Chinese Mid-Autumn Festival Piggy Moon Cakes for Children

Inspired and adapted from RunAway Rice

Makes 12 piggy moon cakes

Ingredients:

Lotus seeds paste:
1. 100g lotus seeds paste
2. 2 TBS brown sugar (or just simply sugar) (25g)
3. 1 TBS olive oil or walnut oil (15g)
4. A handful of sunflower seeds/pumpkin seeds (optional)

Red bean paste:
1. 1 cup red beans cooked
2. 2 TBS brown sugar (or just simply sugar)
3. 2 TBS olive oil or walnut oil
4. A handful of sunflower seeds/pumpkin seeds (optional)

Pastry:
1. 1 1/4 cup flour (150g)
2. 1/4 cup maple syrup (60ml)
3. 2 TBS olive oil or walnut oil (30ml)
4. 1 tsp alkaline water (5g)
5. 1 egg yolk (18g)

Egg wash:
1. 1 egg beaten

Directions:

Lotus paste/red bean paste

1. In a pot, add washed and removed of the green stems, fill with 1 inch of water, bring to boil, and cook under medium heat until soft.

2. Drain away water, add sugar and oil and grind.

3. If it is too watery, bring it back to the stove, cook until the water evaporate under constant stirring.

4. Add in sunflowers seeds or pumpkin seeds and mix well.

Pastry:

1. Mix syrup, alkaline water and walnut oil together and slowing mix in the flour.

2. Knead into a dough and set aside for 30 mins.

Making the piggy moon cakes:

1. Weigh the pastry into 30 g ball each.

2. Weigh the paste filling into 25 g ball each.

3. Use a rolling pin and protected by baking paper, flatten the dough ball and roll into a flat dough skin.

4. Wrap the filling with the dough skin.

5. Shape into a pig, indent for eyes with a small spoon and press in 2 black beans. Make a small oval for the nose, and poke 2 holes with a toothpick. Then make 2 similar triangular shapes for the ears.

7. Sprinkle with water to prevent cracking.

8. Bake for 10 mins under 175 degree celsius.

9. Remove from oven, let it rest for 5 minutes and brush with egg wash.

10. Return to oven and bake for another 2-3 minutes or until golden brown.

11. Cool and store into air-tight container.

12. Wait for a day or two for the skin to soften before consuming.

Additional Information:

We made the traditional moon cake the other day, but as we didn't have the moon cake mold, it does not look so attractive. Today, we decided to make moon cakes with a modern twist - that look like pigs. J helped me to form the dough and filling into a ball, and he could do it quite well.

Recipe:
https://youtu.be/c8Efg7LE4qg
http://runawayrice.com/desserts/piggy-moon-cakes-banh-trung-thu/

https://whattocooktoday.com/mooncakes-yue-bing.html
http://nasilemaklover.blogspot.sg/2012/09/single-yolk-and-lotus-paste-mooncakes.html?m=1
http://lovingcreations4u.blogspot.dk/2015/06/neapolitan-singapore-flag-snowskin.html
http://awayofmind.blogspot.com/2017/09/traditional-baked-mooncakes.html
https://www.instructables.com/id/Mooncakes/

Here are the ingredients... flour, alkaline solution, peanut oil, syrup, egg, lotus seeds and red beans

You can buy the fresh lotus seeds from the Chinatown in Copenhagen too.

To make the lotus seeds filling, cook the lotus seeds until soft...

Drain away water, add sugar and oil and...

grind until smooth and paste-like...

To make the pastry, in a large mixing bowl, add syrup...

Add oil...

Add alkaline water, stir and mix well...

Add flour...

Stir and mix well...

Knead with hands, but don't over-knead as we are not making bread...

Here is the kneaded dough...

Prepare the pastry, filling, seeds (optional) and weighing scale...

Weigh out 25g of lotus seed filling...

Weigh out 30g of dough...

Roll them into a ball with your hands

Then roll the dough out with a rolling pin and a baking sheet below to prevent sticking

  

Remove baking sheet...

Place the filling ball into the pastry and...

Wrap it around...

covering all corners...

into a ball...

Indent with a small spoon for the eyes, and press in 2 black beans. Make a small oval for the nose, and poke 2 holes with a toothpick. Then make 2 similar triangular shapes for the ears.

Sprinkle with water to prevent cracking. 

Then bake for 10 mins...

Remove from oven and let it rest for 5 minutes...

Sprinkle with water again and brush with egg wash


 and bake for 2-3 minutes until golden...

Let it cool down and store it in an airtight container...

Wait a day or two for the skin to soften, before consuming :-)