.  Insert dough ball onto the mould. Press gently and firmly to ensure it is lodged in.
6.  Spray a little water on mooncake, bake on pre-heated oven 180 deg, 20 minutes ( note: oven temperature varies).
7.  Remove  away from oven and rest mooncake for 15 minutes.  Meanwhile, set oven to 175 deg.
8.  Egg wash on mooncakes and bake again for about 7 minutes.
9.  Let it cool completely before storing into an air tight container. Keep in room temperature for 3 days before eating.
10.  Good luck!

Healthy Snowskin Mooncake ( Matcha and Rose Syrup)

                   Matcha...........    Rose syrup air bandung........MOONCAKEeeee!

I had such fun making this. I never thought I could make Mooncake so I was really excited when I saw those cute babies sitting right in front of me!  My husband and my children love my mooncake a lot!

Every year, my husband would spend a lot of money just to buy them, needless to say, mooncakes in Australia are especially pricey!  Not just that, think about the heavy sugar content, the refined oil and preservatives added into it. Hmmm..

 After he tasted some of  my homemade ones, he was convinced not to buy from stores anymore.  I saved him heaps of money.:)

 I love to follow "SiuKitchen" mooncake recipes as hers are usually healthier, less sugar, less oil yet still tasty recipes, without shortening.

 I made the split mung bean paste a day ahead, there were many different kinds of ready made paste imported from overseas. I was not really happy when I checked and found all sorts of preservatives in the paste content.
 So,  I said forget it and made it myself...
 It may be a longer process to get it done, it was well worth it.

As this was my first attempt making Mooncakes, I just wanted something classic and simple.  So I made 2 flavours, one is matcha while the other uses rose syrup "air bandung" that surprisingly I had no problems getting it here at the local Asian grocery shop.  I especially like the rose pink snowskin, it gives you such beautiful strong flavour.  Matcha does not really bring out the flavour as much hm...but green is my color!

 The following ingredients is for 50g mooncake mould ( using 30g filling, 20g pastry).  Because I owned 100g mould, therefore I doubled the ingredients ( using 70g filling, 30g pastry).

                                                   
                                                   Roses Syrup and  Matcha powder

Ingredients ( Snowskin):  
1.  Milk 250 g
2.  Castor sugar  50g
3.  Condensed milk  40g
4.  Oil  10g
5.  Glutinous rice flour 70g ( not cooked type).
6.  Rice flour  50g
7.  Plain flour 20g

     





















Method ( Snowskin):

1. Combine sugar and all sifted flours. Set aside.
2. Mix milk, condensed milk, matcha / rose syrup and oil together.
3.  Pour into the flour mixture and stir to combine.
4.  Drain through a fine sieve into a pan.
5.  Transfer to steam on high heat, 20 - 30 minutes.
6.  When steaming completed, rest the paste on cooling rack until lukewarm.
7.  Lightly quick knead so that paste just come together like a dough texture ( note: not to really knead it).
8.  Wrap dough with cling wrap and chill in fridge for late use.


Note:  one teaspoon used for matcha, one teaspoon for rose syrup "air bandung" (for 50g mould) and in the case of 100g mould, I used one tablespoon for each flavour.

Ingredients (Filling):

1.  Peeled split mung beans  160g  (wash and soaked  for 2-3 hours or, overnight).
2.  Wheat starch  10g
3.  Vegetable oil   10g
4.  Castor sugar  40g ( I used 50g)
Note: you would also need a small amount of cooked glutinous rice flour for easy moulding the mooncake.










Raw Peeled Mung Bean

                                                   




                                                 
Steamed and mashed










                                                                                                                                                                In smooth paste form              











Method (Filling):

1.  Add a little water to the mung beans so that it is slightly submerged.  Steam 20 to 30 minutes until softened.
2.  Mash the paste while it is still hot.  Sieve to puree if you like.
3.  Add 40g sugar into the paste and mix well.
4.  On low heat, fry the paste with the oil.
5.  Add in wheat starch when paste becoming quite dry.  Stir until all well mixed.
6.  Knead the paste until smooth when it is lukewarm.  Wrap it with cling wrap and chill in the fridge.
7.  Divide 20 g each from the" pastry" dough, 30g each from the "filling" dough.
8.  Place a pastry dough between cling film and roll it out into a thin round slice.
9.  Wrap a ball of filling with the skin, dab it into the cooked glutinous flour prepared.
10. Place it onto the mould and press gently in the corners before pushing the cake out of the mould.

                                        Happy Mooncke Festival everyone! (2014)