Makes 13 small moon cakes of 50g gram each or 3 large moon cakes of 180g each
Ingredients:
Outer Pastry approx. 270g:
1. 150g plain flour (1 1/4 cup)
2. 70g golden syrup or honey (1/4 cup)
3. 30g vegetable oil (3 TBS or 45ml) (I use sunflower seeds oil)
4. 1 tsp lye water (alkaline water) (4g) You can buy lye water from a Chinese grocery store.
5. 1 egg yolk (approx. 18g)
6. 0.5g salt (optional, equivalent to just a quick dash of salt)
Filling approx. 515g:
1. 200g white lotus seeds (yields 550-600g of cooked white lotus seed paste)
2. 140g brown sugar or sugar (1/2 cup) (I like to use 1/2 and 1/2)
3. 140g maltose (1 TBS) You can substitute this with golden syrup or honey
4. 100ml sunflower seed oil or other vegetable oil
5. 100g pecan nuts
Directions:
Prepare the filling first:
This can be done ahead of time or the day before :-)
1. Rinse the lotus seeds and soak them overnight or at least 3 hours covered with 1 inch (2.5 cm) of water.
2. Drain and discard the water. Split open each lotus seed with your hands and remove the green core if there is one inside. Otherwise, your moon cakes will taste bitter!
3. Bring to boil, and cook under medium heat until the water is boiled down and the beans are soft, about 1.5 hour. Monitor and adjust with more water, if all the water has evaporated, before the beans are cooked.
4. The louts seeds are done when you can mash them easily with a fork and the water is milky. Drain the Drain away any excess water (but put aside the water) and blend with a hand blender until smooth.
5. Using a handheld blender, blend until very smooth. Add back some of the lotus seeds cooking water if it is needed to achieve a smooth consistency.
6. Heat a pan on medium high heat on the stove, add 1/2 of the oil and 1/2 of the sugar and stir until the sugar turns into an amber color, but not burnt.
7. Add the lotus seed puree, remaining sugar and oil to the pan. Stir and cook until the sugars and oil are incorporated into the puree.
8. Add the maltose, stir and cook it until it is dissolved into the paste.
9. Continue cooking until the paste is pulling away from the pan and coming together as one piece, looking shining and smooth, about 6 to 10 minutes, depending on your heat level and how much water you added while blending the lotus seeds. The paste shouldn't stick to your hands.
10. Remove the pan from the heat and let cool before using. The paste will thicken quite a bit after cooling down.
11. Stir 100g of pecan nuts into the lotus seed paste.
Then prepare the outer pastry:
1. In a mixing bowl, add 70g of golden syrup or honey.
2. Add 30g of of sunflower seed oil or other vegetable oil.
3. Add 1 teaspoon of lye water, which is alkaline water.
4. Add 0.5g of salt and mix well.
5. Add 150g of plain flour
6. Add 1 egg yolk and mix until combined. Don't overmix, otherwise it will become too flexible, lose its strength to hold the filling.
7. Wrap the pastry dough with a kitchen wrap and let it rest for 30 minutes to an hour.
Assemble:
1. Weigh 20g of pastry dough and roll into a ball. Place the pastry dough on a plate, cover with a string wrap and set aside.
2. Weigh 30g of lotus seed filling and roll into a ball.
3. Wrap the filling into a dough as shown in the pictures below.
4. Lightly coat it with flour.
5. Place each of them into the moon cake mold.
6. Press and make it fit evenly into the mold.
7. Gently knock the moon cakes out of the mold.
8. Place them neatly on a baking tray laid with baking paper. Sprinkle a bit of water to prevent them from cracking under baking.
9. Bake for 5 minutes at 165 degree Celsius and let them cool down for 15-30 minutes. Very important, don't skip this step, otherwise, the pattern of your moon cakes will be blurred during baking.
10. Meanwhile prepare egg wash with 1 egg yolk and 1 teaspoon of water and mix well.
11. After the moon cakes have cooled down for 15-30 minutes, very lightly coat it with just one stroke, apply the first coat of egg wash. otherwise again the pattern will be blurred during baking.
12. Bake for another 5 minutes and take it out and let it rest for another 15-30 minutes.
13. Lightly apply a second coat of the egg wash on the moon cakes.
14. Bake for another 5 minutes and take it out of the oven. You can off the oven now.
15. Once the moon cakes have cooled down, store in an airtight container for 2-3 days for the moon cake to rest and set, before eating... now is the time to train your patience!!
Additional Information:
Although our Little FECS and Baby FECS love plain lotus paste the most, I like the crunch when eating moon cakes, and pecan nuts go really well with lotus paste moon cakes, so I have created this lotus seed pecan nut moon cakes :-) If you don't have pecan nuts at hand at home, you can also use pumpkin seeds instead. In this case, you don't have to chop up the pumpkin seeds :-)
Lotus seeds are very nutritious and considered a tonic food by the Chinese. It is a good source of protein and fiber, along with micronutrients like calcium, magnesium, iron, and phosphorus.
The ratio of pastry to filling for each moon cake used in this recipe is 40/60, i.e. 20g of pastry to 30g of filling. In my family, we love the pastry, so sometimes we even make it 50/50, i.e. 25g of pastry and 25g of filling, but you can also use a ratio of 30/70, i.e. 15g pastry to 35g filling.
If we are making the normal size moon cakes, we would use 70g pastry to 110g filling, which is still approx. a pastry to filling ratio of 40/60.
If you are using honey instead of golden syrup, just be aware that your moon cake pastry will take a longer time for it to soften. So you will have to wait for 3-4 days instead of 2-3 days, before they are tasty to be eaten.
The egg wash in done in two steps because it is very delicate and can easily destroy the pattern on the moon cakes, if too much egg wash is applied. For this reason too, it is very important to let the moon cakes cool down for 15-30 minutes in between baking before applying each round of egg wash
The golden syrup used to make the moon cake outer pastry can be easily made using homemade golden syrup.
These moon cakes are not overly sweet, unlike the commercial ones, but I sometimes still reduce the sugar content of the filling to 50g instead of 70g, and it still works for my family. Also I sometimes use olive oil instead of sunflower seed oil, when making the lotus seed paste.
Many of the moon cake recipes online don't contain egg yolk in the ingredient list of the outer pastry, but unless you are allergic to eggs, it adds to the taste, texture and nutritional value of moon cakes.
If you don't have maltose for the filling, you can use golden syrup or honey.
For lotus seeds paste moon cakes, it is not necessary to roast the pecan nuts. Unless you are making 5-nuts moon cakes, it actually tasted better without roasting after trying out the roasted pecan nuts version.
I use olive oil for the red bean paste filling many times and it turned out great. One couldn't taste the olive oil at all. So the next time I am making lotus seeds moon cakes, I will also use olive oil.
I use olive oil for the red bean paste filling many times and it turned out great. One couldn't taste the olive oil at all. So the next time I am making lotus seeds moon cakes, I will also use olive oil.
Lastly, don't be discouraged if the end-product of your first attempt at making moon cakes doesn't look like mine in the pictures. It took me a few tries with some practice to reach this stage. I didn't get perfect moon cakes on my first attempt as shown in many other blogs and youtube videos. But practice makes perfect. So don't give up!
Many of the recipes I have tried from the internet unfortunately did not succeed. This recipe is after some amount of trial and error of testing out different recipes online, finding out what worked and adjusting the recipe accordingly.
References:
From left: Homemade golden syrup, dried white lotus seeds, pecan nuts.
Prepare the filling:
Dried lotus seeds and pecan nuts.
Dried lotus seeds 100g per pack can be purchased from the Chinese grocery stores.
Rinse the lotus seeds with water.
Add a cup of water and make sure that they are fully submerged.
Soak overnight or at least 3 hours.
Drain and discard the water.
Split open each seed with your hands.
Then remove the green core if it has one. Otherwise, your moon cakes will taste bitter!
In a pot, add the lotus seeds and cover with an inch (2.5 cm) of water over them.
Bring to a boil over medium-high heat, then reduce to a simmer.
Cook, covered with the lid slightly ajar (to prevent it boiling over), for 1 hour. Keep an eye on the water level as you may need to add more during the simmering.
The seeds are done when you can easily mash them with a fork and the water looks a little milky.
Drain the cooked seeds, but keep the water on the side for later use.
Using an handheld blender, blend until very smooth. You may need to add back 1/3 of the lotus seeds cooking water while blending to achieve a smoother consistency.
Heat a pan over medium-high heat, add 1/2 of the oil and 1/2 of the sugar.
Stir until the sugar turns into an amber color, but not burnt, like the picture shown below:
Add the lotus seed puree, the remaining sugar and oil to the pan. Stir and cook until the sugars and oil are incorporated into the puree.
Add the maltose.
Stir and cook it until it is dissolved into the paste.
Continue cooking until the paste is pulling away from the pan and coming together as one piece, looking shining and smooth, about 6 to 10 minutes, depending on your heat level and how much water you added while blending the lotus seeds.
Remove the pan from the heat and let cool before using. The paste will thicken quite a bit after cooling down. Mix in 100g of chopped pecan nuts.
Form the filling into balls of 30g each.
Prepare the outer pastry:
Add 70g of golden syrup
Or 70g of honey instead, if you don't have golden syrup at hand.
Add 30g of vegetable oil such as sunflower seeds oil
Add 1 teaspoon of lye water, which is alkaline water. You can buy lye water from a Chinese grocery store.
Add 0.5g salt (Just a dash will do)
Stir and mix together.
Add 150g plain flour
Add 1 egg yolk
Mix until combined. Don't overmix.
Don't knead the dough – it should be a bit wet and moist right after combining with light kneading, but turn drier after 40 – 50 minutes of resting.
Now the pastry dough is done.
Wrap it with a kitchen wrap and let it rest for 30 minutes to an hour.
Weigh 20g of flour (We like thick outer pastry, so we did 25g)
Place the pastry dough on a plate, cover with a string wrap and set aside.
Take a pastry dough, press out a hole in the middle.
Place the lotus seeds paste filling inside.
Gently wrap the dough around the filling and seal it up into a ball.
Done :-)
Cover with a string wrap and set aside.
Lightly coat it with flour.
Place each of them into the moon cake mold.
Press and make it fit evenly into the mold.
Gently knock the moon cakes out of the mold.
Place them neatly on a baking tray laid with baking paper. Before placing them into the oven, lightly sprinkle a bit of water to prevent them from cracking under baking.
Bake for 5 minutes at 165 degree Celsius.
Meanwhile prepare egg wash with 1 egg yolk and
1 teaspoon of water and mix well.
After the moon cakes have cooled down for 15-30 minutes, very lightly apply the first coat of egg wash.
Bake for another 5 minutes and take it out.
Let it cool for another 15-30 minutes.
Lightly apply the second coat of egg wash to the moon cakes.
Bake for another 5 minutes and take it out of the oven.
Take them out and let cool. Do not bake for more than 5 minutes each time. Otherwise the moon cakes will expand too much and crack. You can off the oven now.
And they are done :-)
A day later, they are looking more golden and shining :-)
Store in an airtight container for 2-3 days for the moon cake to rest and set, before eating... now is the time to train your patience!!
These are moon cakes after resting for 2 days, look how golden and shining they are. The pastry is soft and firm, perfect for consumption now. Prepare moon cakes as gift for others :-)
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