Mooncake 月餅

Mooncakes can be obtained between buddies or on family assemblies while celebrating the Mid Fall festival. Most mooncakes include the thin tender skin enveloping a sweet, heavy filling. The mooncake may include one or even more entire salted egg yolks in its center to symbolise the full-moon.

Nowadays, folkses will enjoy eat ice-skin moon cakes, as it is low fat, less calorie than custom Moon Cakes and well-being, also which have distinct flavor provided.

Mooncake is expensive. The conventional one can easily cost above HKD50 per cake. Its cost is determined by variables such as flavor, ingredient, packaging, and brandname. Typically the Chinese individuals buy mooncake as gift to friends, coworkers, relatives, neighbours, enterprise associates with this Mid-Autumn Festival, more than purchasing for own consumption.

Types of mooncakes
–Beijing-style mooncake: either foamy dough or flaky, white dough with two most popular fillings will be the mountain hawthorn and wisteria blossom flavors
–Cantonese-fashion mooncake: have several editions, with melon seed paste, lotus seed paste, nuts, ham, chicken, duck, roast pork, mushrooms, egg yolks and a lot more. Some complex variations contain four egg yolks, signifying the four phases of the moon. Some of new, non-traditional mooncakes sold while in Hong Kong are even made from chocolate, ice-cream or jelly – personally I wouldn’t try, just like I don’t shift traditional dishes we eat in my country on Dec 25.
–Chaoshan-style mooncake: flaky crust variety, but larger than the Suzhou-style mooncake, close in diameter to the Cantonese style, but thinner. Uses many different fillings, but the scent of lard after roasting is emphasised.
–Ningbo-style mooncake: another inspired by the Suzhou’s fashion, prevalent in Zhejiang province, and has a compact covering. The fillings are either seaweed or ham; it is also known for its spicy and salty flavor – good flavor but horrible feel, falling down like french pastry.
–Suzhou-style mooncake: has actually long (over 1000 years) custom and is known for it’s layers of flaky dough and generous allotment of sugar and lard. There are more than a dozen variations, but it’s also smaller than most regional varieties. They feature both savory and sweet types, the latter served hot and typically filled with pork mince. Filling made from roasted black sesame (’) are common in flaky Suzhou-fashion mooncakes.
–Yunnan-fashion mooncake: distinctive feature is the blend of various flours for the dough and contains buckwheat flour, wheat flour and rice flour, most of the varieties are sweet 1.
–Taiwanese-fashion mooncake: filled with sweetened red bean paste , mung bean, taro paste sometimes with mochi in the middle, most popular are with a salted duck egg yolk in the mung bean mooncakes, and either salted duck egg or asavory treat in the taro mooncakes. Modern,quite popular mooncakes are broad in variety that contain low fat, lard free and ice cream versions – so likely everything mooncake shouldn’t be.

Below are some of the more popular brands in Hong Kong:

1. Shangri la Hotel, Hong Kong:

Mini Sauternes Rum and Egg Custard Mooncakes,

Mini Mixed Mooncake Set (Egg Custard, Red Beans & Nuts, Black sesame & Chinese Ham Assorted Nuts, Egg Yolk Lotus See Paste)

2. Hong Kong Peninsular Hotel:

Mini Egg Custard Mooncakes

https://mooncake.peninsula.com/

3. Maxim’s Group:

Traditional Egg-Yolk Lotus Seed Paste Mooncakes and Snowy Mooncakes

http://www.maxims.com.hk/en/main.asp

4. Kee Wah Bakery:

Traditional Lotus Seed Paste Mooncakes with Yolks from a Salted Duck Egg, Maltitol Mooncakes and Egg Custard Mooncakes

http://en.keewah.com/the-bakery/supreme-mooncake/

5. Taipan Bread & Cakes:

Famous Snowy Mooncakes with lots of favours

http://www.taipan.com.hk/e/product/product_list.asp?brand=19&brand_path=1,19,&TableField=TableField

6. Wing Wah:

Traditional Egg-Yolk Lotus Seed Paste Mooncakes, Assorted Nuts Mooncakes and Icy Bird’s Nest Mooncakes

http://www.wingwah.com/pp/WingWah.asp

7. Saint Honore Cake Shop:

Egg-Yolk Lotus Seed Paste Mooncakes, Chinese Ham Assorted Nuts Mooncakes, Egg Custard Mooncakes and Modern Snowy Mooncakes

http://www.sthonore.com/en/trad_mooncake2012.html

8. Haagen Dazs

Ice Cream Mooncakes with lots of favours

Moonake DIY

Set alongside the traditional fashion moon cakes, no-bake style is somewhat fitter, because it has less sugar and fat. Younger generations of Chinese favor the no-bake style because of its mellowed features since the no-bake moon cake’s development inside the late 80’s.

Fixings (Skin):

20g All Purpose Flour 40g Sweet Rice Flour 40g Rice Flour 40g Sugar 180ml Milk 80ml Condensed Milk 30g Vegetable Oil

Steps: Get a steamer prepared for later use; add water, and start letting the water boiling point in the steamer Sift all the flours together in a microwavable bowl In a mixing bowl, add condensed milk, oil, sugar, sifted flour and milk, until well combined When the steam is coming out of the steamer, steam the well combined mixture for about 10 minutes Stir the concoction once, subsequently continue steaming for about 10 minutes Once it is cooked, let it cool for a bit and knead it until smooth Set it in the fridge for later use

Fixings (Fillings):

55g No-Salt Butter (melted) 30g Corn Starch 30g All-Purpose Flour 40g Custard Powder 55g Sugar 3 Eggs 45ml Condensed Milk 250ml Milk Additional Butter for kneading the filling

Measures: Sift corn flour, flour, custard powder and sugar together in a microwavable bowl Add eggs into the sifted mixture, one at a time until well joined Add melted butter and blend well Add milk and condensed milk, mix everything together until smooth Once the steam is coming out Using your steamer, set the bowl with the mixture into the steamer Cook for about 20-23 minutes, stirring a few times while steaming, about every 5 minutes Cool and knead it until smooth, place in the fridge for 3 hours or over night Before using, knead it with a little bit of butter until smooth

Assemble:

Use approximately a 1: 2 ratio for the sum of dough to filling used to make the cake. The ratio depends entirely on the size of the moon cake mold you use. For the Moon Cake mold I have, which is a 2-inch diameter moon cake mold, I used 16g of dough to make the skin and used 32g of filling to complete the cake. Take one piece of the dough and put it onto a piece of plastic wrap, add another piece of plastic wrap on top of the dough. Using a roller or your palm, roll or press the dough into a 4-inch round skin. Rind the top piece of plastic wrap off Take one portion of filling and roll it into a ball, then put the ball onto the wrapping Using the bottom piece of plastic wrap to hold the skin, fold it to cover the filling, then roll it into a sphere Dust the ball with cooked sweet rice flour (toast the rice flour in a pan until slightly golden) Insert the dusted ball into the mold and press securely Turn the mould upside down and exploit the base until the cake is out Shop in the refrigerator before serving