Mooncake （月餅） is a type of traditional pastry eaten on Mid-Autumn Festival, which is 15th August of the Lunar calendar. The Chinese delicacy is essential to the festival and are offered as gifts between relatives and friends.
Cantonese mooncakes are quite big, approximately 3 - 4 inches in diameter, and typically have a sweet, thick filling made from lotus seed paste and salted duck eggs or mixed nuts and seeds.
However, these classic treats have lose popularity in recent years due to increasing health concerns and change in taste of the younger generation. This custard mooncake is a modernized, high-end version of the traditional pastry.
Making mooncakes is quite time-consuming but it is not difficult at all, and I am sure even first-timers will be able to make them successfully! If you can't find mooncake moulds where you live, just mould them into round flat pieces (like a scone) or any shape you like! They might not look as pretty but I promise they'll taste just as good! :P
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Recipe for Cantonese Custard Mooncakes
Makes 30 - 33 50g-mooncakes
Ingredients (filling) :
- 35g Cake Flour
- 40g Custard Powder
- 110g Sugar
- 35g Milk Powder
- 20ml Evaporated Milk/Full-fat milk
- 170ml Coconut Milk
- 60g Eggs
- 80g Unsalted Butter
- 3 - 6 Salted Egg Yolks (optional)
- 45g Condensed Milk
Ingredients (pastry) :
- 500g Cake Flour
- 260g Unsalted Butter, at room temperature
- 50ml Evaporated milk/Full-fat Milk
- 45g Eggs
- 100g Sugar
Directions:
- Make custard filling. Combine dry ingredients (cake flour, custard powder, sugar and milk powder), eggs and condensed milk.
- Mix in evaporated milk and coconut milk.
- Add in unsalted butter. There will be a lot of little lumps in the mixture, it's fine, the butter will melt and incorporate with other ingredients when we cook it.
- Transfer mixture to heatproof dish and steam for 15 - 20 minutes.
- When the custard is done, mix in mashed salted egg yolks.
- Wrap with cling wrap and refrigerate for at least 2 hours (preferably overnight).
- Make pastry crust. Cream butter and sugar together until light in colour and fluffy.
- Whisk in eggs then mix in 1 - 2 Tbsp.
- Add in 1/3 of the cake flour and mix with a whisk/spatula/your hands. Repeat twice until you've added in all the dry ingredient and the mixture forms a dough. Do not knead it.
- Wrap in cling wrap and refrigerate for 30 minutes.
- Remove custard filling from refrigerator. Divide it into 19g portions and form into little balls.
- After 30 minutes, take pastry dough out from refrigerator and roll into 30g balls.
- Mould mooncakes. Preheat oven to 230°C and grease/line baking tray.
- Take a pastry dough ball, flatten it with the palm of your hand. and gently press the sides with your fingers. Next, place a ball of custard filling in the centre and fold up the sides of the pastry dough to wrap around it. Roughly shape it into a ball.
- Dip mooncake mould into flour and tap to remove excess. Lightly dust mooncake dough with flour too, put it inside the mould and place the mould onto a flat surface, then press firmly so the pattern will be imprinted clearly on the mooncake. Lift the mould up then press handle again to push the mooncake out.
- Bake mooncakes for 6 minutes.
- Remove from oven, brush top and sides with egg wash (1 egg beaten with 1 Tbsp water) and let them sit for 10 minutes. Then brush on a second layer of egg wash and bake for 5 more minutes.
- When mooncakes are done, remove from oven and cool for 10 minutes. Brush on a layer of syrup to make them glossy if you desire.
