Makes 23 small moon cakes of 50g gram each or 6 large moon cakes of 180g each
Ingredients:
Outer Pastry approx. 545g:
1. 240g plain flour
2. 60g graham flour
3. 130g golden syrup or honey
4. 60g vegetable oil (6 TBS or 90ml) (I use sunflower seeds oil)
5. 1.5 tsp lye water (alkaline water) (6g) You can buy lye water from a Chinese grocery store.
6. 2 egg yolks (Approx. 36g) (optional)
7. 0.5g salt (equivalent to just a quick dash of salt) (optional)
Filling approx. 700g:
1. 350g roasted mixed nuts/seeds chopped consisting of 50g almonds, 50g cashew nuts, 50g walnuts, 50g sunflower seeds, 50g white sesame seeds
2. 250g date paste (approx. 1 bottle of date paste which is about 1 packet of 500g of dates)
3. 100g cashew nut butter (or 2 big heap TBS) or peanut butter or any nut butter
Directions:
Prepare the outer Pastry:
1. In a mixing bowl, add 130g of golden syrup or honey.
2. Add 60g of vegetable oil such as 60g of sunflower seeds oil.
3. Add 1.5 teaspoons of lye water (6g), which is alkaline water.
4. Add 0.5g of salt and mix well (optional)
5. Add 60g of Graham flour.
6. Add 240g of plain flour
7. Add 2 egg yolks (optional)
8. Mix until combined. Don't overmix, otherwise it will become too flexible, lose its strength to hold the filling.
9. Wrap the pastry dough with a kitchen wrap and let it rest for 30 minutes to an hour.
Prepare the filling:
1. Prepare the 5-Nuts filling with 50g of sunflower seeds, 50g pecan, 50g cashew nuts, 50g almonds, 50g walnuts, 50g sesame seeds and 50g pumpkin seeds.
2. Lay them on a tray laid with baking sheet.
3. Bake in a pre-heated oven at 175 degree Celsius for 12-15 minutes or until fragrant.
4. Chop the roasted nuts and mix well, you will yield 350g of chopped nuts.
5. Add 250g date paste.
6. Mix with the chopped nuts.
7. Add 100g cashew nut butter (2 big heap tablespoons) and mix well. Or peanut butter or any nut butter works too.
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 nut 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. Before placing them in the oven, lightly 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 the 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 apply the first coat of egg wash. not to heavy application as 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:
It's post Chinese mid-autumn festival and I am still making moon cakes!! Just want to perfect it in the peace and quiet of non-festive season.
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 30/70 ratio, 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.
The filling is made without using any sugar or syrup, but naturally sweetened with homemade date paste instead.
It brings the filling to a higher dimension by adding nut butter. We love our Magimix power blender and make our own nut butter, but you can buy them from any organic health stores or using peanut butter which is available in all supermarkets. Here is the recipe to the homemade cashew nut butter.
This healthier and nutritious version of moon cake is developed with my late father in mind and in dedication to him. It is also for my children to enjoy moon cakes in a healthier way.
The addition of graham flour does make the dough a little harder to handle with shaping and wrapping the filling as it is not as flexible as dough made with plain flour. Thus, it will take longer time to form it into moon cake, although it would not affect the final look and taste of the moon cakes. If you don't like wholewheat/graham flour, just substitute it fully with plain flour. The proportion and amount is unchanged.
The name of this moon cake is called 5-Nuts (五仁) in Chinese, although I have used 6 nuts and seeds instead. The name 5-nuts is just a traditional name for this nut filling moon cakes :-)
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.
Lastly, don't be discouraged if the end-product of your first attempt at making moon cakes don'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.
Unfortunately, you can't use more than 20% of wholewheat flour, as the dough won't be elastic enough and it will be very hard to handle the dough, although it would not affect the taste of the moon cakes.
It is possible to reduce the date paste to 200g, but the pictures here are done with 250g of date paste.
Pack of 600g dates
Add 130g of golden syrup
Or 130g of honey instead, if you don't have golden syrup at hand.
Add 60g of vegetable oil such as sunflower seeds oil
Add 1.5 teaspoons of lye water (6g), which is alkaline water. You can buy lye water from a Chinese grocery store.
Add 0.5g salt (optional, just a dash will do)
Stir and mix together.
Add 60g Graham flour
Add 240g plain flour
Add 2 egg yolks (optional)
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.
Prepare the 5-Nuts filling with 50g of sunflower seeds, 50g pecan, 50g cashew nuts, 50g almonds, 50g walnuts, 50g sesame seeds and 50g pumpkin seeds.
Lay them out on a tray laid with baking sheet.
Roast in a pre-heated oven at 175 degree Celsius for 12-15 minutes or until fragrant.
Now it is roasted.
Chop and mix them, you will yield 350g of chopped nuts.
Add 250g date paste, basically the whole jar shown above yield from a packet of 500g dates.
Mix well.
Add 100g cashew nut butter (2 big heap tablespoons as shown below) or peanut butter or any nut butter works too.
Mix well.
Form into balls of 30g each.
Place the dough ball between 2 plastic sheet (I use zip-lock bag)
Press it down firmly with a chopping board to flatten it into a circle
Make the circle bigger if necessary by pressing it with your finger from the inside of the circle out.
Wrap the filling with the dough skin
Now one is done :-) Cover it with a clean kitchen towel to prevent drying up.
Now they are all done :-)
Lightly coat it with flour.
Place it with the smooth side of the dough ball inside the 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 :-)
Moon cakes after resting for 2-3 days are ready for consumption - enjoy :-)
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