Traditional Mooncake 传统莲蓉月饼

Mooncake / Mid-Autumn festival is approaching soon, another 2 weeks to go. This year i managed to make my own mooncake at home. I was so confident and thought that it shouldn't have any problem for me to make this traditional baked mooncake as those recipes i have sound easy....But it turned out i have to re-do few batches to get a success baked mooncake!

This was my 1st baked- the skin all cracked and the crust was hard.
I immediately run to the bakery ingredients shop where i bought the mooncake ingredients and asked to the shop worker for what reason for a cracked mooncake. Then only i realized that I did not wait for the half cooked mooncake to cool down then only apply egg wash. Check out below recipes for more tips to get a success mooncake.

wrap lotus paste (with matcha powder) with dough, check below recipes on how to wrap...




one hand holding the mooncake and another hand take picture, not bad huh, hehehe..

These are half-cooked mooncakes (before apply egg wash), and I only have these two patterns

I don't really fancy mooncake because it's sweetness, but i still like to learn how to make this..

I was made reference to  鲸鱼蓝蓝蓝 and Anncoo Journal recipes and worker from the bakery shop with minor changes.

Traditional baked mooncake 传统莲蓉月饼
*makes 4 mooncakes x 3” diameter


120g Hong Kong flour水仙粉
72g golden syrup 糖浆
32g peanut oil 花生油
1/2tsp Alkaline water 碱水


440g lotus paste 莲蓉馅
Some melon seeds 瓜子


Egg wash- Add 1tbsp milk and 1tbsp water into 1 egg yolk, lightly stir well


Method
1. Sifted flour in a mixing bowl.
2. Mix syrup, peanut oil and Alkaline water, slowly pour into flour.
3. Use a spatula to mix till form a soft dough. Cover and rest it for 20mins.
4. Weight lotus paste 110g each and add melon seeds together, roll into a ball.
5. Weight dough 55g each and roll into a ball.
6. Flatten the dough ball and place a lotus paste ball on top, wrap and seal the dough by slowly push the dough until totally cover the whole lotus paste ball. Slightly shape into a ball again.
7. Dush some flour on the mooncake mould, knock out excess flour.
8. Place mooncake inside the mould, flatten dough to conform to shape of mould.
9. Knock the mooncake mould on solid surface and slowly remove the mooncake and place on a baking pan.
10. Bake at a pre-heated oven at 180c for 7mins.
11. Remove mooncake from oven and set aside to cool for at least 15mins.
12. Apply egg wash (either top only or top & sides) and bake at preheated oven at 170c for 15mins.
13. Remove mooncake from oven, immediately transfer to wire rack to cool. Serve after 1-2 days in room temperature as to let the skin soften.


** reduce lotus paste weight to 80g if you intend to add 1 salted egg yolk. Add matcha powder if you want green tea flavour of lotus paste.

My note- i still feel the mooncake crust slightly hard if compare to store-bought's mooncake, i suspected the egg wash made the crust turned hard. But without egg wash, it will not look glossy !!  Anyway, the crust will turn softer after 24hrs...so the egg wash is not an issue now..

Happy Baking !!