Single Yolk Lotus Paste Mooncake & Mooncake Biscuits

Happy mid-autumn festival! This festival is held on the 15th day of the 8th month in the Chinese calendar. With mid-autumn festival, two very important things come to play; the mooncakes and lanterns! I love both. 🙂 Remember my previous homemade lotus seed paste post? Now’s the time to utilize those lotus seed paste for making mooncake. I tried my hands on making mooncake with my sister and found it to be really easy and fun. You should try it too!

Single yolk lotus paste mooncake. That’s my lantern. Hehe

Fish shaped mooncake biscuits.

Piglet shaped mooncake biscuits.

Let’s make mooncakes. And I also found that you actually use mooncake’s skin to make mooncake biscuits. We’ll try both here. First let’s tackle the mooncakes.

Use Lyle’s brand of golden syrup to make mooncake. Recommended by baking gurus.

Place golden syrup, peanut oil, alkaline water and 2 tablespoons super fine flour in a bowl. Mix well and leave it for 30 mins to 1 hour.

In a mixing bowl, place 500g super fine flour. Make a well. Pour the mixture into the well. Mix the ingredients and then transfer to a flat surface and knead lightly until combine. The dough should not stick to your hand/surface and is soft.

Make dough into a large ball and cover with damp cloth for 30 minutes. We used cling film instead.

Then divide dough into 55g each (it will yield nearly 15 portions). Make into balls. This is the mooncake skin. Please note this measurement is based on our mooncake mould size. Yours might differ. Please refer to recipe below for explanation.

Now take 1 portion of lotus seed paste which is 70g. Make a hole in the center. Again weight is based on our mooncake mould size.

Place a salted egg yolk in the hole.

Slowly wrap the salted egg yolk.

Make into a ball. Repeat with the rest of the lotus seed paste and salted egg yolks.

Next take 1 portion of mooncake skin. Flattened with rolling pin. You need trial and error to estimate how large the flattened surface should be. It should be big enough to wrap around your lotus paste+salted egg yolk ball.

Now take 1 portion of lotus paste+salted egg yolk ball and place on the center.

Wrap the mooncake skin over it.

Roll on your palm to smoothen the creases and make into a ball.

Dusk the mooncake mould with flour.

Place the ball into the mould.

Use your palm to press the ball. Make sure the edges are filled and flatten as well.

Knock lightly on all 4 sides of the mould to dislodge the mooncake.

Finally carefully dislodge the imprinted mooncake.

Place the mooncake on a tray lined with baking paper. Repeat the steps for the remaining mooncakes, make sure to cover with cling film to prevent it from drying.

Unbake mooncakes.

Spray some water (not too much) on mooncakes’ surface. We used water spray bottle. Then bake in preheated oven at 230^oC for 10 minutes.

Remove and cool the mooncakes for about 10 minutes. Then brush mooncakes’ surface with egg wash. Bake once more for about 10 minutes until golden brown. That’s it.

Please note that you should’t eat the mooncakes right away. Keep it in a covered container for few days before you dig into it. It’s to allow the development of flavours and also for the oil to seep out of the skins to give the mooncake a nice glossy finish.

Single yolk lotus paste mooncake.

Aesthetically not as beautiful as store-bought mooncakes but taste good. 🙂

Now, on how to make mooncake biscuit.

As I mentioned earlier, mooncake biscuits are made from mooncake’s skins. This recipe will yield about 15 mooncakes. If you choose not to make that many mooncakes, you can use the rest of the mooncake skin to make mooncake biscuits. How much dough to make mooncake biscuits depends on your mould shape and size.

For e.g. this fish mooncake biscuit mold of ours uses 35g of mooncake skin dough. Shape them into balls for easier handling.

Flour the mooncake biscuit mould.

Press dough into mould. Knock and dislodge the imprinted biscuits like what you did with the mooncake and follow the baking procedure like the mooncake too. For more info, refer recipe below.

Unbake mooncake biscuits. Piglets and fishes. Cute ya?

Again brush with egg wash after cooled down from 10 minutes baking. Continue with 10 minutes of baking or until golden brown.

Same goes with mooncake biscuits, you should keep the biscuits for few days before eating it.

Fish shaped mooncake biscuits.

Cute piglet shaped mooncake biscuits.
A variation is that you can add lotus seed paste into these as well.

Single Yolk Lotus Paste Mooncake
Adapted from Alan Ooi
Yields 15 mooncakes (based on my mooncake mould size)

Mooncake’s Skin:
300g golden syrup
7 tablespoons peanut oil
1 teaspoon alkaline water
2 tablespoons super fine flour
500g super fine flour

15 salted egg yolks, steamed for about 8 minutes
1 egg, beaten (for egg wash)

1.05kg lotus seed paste, divide into 15 portions, each 70g. Make into balls.
Note1: Make your own lotus seed paste following this recipe.
Note2: The 70g weight of lotus seed paste for 1 portion is based on our mooncake mould size

Here’s how we determine the portion for the skin and filling:
Based on our mooncake mould size, the total weight of our mooncake is 145g. We determine the total weight by filling the whole mooncake mould with mooncake’s skin dough and then dislodge the imprinted dough and weight it. We choose 4:6 ratio. 4 is the mooncake skin and 6 is the filling. Which means about 55g mooncake skin and 90g for filling. But our filling has egg yolk which is about 20g. So in total we use 55g mooncake skin, 70g lotus seed paste and 20g for 1 egg yolk which equal to 145g.

Method:
1. Combine golden syrup, peanut oil, alkaline water and 2 tablespoons super fine flour and leave it for 30 minutes to 1 hour.

2. Place 500g super fine flour in a mixing bowl and make a well. Pour the mixture from step 1 into the well. Knead lightly until combine and it does not stick to hand/surface and is soft.

Note: If the dough is a little dry, add 1 tablespoon of peanut oil and knead again.

3. Make dough into a large ball. Cover dough with a damp cloth for 30 minutes (we used cling film).

4. Divide dough into 55g each; which will yield nearly 15 portions. Make into balls. This will be your mooncake skin. Note: this measurement is based on our mooncake mould size. Yours might be different but you can refer to our dough weight for reference.

5. Take 1 portion of lotus seed paste which is 70g. Make a hole in the center and place a salted egg yolk into it. Shape into a ball. Repeat with the rest of the lotus seed paste and salted egg yolks.

6. Take 1 portion of mooncake skin from step 4. Flattened the skin with rolling pin.

7. Place 1 portion of no. 5 (lotus seed paste with salted egg yolk combination) and place at the center of the flattened mooncake skin. Wrap the skin over it. Roll on your palm to smoothen the creases and make into a ball.

8. Press the ball into a floured mooncake mould. Use your palm to press the ball and make sure the edges are flatten as well.

9. Knock on all 4 sides and dislodge imprinted mooncake. Place on a tray lined with baking paper. Cover with cling film while you repeat steps 6-9 with the remaining ingredients.

10. Spray some water (not too much) on mooncakes’ surface. Bake in preheated oven at 230^oC for 10 minutes.

11. Remove and cool for about 10 minutes. Brush mooncakes’ surface with egg wash and bake once more for about 10 minutes until golden brown.

Note: Mooncakes are not to be eaten straight away. They are kept in air-tight containers for a few days to allow the flavours to develop and for the oil to seep out so that the skins will have a nice gloss.

Mooncake Biscuits

Mooncake biscuits are made from mooncake’s skins. The above recipe can make about 15 mooncakes. If you don’t want to make that many mooncakes, you can use the mooncake’s skin from step 4 and use some of it for making mooncake biscuits. How much of the dough use to make mooncake biscuits depends on the shape and size of your mooncake biscuit mould. For e.g. our fish mould need 35g of mooncake’s skin while piglet mould need 30g only.

1. First measure the portions needed. You can shape them into balls like what we do for easier handling.

2. Press the dough into the mould. Knock and dislodge imprinted biscuits. Place on a tray lined with baking paper. Cover with cling film. Follow exactly the above step 10 to step 11.

Note: Just like mooncakes, your mooncakes biscuit should not be eaten straight but kept for a few days too.

Happy mooncake-ing!