Chinese mooncakes - Happy Mid Autumn Festival !

I didn't post recipes in the original post since these things require hard to find equipments and ingredients, but since several of you requested, I will post them here. Be warned, it's a long and tedious process to make either style of mooncakes, and takes a lot of practice to get it right.

Cantonese Style mooncakes

-wrapper dough

AP flour, 100g

syrup, 70g (see notes)

oil, 30g

Alkaline water, 2g (see note)

custard powder, 2g

-filling

anything you want, traditionally red bean paste, lotus seeds paste, etc.(see notes)

-method:

see this post for a good illustration: http://www.anhsfoodblog.com/2010/09/baked-mooncake-with-salted-yolk.html (see note)

- notes:

1.The link above says you can use store bought golden syrup, I don't agree. The texture of the syrup would greatly affect how the mooncake looks and tastes, even how difficult to make them, so I either use the mooncake syrup from China (only available there around mid autumn festival), or make my own. 400g sugar + 180ML water + 50ML lemon juice, cook on very low heat until thick and brown, about 40min to 1 hour, the consistency should be similar to honey. Keep for at least one week before using for the flavor to settle, you can even make a batch and use it for two years.

2. The link above says Alkaline water(枧水) is available at Asian stores, it's true for cities like Seattle, but not for Dallas where I live. I had to buy "edible alkaline" (食用碱, white powder in little bags also found in Chinese market, note that they are different from baking soda or lye), mix with water with the following ratio: 1 part edible alkaline + 3 part water. Unlike what the link says, you can NOT skip this, it's there to offset the acidity in sugar syrup, without it, your mooncake dough would be dry and crack.

3. The link says you can buy fillings, well, it's true if you live in China - around mid autumn festival time, otherwise I don't think any of the paste in the market would work. They will be too oily, or too dry, or too wet. If the filling is not of the right consistency, the mooncakes would not taste good, more importantly, it would be very different to wrap. It's an art to make those fillings. YOu first make a paste (let's say red bean), then you use a cheese cloth to "wash the paste" 3 times - which means you add a lot of water to the paste, so the small particles can dissolve in water and go through the cheesecloth, while the larger particles like skins would be filtered out. After 3 times, you can a very wet/liquid but very smooth paste. Now you add 10-20% fat (use lard for the best flavor) and 10% sugar, in a nonstick pan on very low heat, cook until most of the water evaporate, and the paste is not sticking together. Don't cook it too dry, it will crumble while you wrap; don't leave it too wet, it wont' hold shape; don't add too much oil/fat, it will seperate from the skin during baking.

4. The link showed wood mould from ebay, I used small plastic ones I bought from China. The plastic ones are easier to use (less sticky), cuter, and uses interchangable surface piece with different patterns. My mould is also much smaller - each mooncake is 50g, while the one shown in the link is much bigger.

5. The ratio of wrapper to filling should be 3:7 or 2:8(for me it means 15g dough+35g filling, or 10g dough+40g filling), 3:7 is easier to make since there's more dough to wrap the filling, but 2:8 would taste better. Don't go above 3:7, the cakes would be too doughy.

6. The process of wrapping the dough around filling ball seems impossible at first, but after enough practice, it's entirely possible to wrap it evenly around the filling, especially with 3:7 ratio. Skilled bakers in China even make 1:9 ratio, which means only 5g of dough wrapped around 45g of filling, however that takes a lot of skill AND perfect filling consistency and dough. You need to be patient, slowly pushing the dough around the ball of filling.

7. You can NOT eat these cakes straight out of oven, it needs to "oil up", which means for the oil/fat in the dough/filling to permeate through the cakes. The surface of the cakes would look dry at first, after a few days, it would look shiny and smooth like in the pictures. The "oil up" would take 3 to 7 days depending on your dough recipe and everything else (syrup,etc).

Phew! Now you know I didn't lie when I say it's a long and tedious process! Even the most dedicated Chinese home bakers won't make these often, only once a year.

The Suzhou style ones are a tiny bit easier since you don't have to worry about syrup and Alkaline water(枧水), but then you have to laminate the wrapper dough ONE BY ONE! I will post the recipe/process in a seperate post if anyone is really interested. BTW, I don't have recipe for the pork/cabbage filling since I don't cook like I bake, I kinda just throw everything together guided by experience. It's basically a mixture of grounded pork, preserved salted cabbage (again, a specialty food in Chinese market, in little bags), soy sauce, chinese cooking wine, salt, pepper, oil.