Base recipe is based on https://www.familyfecs.com/2023/10/moon-cakes-with-white-lotus-seeds-pecan.html
This wholewheat recipe is my favorite. Each moon cake contains 21 - 27% sugar level, which is less than half of store-bought moon cakes.
Makes 4 large moon cakes of 160g each
Ingredients:
Outer Pastry approx. 264g:
1. 150g flour consisting of 60g Graham flour and 90g plain flour (40% wholewheat flour out of total flour weight)
3. 15g olive oil and 15g vegetable oil (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 + egg white to 30g)
Filling approx. 350g + 150g pecan nuts = 500g:
1. 100g dried white lotus seeds (yields 275-300g of cooked white lotus seed paste)
2. 50g brown sugar or sugar (I like to use 1/2 and 1/2)
3. 7g maltose (1 tsp) You can substitute this with golden syrup or honey
4. 50ml olive oil (Adjust the consistency with 15ml (1 TBS) or more olive oil if needed)
5. 100-150g pecan nuts
Egg Wash:
1. 1 egg yolk
2. 2 tsp water or fresh milk
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. Fill a pot with the lotus seeds covered with 2.5 inches of water.
4. 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.
5. 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.
6. 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.
7. 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.
8. 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.
9. Add the maltose, stir and cook it until it is dissolved into the paste.
10. 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.
11. Remove the pan from the heat and let cool before using. The paste will thicken quite a bit after cooling down.
12. Stir 100g of pecan nuts into the lotus seed paste.
Then prepare the outer pastry:
1. In a mixing bowl, add 60g of golden syrup or honey.
2. Add 30g of of sunflower seed oil or other vegetable oil.
3. Add 1 teaspoon of lye water, (4g) which is alkaline water.
4. Add 150g of flour consisting of 90g plain flour and 60g Graham flour.
6. Add 1.5 egg yolk (23g) 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.
Prepare egg wash:
Mix 1 egg yolk and 2 teaspoons of water together.
Assemble:
1. Weigh 25g of pastry dough and roll into a ball. Place the pastry dough on a plate, cover with a string wrap and set aside. (For big moon cakes, weigh 70g of pastry dough.)
2. Weigh 25g of lotus seed filling and roll into a ball. (For big moon cakes, weigh 90g of filling.)
3. Lightly coat it with flour (if you are using wooden mold).
4. Place each of them into the moon cake mold.
5. Press and make it fit evenly into the mold.
6. Gently knock the moon cakes out of the mold.
7. Place them neatly on a baking tray laid with baking paper.
8. Prepare egg wash with 1 egg yolk and 2 teaspoons of water and mix well.
9. Very lightly coat it with just one stroke, apply the first coat of egg wash. otherwise again the pattern will be blurred during baking.
10. Bake for 5 minutes at 150 degree Celsius and let them cool down for 15-30 minutes *
11. After the moon cakes have cooled down for 15-30 minutes, very lightly apply second coat of egg wash.
12. Bake for another 5 minutes and take it out and let it rest for another 15-30 minutes.
13. 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!!
* If your pattern on the moon cakes get blurred, follow these steps instead after step 6:
7. Place them neatly on a baking tray laid with baking paper. Sprinkle a bit of water to prevent them from cracking under baking.
8. Bake for 5 minutes at 150 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.
9. Meanwhile prepare egg wash with 1 egg yolk and 2 teaspoons of water and mix well.
10. 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.
11. Bake for another 5 minutes and take it out and let it rest for another 15-30 minutes.
12. Lightly apply a second coat of the egg wash on the moon cakes.
13. Bake for another 5 minutes and take it out of the oven. You can off the oven now.
14. Once the moon cakes have cooled down, store in an airtight container for 3 days for the moon cake to rest and set at room temperature, before eating... now is the time to train your patience!! After that, any leftovers can be stored in fridge up to 1-2 weeks.
* Update: I have succeeded without sprinkling water and brushing the first egg wash before baking them in the oven at 150 deg C for 5 mins, taking them out and brushing the second egg wash and place them back int o the oven without resting for 15-30 mins.
This moon cake is quite nutritious. It contains egg, wholewheat flour, olive oil, white lotus seed paste, pecan nuts and reduced sugar content. Although it is not required to include egg in the making of moon cake pastry, an egg yolk is added for better nutrition and color of the moon cake.
If we are making small 50g moon cakes, we like to use 25g pastry to 25g filling per moon cake.
If we are making big moon cakes, we like to use 70g pastry to 90g filling per moon cake.
I have tried baking at 190 deg C spraying with water, 190 deg C without spraying with water, 160 deg C spraying with water, 160 deg C without spraying with water and 160 deg C with egg wash at the first baking, and the best result is 160 deg C without spraying with water and 160 deg C with egg wash at first baking. Baking at 190 deg C seemed to make the moon cake more puffy and blur the pattern. Baking at 150 degree Celsius for my oven is the optimal temperature.
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 enough 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.
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.
I tried using olive oil for the outer pastry, but it didn't turn out well in terms of taste, thus I stick to using other vegetable oil such as sunflower seed oil. I think avocado oil will turn out fine, but it is too expensive.
I sometimes only use 1 teaspoon of maltose, instead of 1 tablespoon, and it is still sweet enough for us. J tried it and asked for second helping. 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. After trying out the roasting the pecan nuts, I have found that the moon cakes tasted better without roasting the pecans. So unless you are making 5-nuts moon cakes, there is no need to roast the pecans.
I have used olive oil for the lotus seeds 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.
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.
* But if you are using only 10% wholewheat flour, it won't be hard to handle the shaping and wrapping of the filling.
Unfortunately, you can't use more than 20% of wholewheat flour, as the dough won't be elastic enough and will be very difficult to handle, although it would not affect the taste of the moon cakes.
Salt isn't needed for the outer pastry - it wouldn't add much to the taste, so I omitted it completely since this moon cakes are created with diabetics in mind.
You can buy lye water from a Chinese grocery store.
Update:
Today I scaled it up below and reduced the sugar to 170g for the pastry and it was still very sweet. I also reduced the sugar to 150g and maltose to one tablespoon for 300g of adzuki beans.
I need to double the olive oil in the filling next time, as it was a little dry.
To make 11 large moon cakes of 160g each
Ingredients:
Outer Pastry approx. 790g:
1. 450g flour consisting of 180g Graham flour and 270g plain flour (30% wholewheat flour out of total flour weight)
3. 90g vegetable oil (I use sunflower seeds oil)
4. 2 tsp lye water (alkaline water) (9g) You can buy lye water from a Chinese grocery store.
5. 70g egg yolk (approx. 3.5 egg yolk)
Filling approx. 900g + 300g pecan = 1200g:
1. 300g white lotus seeds (yields 275-300g of cooked white lotus seed paste)
2. 150g brown sugar or sugar (I like to use 1/2 and 1/2)
3. 20g maltose (1 TBS) You can substitute this with golden syrup or honey
4. 150ml olive oil (May need to adjust with more oil)
5. 300g pecan nuts
References:
The wholewheat flour I use is Graham flour from Føtex Supermarket.
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 packet's 100g of 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 1 teaspoon of 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 20-30 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 25g each.
Prepare the outer pastry:
Or 60g 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 (4g) 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) (optional, I usually omit it and couldn't taste any difference)
Stir and mix together.
Add 1.5 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.
Instructions for making small moon cakes:
Weigh 25g pastry dough.
Roll it into a ball
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 150 degree Celsius.
Meanwhile prepare egg wash with 1 egg yolk and
2 teaspoons 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 3-4 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 :-)
Instructions for making large moon cakes:
The dough for the skin is ready
Cover with a plastic film and let it rest for 30 mins.
Weigh 50g of dough each.
Roll a dough ball between two baking sheet parchment papers.
Wrap it with a ball of 50g of lotus seed pecan filling...
into a ball
Place it in the moon cake mold (you don't have to sprinkle with flour)
Press down on a flat surface and slowly remove the mold.
Voila, your mooncake is formed :-)
Very lightly brush with egg wash.
Bake for 5 minutes and take it out of the oven. Repeat with egg wash and bake for 5 mins another 2-3 times. You don't have to wait to apply the egg wash after every baking.
You have to let it rest for 3 days before consuming them, as the oil will come out and your moon cakes will look nicer and taste better during those 3 days of resting.
This is a medium size 100g mooncake consisting of 50g pastry and 50g filling :-)
This is how it looks after resting for one day :-) Another 2 - 3 days to go :-)