Mooncake - 月圆花好庆中秋

L has told me not to be overly sucked in by this little food blogging project. Not to be too mindful about how many visitors I am getting every month. Not to be too obsessed with how my photos turn out - for they all look quite pretty to him. He wanted me to take it easy and just enjoy this little project - treat the perks that may come in the various forms (ranging from encouraging comments, to increasing readership to giveaways and food reviews) as little bonuses and pick me ups - never get addicted to them and be obsessed over them. I am glad that I have him to inject these occasional doses of practicality for if left unchecked, I probably would start reaching and yearning for the MOON...

If not for this blog, I am quite sure I will never be motivated to bake the mooncake... and further clutter my kitchen with 3 new sets of bulky wooden mooncake molds! If not for this blog, I wouldn't have to confront the ugly reality of how sinfully caloric these pastries are. I think one full sized mooncake would easily be close to a thousand kcal. Despite all the hype about replacing lard with vegetable oil,using low sugar lotus paste... there is still no escaping from the fact that the secret to a silky smooth filling and tender pastry is lots and lots of oil.

In my attempt to achieve decent results, I made 3 batches of mooncakes.
I experimented to
1. get the correct dough to filling ratio to fit my mooncake molds
2. knock the raw mooncake out of the wooden mold without getting them out of shape - a really noisy affair.
3. get the right baking temperature and baking time so that the mooncake does not crack while baking.



It was all quite tiresome and I now have a load of mooncakes which I know I will never eat... I had originally thought about bringing them to the office but the last time I checked today, the office pantry is already bursting with boxes of mooncakes presented by suppliers. Mooncake overload!

Well anyway, I am glad that I made my mooncakes in small bite sizes...I probably will stash them away and heat them up for tea....over the next few weeks.... Meanwhile,during this festival of reunion and happiness, here's wishing everyone a happy mooncake festival!


Recipe :
Dough
Golden Syrup 180g
Peanut Oil 60g
Alkaline Water 8g
Plain Flour 225g

Filling
White Lotus Paste 600g
Melon seeds 200g

Glaze
Peanut oil 1 tsp
Egg 1 beaten

Method:

1. Combine golden syrup,peanut oil and alkaline water and mix until smooth.
2. Add flour and mix well.
3. Cover the dough and let it rest for 2 hours. (some recipes ask for this to rest overnight but I find resting overnight results in a dryer dough which cracks more easily during baking)
4. Divide dough into individual portion of 14g
5. In another mixing bowl mix lotus paste and melon seeds.
6. Divide lotus paste into 34g portion.Roll this into a ball.
7. Pre-heat oven to 180C.
8. On a lightly floured board, take a portion of the dough and with the palm, flatten this into a flat round wrap.
9. Wrap a portion of the lotus paste with the wrap.
10. Lightly flour the mooncake mold and press 9 into the mold and knock it out of the mold.
11. Grease a baking tray and arrange the raw mooncakes on the tray.
12. With a spritzer, mist the mooncakes liberally with water.
13. Bake the mooncake in the oven for 10 mins at 180C. Remove the tray from the oven and carefully brush the egg and oil glaze over the top of the mooncake.
14. Return the tray into the oven and continue to bake at 160C for 10mins until the pastry bounces back when lightly pressed.

The mooncake will look puffed up when it is removed from the oven. Let it cool and age over for 3 days at room temperature before consuming. The mooncake will progressively darken in colour and soften in texture as the oil bleed out.

For the piglet, I used 60g plain dough for a mid sized piglet mold.