Snowskin and Traditional Mooncake Recipes - China

          Being Chinese American, I am able to celebrate two New Years, the American one and Chinese one! Most of my family has the typical American New Year resolution, to go on a diet. This becomes tricky when the Chinese New Year comes around a few weeks later, and everyone is feasting on moon cakes and dumplings. This blog posts has two moon cake recipes for you to try. Luckily, my cousin's husband is a great chef, and was able to visit our family from Beijing last week. He showed me how to make moon cakes, and I saved the recipes so you could make them too.

Moon cakes are traditionally eaten during the Mid- Autumn Festival. This day is also known as the Moon Festival, because it is this time of the year that the moon is at its roundest and brightest. the date various from year to year, but it is usually in September-October. Depending on the region of China, moon cakes can have different fillings, although the most common is a salted egg yolk in dense, sweet paste. The salted egg yolk is supposed to look like a full moon in the sky. 

Image credit

 There are many reasons why Chinese people eat mooncakes on this day. The legend of Chang'e says that there were once ten suns that had risen together to the heavens. This caused hardship to the people, because it was so hot and no crops could grow. A skilled archer named Yi, shot down nine suns, and left one to heat the world and help crops grow. As a reward, he was given the elixir of immortality. He did not consume it, because it was only enough for one person, and he wanted to be with his wife Chang'e. However, when Yi went hunting, Fengmeng broke into his house and tried to steal the elixir. Chang'e was in the house at this time, and refused to give the elixir to Fengmen. Instead, she drank it and flew upwards to the heavens, choosing the moon as a residence, so she could be near her beloved husband. When everyone found out what happened, they all felt so sad that they displayed the fruits and pastries that Chang'e liked, and gave sacrifices to her. Moon cakes used to be eaten as a way to remember Chang'e and her bravery. Today, it is customary for businessmen and families to present them to clients or relatives as presents.

 

In order to make these moon cakes, you will need a moon cake press. My cousin's husband gifted me two, which he bought on TaoBao, the Chinese equivalent to Amazon. Unfortunately they only ship in China, but I've found a listing on Amazon here. If you are interested, here is the TaoBao link. The seller was kind enough to include some free packages to store your moon cakes in. Please note that you will have to weigh all ingredients on a kitchen scale, this insures precise measurements. You will also need some ingredients that may seem unfamiliar to you, but can be easily found in an Asian grocery store. If you don't have some of the ingredients, feel free to improvise. You can even use premade filling or wrappers if you'd like. Let's get started!

Snowskin Moon Cake:

Ingredients:

For the dough-

45g glutinous rice flour

35g rice flour

20g wheat starch

40g castor sugar or plain sugar

185g milk

18g vegetable oil

1/2 cup cooked glutinous rice flour

For the filling-

Around 300g of lotus bean paste

Method: 

- Mix all the ingredients for the dough in a large bowl and then strain the mixture. Steam it with medium high fire for around 30 minutes. Transfer out and stir it using chop stickers or anything you prefer and then set aside to cool down. Knead the dough until smooth (this step is quite important, otherwise your moon cake might be stiff after refrigerated) and then divide into 15 small portions, roll each to a small bowl and then press into a round wrapper. (For coloring the wrappers, see notes)

-Wrap the fillings in, roll to around bowl and then shape with moon cake shaping tool. Pre-coat your tool and hand with cooked glutinous rice flour or roll the wrapped ball in cooked glutinous rice flour before shaping. 

-Store in air-tight container and refrigerate for several hours before serving. The best serving time is the following day after assembling. 

Lotus paste filling

 Notes:

-Yes, all ingredients must be weighed. I used a standard kitchen scale to get precise measurements. 

- If you want to make colorful moon cakes, use gel food dye for best results. Alternatively, you can use matcha, cocoa powder, beet juice, etc. for a natural option.

- To make the cooked glutinous rice flour for coating: in a fry pan, stir fry raw glutinous rice flour on medium low heat until the flour turns light yellow. Remove it from the heat. Set aside to cooling down. 

- Coconut milk may be subsituted for regular milk for a vegan alternative.

- Lotus paste is considered the most luxurious mooncake filling. Due to the high price, sometimes white kidney bean paste is used as a filler, make sure you watch out for fake lotus paste.

- Keep the left cakes in freezer up to 1 week; move out for 1 to 2 hours until softened before serving. However it is highly recommended finish all of them in following day (the best time to enjoy). The taste will change on the third day. 

Based on Elaine's recipe which can be viewed here.  

Traditional Chinese Moon Cake:

Ingredients:

For the dough-

115g plain flour
25g vegetable oil
75g golden syrup (see notes)
1 tablespoon flour to coat mold
1 egg yolk + 1 teaspoon egg white for egg wash

For the filling-

300g of red bean paste

14 salted egg yolks

Method: 

-Combine golden syrup with vegetable oil and alkaline water in a large mixing bowl. Shift flour in. Mix well. Knead to a ball, wrap with film and reset for 1 hour in refrigerator. I use a larger wrapper dough amount in the consideration of the loss of the process.

-Prepare the wrappers, soaked egg yolk and fillings. Divide the dough and red bean paste into 14 portions. For the dough around 15g each one and for the red bean paste 21g to 22g each one. A better way is to measure the egg yolk and red bean paste together. We need 35g filling in total.

-Wrap the egg yolks with red bean paste firstly. And then take one portion of the wrapper, press into a round wrapper and then place the red bean ball in center. Push the wrapper from bottom to top little by little until the whole ball is completely wrapped. Or you can roll the wrapper into a larger one before assembling. For more tips, see notes.

-When the assembling process is done, coat the ball with a layer of flour. Also coat your tool please. Place the ball on your board, then carefully cover with the shaping tool, press the rod and gently remove the cake from the tool.

-In a small bowl, whisked the egg yolk and combine with egg whites.

-Preheat oven to 180C (356F). Spray a very thin layer of water on surface to avoid cracking surface (especially you used larger amount of dusting flour). Bake for 5 to 8 minutes and then transfer out and brush a thin layer of egg brushing. Each time after dipping your brush into the egg brushing, remove the extra liquid otherwise the egg liquid might spoil the pattern on the surface.

-Continue bake for around 15 minutes until the moon cake becomes golden brown.

-Transfer out and reset to cool down. Place in an airtight container with film wrapped. Wait for around 1 or 2 days for the pasty to become soft.

 

Notes:

-Yes, all ingredients must be weighed. I used a standard kitchen scale to get precise measurements. 

- Honey can be used as an alternative to golden syrup.

- When pushing the outer wrappers, be carefully and slow down your process. Do not break the wrapper. If you do, pinch any small holes together. The time needed for assemble one moon cake should be around 1 minute even you are quite skilled. Be patient during the process. 

- These moon cakes can be keep in airtight container for 2~3 weeks.

Based on Elaine's recipe which can be viewed here. 

Conclusion:

 

I hope you try out these recipes and enjoy the end results like I did! If you're curious as to what the moon cakes will taste like, here's a hilarious taste testing video by Buzzfeed.