Sunday, September 18, 2011

Happy (late) Mid-Autumn Festival


Moon cakes are the traditional treat passed around during the Chinese Mid-Autumn Festival. They are also one of my favorite pastries. Matt got me a moon cake mold a couple of years ago, and I've made several batches. This recipe is the best yet. I like red bean paste filling, but I'm particularly fond of sweet red bean stuff. You can use other sweet fillings too. When I was in Beijing, my European friends took a couple of months to realize that the brownish stuff oozing out of the pastries in the window was bean paste and not chocolate. This was a serious disappointment for them, but not for me.


Forming the cake without mangling it is tricky.


Moon Cakes
  • 2/3 cup corn syrup or simple syrup
  • 1/8 tsp baking soda
  • 2 3/4 cups flour
  • 1/2 cup oil
  • 1/2 can black or red sweet bean paste
  • 1 egg
  1. Mix the first 4 ingredients together to form a soft dough. Divide into 12 pieces and roll into balls. Flatten each ball into a circle using plenty of flour to keep it from sticking.
  2. Place a tablespoon of into each dough circle and gently place into the moon cake mold. Close the dough over the filling and whack the mold to get the cake out.
  3. Bake cakes for 15 minutes at 350F.
  4. Brush with an egg wash made from one beaten egg with 1 Tbsp water and bake another 15 minutes until golden.

3 comments:

  1. Wow, so awesome! Homemade moon cakes sound very challenging. :)

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  2. You should make some with chocolate. :-)

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  3. I feel like if I'm going to make something with chocolate, I should be more serious about it. Like this one:
    http://www.breadsandthreads.com/2010/08/most-ridiculous-cake-youve-ever-seen.html

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