Whenever possible, I use the opportunity for a little celebration – this time, the mid-autumn festival, which is a national holiday in China. It is associated with the moon calendar and the autumn full moon, thus, its exact date changes from year to year.
Traditionally, moon cakes are served during the celebrations. This year, I wanted to try making some moon cakes with a filling that is more to my taste than the traditional egg yolk version.
First, we need to get some special tool, a moon cake former. These come in various sizes, I use a “50 g” size.
The recipe is not that secret: the dough is made from flour, sugar sirup, some alkaline water and vegetable oil.
The filling-to-dough ratio recommended is about 6:4.
Say, for about 20 moon cakes:
230 g of flour (all purpose unbleached wheat flour), 145 g of sugar sirup, 55 g of plain oil, 1 tablespoon of alkaline water (saturated solution of sodium bicarbonate).
The dough needs to mixed and kneaded properly, then store it in the fridge for a few hours.
For the fillings I used two kinds.
“Date and almond”
170 g of chopped dates (without seeds!) -needs to be very finely chopped in a food processor
65 g of ground almonds
about 20 g of honey
“Poppy seed and almond”
250 g of poppy seed cake filling mix (“Mohn fix”, “Mohn back”)
135 g of ground almonds
Mix throughly.
Some recipes call for certain Chinese sugar sirups, and these can be used if available. Also artificially inverted sugar can be used – I decided to use a more natural source, the so-called “Goldsaft” made from sugar beets. This will result in a little darker color of the cakes.
The dough and fillings must be precisely measured. I used a balance to ensure the correct weight.
The dough is first made into little balls, then rolled flat and the filling – also formed to balls – is wrapped in the thin dough. All is rolled by hand to a ball. Then, inserted into the former, and pushed in shape on a baking tray covered with non-stick paper.
Bake about 9 minutes at 190°C, then let it cool down a little, say, 4 minutes, and brush with diluted egg yolk (I carefully mixed it and put it through a strainer to remove any lumps). Dilute with cold water in about 1:1 ratio and brush evenly. Then bake again for about 10 minutes. Watch carefully until the edges are a little brown.
Eventually, let them rest in a closed box in the fridge for a few days. But some, you may eat directly…
Afterwards, enjoy the evening with moon cakes and moon observation.
