Sunday 8 September 2019

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Chinese Mid-Autumn Festival Moon Cake with Adzuki Bean Paste Filling - 中秋月饼


Makes 16 - 20 small moon cakes or 6 large moon cakes

Ingredients:

Outer Pastry:
1. 2 cups (230g) white whole wheat flour
2. 1/2 cup (100g) syrup
3. 4 TBS olive oil (60g)
4. 1 lemon juice
5. 1/2 tsp lye water
6. 1 TBS flour for dusting

Red bean paste:
1. 1 cup (200g) dried adzuki beans (you can also see the post of making adzuki bean paste with dates here)
2. 4 cups water
3. 1 cup (200g) homemade date paste (approx. 18-20 dates pitted and blended) or sugar.
4. 3 TBS olive oil
5. 1/4 cup (30g) pumpkin seeds
6. 1 TBS wheat germ (optional)
7. 1 TBS wheat bran (optional)

Total filling yield: 725 g including 435 g of red bean paste, 200 g of dates, 45 g of olive oil, 30 g of pumpkin seeds, 7 g of wheat germ and 7 g of wheat bran. This will make two batches of moon cakes, as you only need 300 g of red been paste for the moon cake.

Egg wash:
1. 1 egg beaten

Directions:

Red bean paste
1. Rinse the beads, add into a pot and add 4 cups (1 litre) of water or about 1 inch of water above the beans.

2. 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.

3. Drain away any excess water and blend with a hand blender until smooth.

4. Add date paste, olive oil, wheat germ and wheat bran and blend until combined.

5. Add pumpkin seeds and mix well.

Pastry:
1. In a small bowl, add syrup, olive oil, alkaline water and lemon juice and mix well.

2. In a large mixing bowl, add the flour, gradually add the syrup mixture prepared earlier and form into a dough.

3. Briefly knew the dough and set aside for 30 mins. Since you are not making bread, you don't really need to knead it, just combine it well, until it is even and does not stick to your hand.

4. Wrap it in plastic film and let it rest for 30 minutes.

5. Weigh the pastry into 20 g ball each, total 10 balls.

6. Weigh the adzuki bean paste filling into 30 g ball each, total 10 balls.

7. To make the dough skin, place the dough ball between 2 layers of plastic - I use zip lock bags cut into two.

8. Press down the ball with a chopper board to form a circle and then roll the dough with your hand to make the circle bigger.

9. Wrap the filling with the dough skin.

10. Dust the dough ball filled with the adzuki bean paste and place it gently into the moon cake mold.

11. Use a chopping board to press it all in evenly.

12. Gently remove the mold and transfer to a baking tray laid with baking paper.

13. Bake for 8 mins under 175 degree Celsius.

14. Take them out of the oven, brush with egg wash and set aside for 10 mins.

15. Place them back into the oven and bake for another 8 minutes or until golden.

16. Cool and store into air-tight container.

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

Additional Information:

Chinese Mid-Autumn Festival is round the corner on next Friday 13th September 2019. Now is the time to start making homemade moon cakes.

This is an update to my earlier post on moon cakes made with lotus paste. I got the moon cake molds from my Auntie A from Singapore. This post is similar, but with adzuki bean paste as filling. We love traditional moon cake. This is a traditional moon cake, but with a modern twist - the filling is enhance with wheat germ and wheat bran. The dough is made from white whole wheat flour, which is much more nutritious and provide dietary fiber. The filling is sweetened with natural dates, instead of processed sugar.

So apart from the fact that moon cakes are very sweet and contain a lot of oil, the moon cakes here are at least a lot more nutritious. I have experimented it in my kitchen, and I can assure you that using white whole wheat flour does not at all compromise the taste of the dough.

However, it is a little more difficult to work with adzuki paste sweetened with dates, as it is wetter and cannot dry it on the pan, as cooked dates don't taste good. I made it firmer by adding wheat germ and wheat bran. Although it is not as firm as store-bought adzuki bean paste, it works and most importantly, it tastes good.

In this post, you will see that after brushing with egg wash and baking them, the motif became less defined. Alas, it is because I have coated it with too thick a coat of egg wash. Lesson learned - only light apply egg wash, and if need be, give it a second or third coat, after baking it in the oven. Other than it not looking as great, they tasted good and both our children love it :-)

We only eat moon cakes once a year, thus it is ok to indulge in such luxury of homemade moon cakes, I reckon :-)

Here's wishing everyone a happy Chinese Mid-Autumn Festival :-)

The weight of cooked adzuki beans is 150g per cup, before adding olive oil and sugar/date paste.

If making smaller moon cakes, it will be 30g for the filling and 20g for the pastry dough each. The ratio for smaller moon cake is 60:40.

If making large moon cakes, it will be 115g for the filling and 60g for the pastry dough each, the ratio is 66:34

References:

https://youtu.be/c8Efg7LE4qg
http://runawayrice.com/desserts/piggy-moon-cakes-banh-trung-thu/
http://nasilemaklover.blogspot.sg/2012/09/single-yolk-and-lotus-paste-mooncakes.html?m=1
https://www.straitstimes.com/singapore/health/askst-is-it-safe-to-consume-yellow-noodles-which-use-lye-as-an-ingredient
https://www.chinasichuanfood.com/chinese-moon-cake-traditional-version/
https://www.chinasichuanfood.com/golden-syrup-invert-syrup/
https://tasteasianfood.com/mooncake-recipe/
http://www.ricenflour.com/recipe/how-to-make-traditional-baked-mooncakes-recipe/
https://omnivorescookbook.com/traditional-mooncake
http://www.the350degreeoven.com/2012/09/cookies-bars/homemade-chinese-mooncakes/
https://www.instructables.com/id/Mooncakes/
https://youtu.be/Zt5d_43QfnI
https://www.cooking-therapy.com/mooncake-recipe/

To make red bean paste:

Use 1 cup (200 g) dried adzuki beans

 Rinse the beads, add into a pot and add 4 cups (1 litre) of water or about 1 inch of water above the beans.

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.

Drain away any excess water and blend with a hand blender until smooth.

It weighs approx. 150 g per cup after cooking, before adding olive oil and sugar/date paste

Now it's done :-)

Add date paste and blend until combined.

Add olive oil and blend until combined.

Add wheat germ and blend until combined.

Add wheat bran and blend until combined.


Add pumpkin seeds and stir in until combined.

Total yield approx. 725 g.

Divide into about 8-10 portions with a knife for each box (Note: I have placed the 725 g into two containers instead of one earlier).

Weigh out 30 g of adzuki bean paste and shape it into a ball

To make the pastry:

Squeeze half a lemon for its juice

Add 2 tablespoon of olive oil

Add 1/4 cup (60 g) of syrup

Add 1/2 teaspoon (2 g) of alkaline water (lye water)

Look how bubble began to form in the syrup mixture due to the addition of the alkaline water.


1 cup (100 g) white whole wheat flour

Add the flour to a mixing bowl. If you have the time, it is best to sift the flour, although it is not really necessary.

Add in the syrup mixture

Stir and

mix well

Here's how the dough looks. It should not stick to your hand.

Wrap it in plastic film and let it rest for 30 minutes.

Weigh out 20 g of dough and shape it into a ball

Now the filling and the dough are ready to be turned into moon cakes :-)

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 :-)

Dust the balls with some dust to prevent it from sticking to the moon cake mold.

Now it is dusted.

Traditional moon cake mold from my Aunt A from Singapore :-)



Place it with the smooth side of the dough ball inside the mold.

Press it down with a chopping board to flatten it.

Then press a little more with fingers to make sure that the motif is embossed on the moon cake. Then gently knock the mold against the palm of your hand and take it out. Once a bit of it is coming out of the mold, stop knocking. Gently nudge it out.

Now it's done :-)

Continue with the rest in the same manner...




Place the moon cakes in a baking tray spread with baking sheet.

Spray some water to prevent cracking.

Bake in the oven at 175 degree celsius for 8 minutes.

Remove from oven.

Lightly coat it with egg wash. Remember, it should be a very light coat, otherwise, the motifs will be erased and become blurred. I made this mistake here by coating it with too much of the egg wash. Thus, my moon cakes didn't turn out so nice.

Bake for another 5-8 minutes or so at 175 degree celsius until golden.

Take it out and let totally cool. Then place it in an air-tight container. The moon cake skin will become softer and nicer after 24 hours.

In the picture, I have coated too much egg wash on the moon cake at one go, thus the motif is a bit blurred, when it is just taken out of the oven, as they have expanded.

But I have noticed that it will slowly be defined again, after it is cooled and after a day or two, although I should also remember not to coat too thick of a egg wash in one go.

This is how it looks like :-)


7 September 2019 (3Y3M21D) Baby FECS enjoying her moon cakes





Large moon cakes:

115 g filling each

 60 g each pastry dough

Makes 6 moon cakes. Bake for 8 minutes and take it out.

 Coat with egg wash

 Bake for another 8-10 minutes and it's done.

I place it in a moon cake box saved from the store-bought version previously :-) You will notice that the motif is still looking blurred...

 But after cooling for 12 hours, the motif will look more defined again :-)

They are not as pretty as the store-bought ones, but homemade with love and nutrition in mind, without any preservatives and unknown ingredients :-)

Close-up

What to do with the left-over dough?

For the left-over dough, I made them flat and baked them into cookies :-)


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