Apologies for the long absence from the blog. Excuses range from not feeling well to busy to just darn lazy. Hey at least i'm being honest <grin>. Anyway, the last few weeks saw me buried under a mound of moonrocks, I mean mooncake, hehe. This post is for my very deprived friends living far far away where mooncakes are hard to come by and cost their weight in gold. So, Alex, Ai Tin, Susan, hope looking at the pictures takes away the cravings. I'll be happy to make the real ones when you come back to Malaysia. If anyone wants the recipe just give me a buzz and I'll be happy to share it with you.
Making mooncakes is a tedious job especially when one makes everything from scratch. I have tried making my own lotus paste filling and trust me when I say that you need alot of arm power. It also takes ages to make because the lotus seed has first to be soaked in hot water, then the skin and the bitter heart removed, seed by seed, no short cut here. Next boil the seed till soft , blend till smooth and cook till it becomes a very,very thick paste. I have long since given up on that part of the process of mooncake making. Its much easier to go to the shops and select from the many flavours available. With 400 mooncakes to make this time I didn't have a choice. So I came back with 50kg of various flavours; white lotus, black sesame, greentea, redbean, tiramisu,durian and dragonfruit. Yea, dragonfruit which has so mild a flavour I can hardly taste anything there.
Lets get started then.
I keep forgetting to photograph the dough making part of the process. Sorry about that. Basically syrup and oil are mixed together with alkali water to bind them together into a well blended consistency. This is very important. Otherwise the skin will crack when baked. After an hour flour is added and mixed till it becomes a dough that is just slight sticky to the touch. Leave to rest for 5 hours so that it becomes elastic and easy to handle. These balls of dough in the photo have been weighed and are ready for wrapping.
Salted egg yolks are washed, oiled and baked for 8 mins. I prefer to steam them but baking makes the job much faster. Doesn't the golden color look simply gorgeous.
The yolks are imbedded into the lotus paste filing. I left it unsealed so I could tell which side is up when I wrap it in the dough later. I didnt do this when I first started and ended up with off-centre yolks when the mooncake was cut...oops.
This is the tricky part, wrapping the dough around the filling to form a thin smooth skin without tearing. If the dough has been made correctly this should be easy. Start by flatening out the centre and work your way outwards by turning the dough around and around.
When it looks like this you can place the filling ball in the centre .
Place the mooncake in your hands in this position. Whilst using the left thumb to press on the top, the right palm gently pushes the dough upwards. Do this carefully so that the skin doesnt tear.
Lightly flour the mooncake and place it in the mould. Press down to fill . Hit all four sides of the mould on a wooden surface to unmould.
TAA-DAA!!!
Jackie made these for her friends. I notice kids dont like the filling much so she made it more biscuitlike with a thicker skin and less filling inside.
These are plain biscuits, for Caitlin who doesnt like any filling. Gone are the days of little piggies.
Maybe not...bunnie biscuits anyone?
Mooncakes waiting to be baked.
Greentea and redbean mooncake. The two flavours go very nicely together. Will definitely be making this next year.
Ready for packing. It was quite a sight seeing so many mooncakes on the table.
The boxes this year come in very nice sweet designs. All in all I sold 100 boxes of mooncakes. I really appreciate the support from my friends and relatives. Thank you all so very much.
And now to sit down to a cuppa hot chinese tea and a slice of mooncake. Happy Mid-Autumn everyone!
