Mooncakes

I have made a simple recipe for how to make mooncakes without much of a hassle. These mooncakes are a Chinese delicacy usually eaten during the Chinese mid autumn festival. These are soft and sweet and a must bake.

The following recipe makes around 22 mooncakes.

Ingredients

For the filling:

• 55 g granulated sugar

• 35 g milk powder

• 40 g custard powder

• 80 g corn starch

• 60 g milk

• 110 g unsalted butter

• 80 g coconut milk

• 80 g condensed milk

• 1 tsp vanilla extract

• 1/2 tsp salt

For the crust:

• 150 g all purpose flour

• 30 g granulated sugar

• 60 g corn starch

• 20 g milk powder

• 20 g custard powder

• 30 g condensed milk

• 15 g milk

• 90 g unsalted butter

• 1/2 tsp salt

• 25 g coconut milk

• 1 egg yolk

Method

Filling:

1. Mix the milk, coconut milk, condensed milk and vanilla extract in a bowl.

2. In a separate bowl mix the custard powder, milk powder, corn starch and salt.

3. In a bowl, whisk room temperature butter and sugar till light and fluffy. You can use a electric whisk too.

4. Add the dry and wet ingredients to this and mix till its mixed well.

5. Over a pot of boiling water kept on a low flame, put a glass bowl with our custard filling on top. Ensure that the water does not touch the bowl. We will use this double boiler setup to cook our custard filling.

6. We will cook this filling for the next 15 - 20 minutes, mixing well every 5 minutes. If there are big solid chunks forming in the custard try to break them into smaller pieces and continue mixing.

7. Take the custard off the double boiler and mix to cool it down. This could take some time. Once relatively cool, cover with plastic wrap and let it sit in the fridge.

Crust:

1. Mix the milk, coconut milk, condensed milk in a bowl

2. In a separate bowl mix the custard powder, milk powder, corn starch, salt and all purpose flower.

3. In a bowl, whisk soft butter and sugar till really fluffy. You can use an electric whisk too.

4. Add the wet ingredients, whisk together and once mixed, add the dry ingredients and mix it into a dough.

5. Do not over mix as you do not want a lot of gluten development. Once mixed together wrap it in a sheet of plastic wrap and let it sit in the fridge for 15 minutes.

Assembly:

1. Line 2 trays with plastic wrap and keep aside. On a weighing scale, take 25g of your filling and roll them into small balls. Similarly make 20g dough balls. You can store left over filling or just increase the weight for the filling balls.

2. Preheat your oven to 190 C or 370 F. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper and keep it near you.

3. Lightly dust your mooncake mould so that the mooncakes wont stick to the mould later on.

4. Roll the dough balls into a circular shape big enough to wrap the filling completely. Wrap the dough around the filling and roll it into a nice ball.

5. Place the mooncake ball on the parchment sheet, put the mould over the ball and press firmly. Do not apply too much force that it breaks the mooncake ball. Slowly pull the mould away and you have a perfect mooncake. Repeat these 2 steps for all the dough and filling balls.

6. Spray the mooncakes really lightly with some water. Place the mooncakes in the oven for 5 minutes.

7. Prepare an eggwash by mixing 1 egg yolk with 5 ml water.

8. Take out the mooncakes and really gently put some eggwash on top and sides. Put them back in the oven for 10 minutes.

9. Take them out and put eggwash on the mooncakes, and put it back in the oven for 5 more minutes.

10. Take the mooncakes out and let them cool on a wire rack.

And there you have it, delicious mooncakes made easily.