Chinese Mooncakes for the autumn moon festival
Not only are they tasty, but they can be made with any filling of your choice!
| PREP TIME | 3 h |
|---|---|
| COOK TIME | 4h |
| SERVES | 4 |
- 150 ml golden syrup
- 50 ml sunflower oil
- ½ lye water (if you can't find it in the store, you can make it with 4 cups of water and 1 teaspoon of baking soda)
- 1 ½ cups all-purpose flour
- 1 egg wash
- 240 gms adzuki beans
- ½ salt
- 2 tbsp cornstarch
- 150 gms sugar
- 120 ml sunflower oil
- 1 tbsp golden syrup
For the dough:
For the filling:
1. In a bowl, combine golden syrup, sunflower and lye water. Whisk it till it comes to a slightly thick consistency.
2. Slowly add all-purpose flour in three parts at equal intervals, kneading as you go. Once kneaded well, wrap it in cling film and allow it to rest for 30 minutes to 3 hours - the longer you keep, the better the elasticity of the dough.
3. For the filling, soak adzuki beans overnight. Once they are soaked and quite easy to break, drain the water. Cover the beans in water, again, and boil it on a medium-low flame for two hours.
Note: If you bought the canned ones, you don't have to soak them overnight as they are already soaked and absorbed water without salt or any other additives.
4. Using a food processor, blend them into a thick and smooth paste without adding any extra water. Keep it aside.
5. To a thick-bottomed pan, add the adzuki bean paste and stir it on a low flame. Slowly add the sugar and mix it well.
6. Slowly add the cornstarch in. Once the mix starts to harden a little bit, add the sunflower oil in three parts till you get a smooth, yet thick, paste. Allow it to cool completely.
7. Once cooled, roll it into marble-sized balls. Make sure you roll it smaller than your dough, as your dough should be able to cover the filling without tearing.
8. Once the dough is well rested, pinch a ball of it and place it between two sheets of cling film and flatten it out to a medium thickness using a rolling pin. Make sure your dough wrapper isn't thin, as this could cause tears when you wrap it around the filling.
9. Place the rolled filling in the centre of the dough wrapper and slowly bring the edges together to form a bigger ball. It should roughly be a size that fits into your mould.
10. Now, place this dough ball with adzuki paste filling inside your mould and press it till you get the desired shape. Personally, I pressed the mould 4 to 5 times to deepen the pattern on the mooncake.
11. Slowly remove the mooncake by tapping it on a tray lined with buttered parchment paper. Note: If the mooncake comes out easily, the size of the dough with the filling was correct, if not, the mooncake dough might have been a little more than desired.
12. As you get ready to bake, make sure that you place it at an equal distance and do not overcrowd the tray. The dough must not touch each other.
13. Bake at 190C for five minutes. Take the tray out and brush lightly with egg wash.
14. Reduce the temperature to 165C and place the tray inside to bake it for another five minutes. Once done, brush it lightly with egg wash again.
15. Place the mooncakes back in the over for 10 to 15 minutes once again until they turn golden brown. Allow it to cool completely before serving.