This is a blog post on making Cantonese-style mooncakes homemade in the comfort of your own home. Mooncake is also known as 月饼 (Yue bing) in Chinese. It normally serves during the mid-Autumn festival. It dates almost 3,000 years ago to this celebration of the Mooncake festival. there are many different variations of mooncake but this is the most common found in Hong Kong and Southeast Asia.
Of course one can just get away by buying mooncakes from the shop. However, nowadays mooncakes don’t come cheap a premium mooncake can cost as much as £8. It’s the cost of packaging and time to make the mooncakes that make the price goes up. If you have some time on your hands’ homemade mooncakes are the way to go. This recipe will walk you thru on how to make it from scratch. From pastry, salted egg yolks to lotus paste filling.
Cantonese-style Mooncakes homemade
To make mooncakes you will need to get hold of the mold. There are many places to buy this mold online like eBay and Amazon. It is also possible to buy from Facebook groups where you get links to sellers’ business pages. I bought my mold from Baking Frenzy an online shop based in Penang, Malaysia and they post worldwide. They are reliable although delivery times can take some time. I bought the white plastic ones as it’s much lighter weight and it is more cost-effective to post compared to the traditional wooden ones.
Most of the ingredients for mooncakes are available to buy from supermarkets, Asian grocers, and online. Before making mooncakes I would suggest making the salted egg yolks first. As one would require raw salted eggs yolks in order to make a nice mooncake. I find it hard to buy in London and it is mostly ready cook ones that I can find in Asian grocers. For homemade salted egg yolks, it would take a minimum of 3 weeks to make. Here is a link on how to make it at home.
It is possible to make the lotus paste filling overnight and keep it in the fridge till use. It is worthwhile to make homemade.
There are also different types of mooncake style single and double egg yolk mooncake. I have only made single egg yolk mooncake. I gues for double egg yolk mooncake is to adjust the filling according to the weight of the egg yolk. Take out the same amount of egg yolk (in weight). I also to find that egg yolks have a got a habit of being placed everywhere but the middle. The trick is the place the egg yolk right middle of the pastry and filling and remember it.
Thank you for reading dropping by. Do have a look at my other blog post on Chinese festive recipe like Ang ku kuih and kuih kapit recipe.
Cantonese-style Monncake Recipe
How to make Cantonese-style Mooncake recipe from scratch at home.
- Oven
- blender
Lotus seed paste
- 1 packet dried lotus seed (200 grams) (soaked overnight)
- 4 tbsp sugar
- 4 tbsp peanut oil or ordinary cooking oil
- 2 cups water
Mooncake pastry
- 160 grams plain flour (have some extra flour for flouring the mold and worktop)
- 120 grams golden syrup
- 60 grams peanut oil
- 1/2 tsp lye water (if there is none just omit it)
- 1 egg (beaten) for egg wash
The rest of the ingredients
- 8 salted egg yolks
Make lotus seed paste
First of all, remove all of the green seed inside the soaked dried lotus seed as this will/can make the lotus seed paste taste bitter. Then in a blender blend the lotus seeds together with some water till it becomes creamy. I didn't do this step I use a blender stick while cooking the lotus seed instead. As a result, there are some lotus seeds not broken down.
Then cook it in a pot with the rest of the ingredients till becomes a paste where it will hold together but not too hard. It's finding the right balance. I would prefer to make it drier as if it's too dry you can add a bit more oil to bind it. Whereas if it's too wet it wouldn't hold as a result the moon cake will be flat
Make the pastry
Measure and add all the pastry ingredients together. Then let it chill in the fridge.
Make the mooncake
Measure out the ingredients as the ratio of the lotus paste and pastry needs to balance. This is in order to cover the filling and the mold nicely. I use 35 grams pastry and 65 fillings and it's not including the salted egg yolk. The size of the salted egg yolks can make a bit of difference to the outcome mooncake.
Then wrap the filling around the salted egg yolk. After that roll out the pastry and then wrap it around the filling. Then press it in the floured mold. I use a bit of flour in the mold to prevent it from sticking. Then put the prepared mooncake in a baking tray.
I use a nonstick Victoria sandwich tin to bake the mooncake but feel free to use any other type of baking tray. So there is no need to oil or line the baking tray.
Bake in a conventional oven at 180 degrees Celcius for 7-8 minutes take it out and brush with egg wash. Then bake it further for another 12-15 minutes till it becomes nice and golden. Let it cool down and serve.
