Mooncake making, gifting, & eating.

Mid-Autumn Festival has come again. This year, like the last, I made mooncakes (月饼)! *grins* I made them with J's mum & a week later I made them with my Grams. I decided to make the traditional baked mooncakes on both occassions. Reason being that the mooncakes from the first round (with J's mum) didn't turn out well for me. I say "for me" because the ones I brought home had a hard skin, while the ones with J's mum was relatively soft. & this is despite coming from the same recipe batch! So I guessed I probably didn't keep the mooncakes well, which resulted in the skin turning slightly hard.

I didn't get around to playing with lanterns or candles. So there won't be any photos of hypnotizing flames or pretty lanterns. There will, however, be photos of (hopfully pretty to you) mooncakes and the making of them! *grins*

Let's start with the first batch, the ones made with J's mum.
We bought 1kg bags of paste to be used as the mooncake filling, from Phoon Huat at Simei. A bag of red bean paste, green tea mung bean paste, and (regular) lotus paste each. The red bean & green tea mung bean paste was about $5 odd per 1kg packet. But the lotus paste was about $11 for a 1kg packet! *faints*

Mooncake fillings, all mixed with various seeds and rolled into balls
Red Bean, Green Tea, Lotus

Because the mooncake fillings weren't gonna roll themselves into their skin (evenly), dust themselves with flour, pressed into the molds, knocked out of said mold, and finally settle in straight lines on the tray.. I had to put my phone down and get my hands down to making them mooncakes instead of snapping away. Which would explain the following photo.

Mooncake Making Aftermath - molds waiting to be washed, flour almost everywhere (even on the floor), left over mooncake fillings, & mooncakes waiting to be misted before baking.

We made three trays of mooncakes and this tray was the last, the only tray I managed snap a picture of before being misted and sent into the burning depths o- oven. Hah. Don't mind the flour spots. I was wrestling with the molds. *shrug* You're not supposed to flour / dust the mooncake that much though, so please don't follow in my footsteps.

traditional mooncakes before spritzing them with water - done just before they go into the hot oven

& yes, that over dusted mooncake has the imprint of Mashimaro (a fictional Korean character that resembles a fat rabbit). The mold we used was bought online from Qoo10. It's a set of the Chinese Zodiac. We only used the rabbit (fictional fat rabbit - Mashimaro) and the snake (it's the year of the snake). Oddly, the rabbit pattern turned out to be Mashimaro.. (ー_ー ||)

After baking the mooncakes for a couple of minutes, they come out looking all pale-faced (but without cracks! because of the water). They're left to cool for a wee bit before we brush on some eggy makeup for them.

brushing on the egg wash after letting the mooncakes cool for a few minutes

The egg wash is what gives the mooncakes their shiny, you-know-you-want-to-eat-me, golden face. & when it comes to traditional mooncakes, their appearance matter. Well, obviously it matters. Else the mooncakes will just made into round-ish balls like tau sar piah. (⊙ヮ⊙)

freshly baked traditional mooncakes!

Now, the mooncakes look a lot more appetizing right? All glossy / shiny and pretty looking. Aesthetics really. The eggy 'makeup' gives that golden color and a pretty shine like a top coat for nails. I honestly do not think the egg wash makes much (if any) difference when it comes to the taste. Although, I suppose a pretty mooncake would make you want to eat it more when compared to a pale face. ┐(‘～`；)┌

Because we had four different filling mixtures, we used different molds / patterns for different flavors. The snake was lotus paste with sesame seeds. But there was one snake that had lotus paste without sesame seeds. Thus, it earned itself a pair of nostrils.

the only snake with nostrils..

Then there was the half tanned rabbit / Mashimaro along side similar siblings that are also suffering the consequences of uneven oven heat in uglier ways.

Mashimaro Mooncake! or a half tanned rabbit if it pleases you..

A wallpaper worthy photo of square mooncakes! *grins*

Traditional Mooncakes

That concludes the mooncake making session with J's mum. After which, I received feedback that the mooncake skin was a little hard. So I decided to make another batch. Only this time, with my Grams. Hehe! Cause I knew she'd enjoy making these little babies.
I didn't have all the ingredients for making the mooncake skin's dough, which included things like a teaspoon of alkaline water, sugar / golden syrup, and Hong Kong flour. My little bakery area is chocked full of other things that I use a lot more often and $2.50 for a 250ml bottle of alkaline water (from Phoon Huat) in which I will only use at most, 4 teaspoons/per year is a total waste of precious space. So I asked J's mum and she kindly whipped up half a recipe of dough for me. ヽ(^ｖ^)丿

Grams and I made the mooncakes at night, so please forgive the bad lighting / photos. I didn't realize there was a smudge on the camera lens either. *sigh* Well, the mooncakes turned out über tasty!

lotus paste with too many slivered almonds

Pretty imprints made by my Grams! ♥

Since the mooncake making session with J's mum, I had been wondering about the effects of water on the mooncakes. I mean if the water prevents cracks, why not put a tray of water in the oven instead? I would have done just really. Only problem was using the silicon brush to brush the water on the mooncakes turned out to be a tad too much water. *laughs* Which seems to plump up the prints and made it all.. blurry? Haha. I don't have a photo of the mooncakes right after the water step (I panicked cause I thought the water was dissolving the mooncake's skin and rushed to chuck the tray into the oven). But they look pretty much the same after the first bake.

mouseover to turn these pale faced mooncakes into beauties!

There was another funny idea I wanted to try, and it was the egg wash makeup. If the egg wash makes the mooncake pretty, why not brush it all over? What about bubbles when brushing on the eggy makeup? What if there's too much eggy makeup?

an even layer of egg wash
this was when I realized there was a smudge on the camera lens.. (-_- )

a very bubbly layer of egg wash
note the pale one in the background.. that one probably got a very thin layer of egg wash

egg wash overload gives you this

all 21 mooncakes molded with lots of Gram's love

These shots did no justice to the mooncakes cause these turned out softer than the ones I made with J's mum. But then, the mooncakes that J's mum kept were softer than the ones I brought home. Which is ridiculous seeing as how they're of the same batch and all. hmpf!
All in all, making mooncakes is a very fun process (if you're not too hung up on the aesthetics of course). There was lots of laughs and jokes with J's mum and watching my Grams carefully mold the mooncakes with such care was utterly cute. ≧(´▽｀)≦



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