Need a little more direction?
Watch our tutorial
3 hr 0 min
3 hr 0 min
0 from 0 reviews
I think mooncakes are one of the most interesting cookies I’ve ever made. The recipe requires different ingredients and steps than I would usually use for baking cookies. I even needed to go to a Chinese specialty supermarket to get some of the ingredients to make these mooncakes as traditional as possible. Let’s go over some of the cool ingredients: Lye water, which gives the pretzel-like color to the dough. You can either buy “lye water” or make your own using lye powder and water. Glutinous rice flour which is important for a chewy filling. Salted duck egg yolks – (yes, what an AWESOME product) are optional, but they truly give such depth to the cookie. Last thing to mention, to get the identical pattern, you need to get a mooncake mold (easily available on Amazon). It creates such a beautiful moon cake – you won’t ever regret the purchase!
Mooncake molds
Bowl
Whisk
Scale
Knife
Cutting board
Baking tray
Silicon mat
Food processor
Spatula
First, prepare the filling- start by toasting the sesame seeds until you smell a nutty aroma. I like to add a couple of white sesame seeds to see when they change in color. Once toasted, remove from the pan and set aside to cool down.
Add the sesame seeds into a food processor and blend until they form a paste. It takes a couple of minutes, and you will need to scrape the walls of the food processor every minute.
Add the powdered sugar and the butter and blend until combined. Transfer the paste to a bowl.
Add the rice flour and fold it in until the paste forms a dough. Divide into 10 little balls.
Cut the duck egg yolks into 4.
Flatten each filling dough, place a 1/4 egg yolk, wrap the sesame paste around, and roll with your hands. Place in the fridge while making the dough.
Prepare the dough- in a bowl, mix the honey and the lye water (you can find lye water in Chinese supermarkets).
Add the oil and mix well until combined.
Add the cake flour and fold it in like you would fold a cake batter. Don’t over-mix as the cookies will end up being hard.
Cover with a plastic wrap and let it rest for 30 minutes.
Assembling the mooncakes- scoop a piece of dough, the same size as the filling balls.
Flatten with a tortilla press or with a rolling pin into a flat disc.
Place a filling ball in the center and close it into a tight ball. Make sure the dough wraps the entire filling.
Dust the mooncake with a little bit of cake flour.
Carefully place the mooncake into the mold. Place the mold on the silicon mat and press the handle until you cannot move it any further. Pull the handle up and release the mooncake. Repeat with the rest of the mooncakes.
Preheat the oven to 360°F or 180°C.
Spray the mooncakes with water so the dough won’t crack in the oven.
Bake the mooncakes for 8 minutes.
Take the mooncakes out of the oven, and as gently as possible, brush just the top of the mooncakes. If you accidentally brush too much egg wash, it will fill up the pattern. It’s not terrible, but it would be less beautiful.
Return to the oven and bake for an additional 8 minutes.
Let the mooncakes cool down completely before eating them. You can store the mooncakes in an airtight container. The mooncakes can be served after 24 hours, and they will look and taste better after 3 days.
YASSS!
Watch our tutorial
write your comment