What is Mid Autumn Festival?
Mid Autumn Festival has been around for more than 2000 years and are widely celebrated by the Chinese all around the world which are devoted to thanking the Gods. This day are also thought to be an auspicious day for weddings and is believed to bring bliss to the couple.
What is moon cake and why is it eaten during Mid Autumn Festival?
As years go by, this festival has became a get together for families to appreciate the moon. This is because every year, the festival falls on a different calendar year and Mid Autumn Festival will always see the moon to be at its fullest, hence moon cake are eaten and given as a gift during this festival.
As a kid, Mid Autumn Festival and appreciating the moon was a bit too much for us to apprehend but nevertheless my brothers and I always look forward to the festival because we get to make our own paper lantern out of wires and coloured craft plastic sheets and of course eat moon cakes!
Traditional moon cakes are made from caramel pastry with sweet lotus paste and salted yolk fillings, but these days you can get moon cake in all sorts of way such as the snow skin moon cake made with glutinous rice flour, flaky skin moon cakes that are baked with water and oil dough and even moon cake jellies.
RECIPE
Yield: 5 x large Mooncake
Pistachio Mung Bean Fillings
75 g Mung Beans (Skinned and Split)
35 g Pistachio paste
1 g Fine salt
65 g Castor Sugar
90 g Full cream milk
15 ml Vegetable oil
1 tbs Glutinous Rice Flour
Matcha Mooncake Snow Skin
50 g Glutinous Rice flour
40 g Rice Flour
20 g Wheat Flour
4 g Matcha Powder
50 g Icing Sugar
140 ml Full cream milk
20 ml Vegetable oil
30 g Wheat Starch (for Dusting)
5 g Matcha Powder
Method
For the Pistachio Mung Bean Fillings
Before proceeding, make sure that you soak the split mung bean in water covering at least 2 cm with water above the beans overnight.
1. Strain the soaked and soft mung beans.
Place the softened mung beans in a steamer and steam for approximately 30 minutes until completely softened.
Leave to cool before transferring the soft beans into a food processor.
2. Process the mung beans until it turns in to a smooth paste.
3. Add the rest of the ingredients into the food processor with the mung bean paste and process until combined and the paste turns smooth.
Note: Process the paste until it is as smooth as possible. If you do not have a strong processor like myself, pass it through a sieve.
4. Once the paste is smooth, transfer it into a non stick deep frying pan over medium, heat, sprinkle the glutinous rice flour and stir in to the paste to combine. Keep stirring until the filling comes together into a really thick consistency.
5. Transfer the paste into a bowl and wrap with cling film touching the surface of the paste and leave to cool.
6. Once cooled, portion in to 5 x 50 g portions.
The photos below is a double batch recipe
For the Matcha Snow Skin
1. Place all ingredients into a heat proof bowl and whisk until they are well combined and there no lumps of flours.
2. Cover the bowl with a cling film and put over a steamer and steam at high boiling for around 25 - 30 minutes or until the whole mix are thick and there are no longer any liquid.
3. Remove the bowl from the steamer and the cling film. Stir the dough with a spatula until well combine and the dough comes together in to a smooth dough. If the oil looks like it has separated from the dough, simply keep mixing until they come together.
4. Transfer the snow skin on to a cling film, wrap and store in fridge to complete cool (30 minutes to an hour) for easy handling.
5. Meanwhile place extra 30 g Wheat Starch that will be used for dusting the moon cake, on to a fry pan over low heat and stir to heat. Once the flour starts to slightly want to clump together, turn off the heat and leave aside until it completely cools. Once it has completely cooled, toss it with the Matcha powder and set aside for dusting the mooncake later.
6. Portion the dough in to 5 equal portion (they should roughly weight around 60 g each).
Composition
1. Sift the cooked and cooled wheat starch with the Matcha powder and mix until they are well incorporated.
2. Roll the snow skin in to a ball, then flatten it between your palm and stretch it until it is wide enough to wrap the filling (roughly around a female palm size).
Place the filling on to the centre of the snow skin, start by gently pulling the edges upwards to wrap the whole filling and pinch the skin to seal.
3. Roll the the ball of moon cake on to the dusting, then roll off the excess dusting between both your palm. Make sure that they are dusted well otherwise it will not come off the moon cake mould cleanly.
4. Place the smooth side in to the mould facing where the imprint of the moulds are, gently press down and to the side.
5. Gently flip the mould upside then, press the mould gently on the top for a more obvious imprint, then press the moon cake out.
6. Place the moon cake on a card or paper and serve.
Storage
To store the moon cake, you can store them in air tight container in the fridge for up to 2 weeks depending on the quality of your storage. If you plan on saving it for later, place the container with the moon cake in to the freezer and this can last up to 3 months. Simply thaw the moon cake before consuming.
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