It's Moon Cake time!

This Friday is the Moon Festival, or Zhongqiu jie (Mid-Autumn Festival) as they call it in Chinese. When it comes to food, this day means one thing and one thing only: moon cakes.

Up until only a few years ago, I had tackled the other two of the big three Chinese holidays - Chinese New Year and the Dragon Boat Festival - and to be honest, I really didn't break a sweat when it came to those foods. I'd been making those dishes most of my married life, and not to boast, but after over three decades in a Chinese household, I probably could wrap a rice tamale blindfolded with the same ease that a Sandinista could assemble a semiautomatic weapon in the dark on a moonless night. 

But one holiday food eluded me successfully... until now, that is.

My assorted molds

 

A homemade moon cake was one of those quixotic passions that poked its head up irritatingly on schedule once a year when I looked at the burgeoning displays of garish moon cake boxes in the Chinese grocery and dreaded the looming onslaught of pastries that were too sweet, too greasy, to old, and too filled with chemicals - not to mention too too too expensive - but which I'd have to deal with anyway because it's just part of the Moon Festival, sort of like the dreaded fruitcakes and Christmas hard candies of my childhood.

You see, I was spoiled. I knew what a perfect moon cake was supposed to taste like, but the stuff in the stores could never hold a candle to my idea of the ultimate moon cake: During my initial year in Taiwan, the mom in my host family handed me a freshly baked coconut moon cake on the Moon Festival. That was, of course, also my very first moon cake, and nothing ever measured up to it in the succeeding decades. 

It was time for all that to change.

So, a couple of years ago I gave myself a self-imposed challenge: make moon cakes as good as Auntie Lee's. This was not easy, and the search for this recipe possessed me for a very long time. The problem was that no cookbook in either Chinese or English (except for the one by Sichuan master chef Chen Kenmin) had a recipe that was much help. 

Nabbing a wedge

What I wanted was crumbly, light, ever-so-slightly chewy cookie dough wrapped around luscious fillings. This was trial and lots of error, but let me tell you, these are the best moon cakes ever!

More on this subject to come over the coming posts. For now, I am going to whet your appetite with a nutty filling that a Nanjing friend said made the absolute best moon cake he had tasted. And although that was a couple of years ago, I still bask in the warm glow of that compliment. 

Today's moon cake recipe is Cantonese on the surface, but it envelops a Suzhou-style crunchy nut and fruit center. It was adapted from the repertoire of renowned Sichuanese chef Chen Kenmin 陳建民. (His son, Chen Ken’ichi 陳建一, later gained fame as “Iron Chef Chinese” on the Japanese and American programs, Iron Chef.)

Be warned, homemade moon cakes are as different from store-bought as night and day, but few Chinese make their own anymore, perhaps because a good recipe has (at least until now) been hard to find.

Although the recipe may appear long, don’t be discouraged — it’s not difficult. And it produces moon cakes that are fresh, flavorful and not overly sweet, with caramel syrup deepening the colors and aromas. Dark brown sugar and butter are used in the center instead of the usual white sugar and lard in this updated version, and both dried cranberries and green pumpkin seeds glitter like colorful sequins, adding gently tart and nutty touches to these beloved pastries. The drawings are, of course, from All Under Heaven.

Fruit and nut moon cakes 

Wǔrén yuèbǐng 五仁月餅  

Makes 10 large (three-inch) moon cakes, or about 30 (one-inch) mini moon cakes

Caramel syrup:

2½ cups | 300 g powdered sugar

1 cup | 250 ml water (divide in half)

3 tablespoons white rice vinegar or cider vinegar

Fruit and nut filling:

25 large dried red Chinese dates

1 cup  | 250 ml waterwater

½ cup | 60 g hulled pumpkin seeds

¼ cup | 30 g dried cranberries or golden raisins

¾ cup | 90 g chopped toasted walnuts

½ cup | 70 g toasted sesame seeds

½ cup | 60 g sliced almonds

¼ cup | 60 ml Chinese rose-scented white liquor (Meiguilu), or vodka

2 tablespoons caramel syrup (recipe above)

1½ tablespoons unsalted butter, softened

¼ cup | 50 g dark brown sugar, packed

¼ teaspoon sea salt

1 tablespoon flour

1 tablespoon sticky rice flour (Mochiko brand recommended)

Pastry:

2 cups | 260 g all purpose flour
⅔ cup | 80 g pastry or cake flour 

¾ cup plus 1 tablespoon | 190 ml caramel syrup

½ cup | 125 ml peanut or vegetable oil

Extra flour as needed

Glaze:

1 egg yolk

2 teaspoons Chinese rose-scented white liquor (Meiguilu), or vodka

1 tablespoon caramel syrup

1. To make the caramel syrup, place the powdered sugar and ½ cup water in a steel pan (so that you can easily see the sugar change color). Bring the mixture to a boil over high heat, cover for a few minutes so that the steam washes down the sugar crystals, and then uncover. Add the vinegar and bring the pan back to a boil without stirring. Quickly boil the sugar syrup for about 10 minutes, until it starts to turn amber. When it is an even golden brown, lower the heat to medium-high and then add the rest of the water – be careful, as the caramel will boil furiously at this point, so direct the pan away from your face. As the boiling starts to simmer down, stir the caramel with a silicone spatula until the caramel is smooth. Pour the caramel into a heatproof measuring cup and let it cool to room temperature; you should have about 1¼ cups | 310 ml.

Pat into the mold

2. For the filling, cook the dates in the water until they are soft and the water has been absorbed. Remove the dates from the heat, and when cool enough to handle, pit them if they are not already pitted. Carefully chop them into a fine paste, using a knife so that you can remove any pits or shards that you come across. Place the date paste in a medium work bowl. Add the rest of the filling ingredients to the date paste and mix well. Divide it into 10 even mounds if you are making large moon cakes or 30 small mounds if you are making the mini cakes. (You may make the filling ahead of time and refrigerate it covered.)

3. To make the dough, place the flour in a medium work bowl. Make a well in the center and pour in the oil and caramel. Mix these together gently to form a very soft dough. Sprinkle about 2 tablespoons flour on a smooth work surface and roll the dough out into an even 20-inch rope; cut this into 10 pieces, each 2 inches wide. (If you are making the mini cakes, roll it into an even 15-inch rope and cut it into ½-inch pieces.) Roll each piece into a soft ball; cover the dough you are not immediately working on.

Knock out the moon cake

4. Heat the oven to 325°F | 160°C; place a rack in the upper third of the oven to keep the bottoms of the pastries from burning; you will cook one sheet of pastries at a time. Line two cookie sheets with either Silpat or parchment paper. Mix together the glaze; have two pastry brushes, a thin spatula, your moon cake mold, and a pastry scraper ready. Dust the inside of your moon cake mold heavily with flour and knock out the excess.

5. Large moon cakes: Working on one pastry at a time, pat out one piece of dough into a 5½-inch | 14 cm circle, making the center slightly mounded; place a portion of the filling in the center and wrap the dough around the filling. Lightly roll the now large ball between your palms so that the soft dough evenly covers the filling. Roll one side of the ball in some flour and then place the ball flour side down inside the moon cake mold. Press lightly but firmly on the ball so that it fills the mold. Then, turn the mold upside-down and whack it on your counter to release the pastry; it may take a few tries before it comes loose. Place the pastry on the prepare cookie sheet. Use one pastry brush to dust off any excess flour and use the other pastry brush to coat the moon cake all over with the glaze; repeat with the rest of the dough and filling until you have 10 moon cakes. Small moon cakes: Do the same thing as above, only roll the dough out into circles about 3 inches | 8 cm wide; the filling should be rolled into balls roughly 1 inch | 2 cm in diameter.

6. Bake the moon cakes until they are a golden brown, around 25 minutes for the small cakes and 35-40 minutes for the large ones. Cool the pastries completely and serve them cut in wedges, preferably with cups of hot tea.

The. Absolute. Best.

Tips

The best Chinese dates are found in herbal shops where the turnover is fast and the dried ingredients are at their best. Look for plump, shiny dates with no sign of insects or powder at the bottom of the bag.

Chinese dates that are sold as “pitted” were done so by machines, so beware of the occasional pit or chips.

The dough is best made by hand, as food processors and mixers will excite the gluten in the flour and make the pastry tough. And, both patting out the dough and rolling it between the hands softens the caramel in it so it becomes more malleable.

If you don’t have such a mold (which can easily be found online or sometimes in Chinese housewares shops), you can use any other 3-inch cake mold, or even a plain cupcake mold to shape the pastries. (Note: true round moon cake molds are about 1¼ inches deep and 3 inches across, while the smaller molds with three 1-inch-square depressions can be used for mini moon cakes; shallower ones than that are used for making confections like green bean tea cakes, or lüdou gao.)

Moon cake molds come in many sizes and shapes. You can make moon cakes in just about any that are deep enough to hold two layers of pastry plus a generous layer of filling, which means at least 1-inch deep. The larger round molds I use have a little over a half cup capacity, while the small square ones hold about two tablespoons.

This pastry has a high sugar content, so to protect the bottoms of the moon cakes from burning before the pastries are completely cooked, place the racks in the upper third of your oven and use either double-thick sheets or two baking sheets placed on top each other for extra insulation.

Store the cooled moon cakes in a covered container. They can be preserved for longer storage if packed in freezer bags and frozen.

Illustrations from All Under Heaven (McSweeney's + Ten Speed Press, Spring 2016)

Copyright (c) 2015, Carolyn Phillips

White magic: coconut and lotus seed paste moon cakes

As I noted in in last Monday’s blog post, discovering the recipe for perfect Cantonese moon cakes was a tough project. There were all these little secrets and keys that no one talked about for some reason, but once they were figured out, this turned out to be a master recipe that anyone can cook from with ease.

Granted, it does take a bit of time to assemble the fillings, but once you have them done - and they can be made a couple of days ahead of time - you can then start practicing actually forming the moon cakes, and you'll soon be able to knock these babies out in no time flat.

The biggest secret to making traditional Cantonese-style moon cakes is the caramel syrup that finds its way into not only the fillings, but also the glaze and even the pastry itself. When I bit into my very first successful moon cake, the caramel provided that gentle chewiness that was always missing before that.

Perfection achieved!

Traditionally, Cantonese moon cakes were made with a sugar syrup called tángqīng 糖青, or "sugar green," that was supposed to be allowed to ferment for at least two or three months. An old cookbook on Chinese sweets says firmly that it "cannot be used immediately after it is boiled." Well, when I read that, I was truly dismayed because I had less than a month to crack the secret, and this was definitely not helping.

The key came in the form of a recipe I uncovered by the great Sichuan chef Chen Kenmin, as I mentioned earlier. Chef Chen didn't talk about the caramel per se, but there were enough clues to figure it out. Then, I fiddled around with his ratio of fat and sugar to flour in order to get that super thin wrapper I so desired.

Look at that super thin crust

In the end, the high amount of caramel and oil in the dough ended up making it truly easy to wrap the pastry evenly around the filling. Prior to this trial-and-error discovery, I'd always ended up with cracked dough or thick bases on the pastries.

Before this, too, I could never get the dough to achieve that delectable degree of thinness that allows the pastry to be so crisp and yet chewy, and also offers that irresistible Chinese contrast of the soft and luscious filling. I mean, when I cut open that first moon cake that you see above (it has the fruit and nut filling recipe posted last week), I couldn't have been more elated.

If you've tried making Cantonese moon cakes before and failed, you'll see a couple other changes here that end up making all the difference in the world. For instance, there is no leavening in the dough. Every recipe I'd consulted called for baking powder or baking soda or Chinese alkaline water (aka “lye water,” which is just a bad translation of jiǎnshuǐ 鹼水) or something to make the dough rise. That was a big mistake. This dough doesn't need it at all, and in fact leavening just serves to fuzz up the pattern on the cakes because the dough, of course, rises. Leave it out and the pastry becomes crumbly and yet tender, and whatever pattern you use for your molds will remain clear.

Another small difference is the butter that's used in all of my moon cake recipes. Butter is definitely not traditional - lard is the fat of choice in old Chinese moon cakes - but I am certain that if Chinese pastry chefs had had the option of using butter instead of lard, they wouldn't have hesitated for a second!

Students of Chinese will note that while both date paste and red bean paste are referred to as ní 泥, or mud, today's two fillings are correctly called róng 蓉, which is a type of mallow or hibiscus; this is a Cantonese word often used in the names of fluffy foods, as can be seen in that old American-Chinese classic, egg foo yung (furong dan) or minced chicken (jirong). 

Korean flour & Meiguilu

In addition to the dark caramel glaze I gave you last week, I have included one extra glaze recipe here in order to give you the option of a blonder moon cake. This is especially helpful if you have a limited number of molds alongside an enthusiastic number of fillings, because this way your lighter-colored fillings (like coconut and lotus paste) can be identified more easily.

Both recipes are enough for 10 three-inch moon cakes, or 30 one-inch mini cakes.

Coconut filling 
Yéróng 椰蓉
Guangdong
Makes about 3 cups packed

14 ounces sweetened flaked coconut
¼ cup butter, softened
¼ teaspoon sea salt
½ cup powdered sugar
¼ cup coconut rum

1. Shake the coconut into a large work bowl and break apart any lumps.

2. Add the rest of the ingredients and stir.

3. Let the filling sit for at least 30 minutes so that all the rum can be absorbed. Refrigerate until chilled, and then roll the filling into balls as directed.



Lotus, pine nut & salted yolk filling
Liánróng sōngzi dànhuáng  蓮蓉松子蛋黃

Glorious seeds & nuts

Guangdong
Makes about 2½ cups

6 ounces dried lotus seeds
¼ cup butter, softened
¼ teaspoon sea salt
¼ cup powdered sugar
¾ cup caramel syrup

3 tablespoons Meiguilu (Chinese rose-flavored white liquor; see Tips)

1 teaspoon rose water (optional)

4 ounces toasted pine nuts

10 brined egg yolks, homemade or store-bought

2 tablespoon Meiguilu

1. Soak the lotus seeds for 8 hours or overnight. Drain. Place the seeds in a heatproof bowl and steam them for about 30 minutes, or until very tender. Remove from the steamer and let them come to room temperature.

Looks rude, tastes great

2. Remove the bitter green sprout that will appear in many of the seeds. To do this, gently squeeze the seed as shown in the photo to the right; if you can see a green "tongue" sticking out at you, open the seed and simply pluck out and discard the sprout.

3. Place the lotus seeds in a food processor (don’t use a food mill here – it will just gunk up) fitted with a metal blade and pulse them until the seeds are reduced to a fine gravel. Add the butter, salt, sugar, caramel, and 3 tablespoons Meiguilu, and then whiz them together to make a fine paste. Dump the paste into a medium work bowl; taste and adjust the seasoning. Stir in the pine nuts until they are easily distributed. Chill the filling.

4. While the filling is in the refrigerator, place the egg yolks on a ovenproof plate and sprinkle them with the 2 tablespoons Meiguilu, as this will remove some of the gaminess. Bake them at 375°F for about 7 minutes to soften and cook them; this will also release some of the oils in the yolks and turn them creamier. Remove the yolks from the plate and let them come to room temperature. (If you wish, you can use the yolks as is, especially if you are using chicken eggs rather than duck eggs; they'll still be good.)

5. Divide the lotus filling into 10 pieces, and roll each piece into a ball. (Wetting your hands occasionally makes this a lot easier.) Push one yolk into each ball (see the next photo) and then cover the yolk with the lotus filling.

Wrapping the yolk

6. When you wrap any moon cakes that have salted egg yolks in them, pinch off a half-inch marble of the dough and set it aside while you use the rest of the dough to wrap the filling as usual. Then, when you press the ball into your mold, you will usually see the yolk poking through the bottom, since it is harder than both the filling and the dough. So, use that little piece of leftover dough as a patch on the bottom (see the photo below), and then smooth it down.

Light glaze 
Dànsè dànshuǐ 淡色蛋水  

Guangdong
Enough for 20 large or 30 small moon cakes

1 egg yolk, lightly beaten

2 teaspoons milk

That dough patch

1 tablespoon caramel syrup

1. Mix these ingredients together in a small bowl. Brush the glaze lightly over the tops and sides of the unbaked moon cakes.

2. Store any leftovers covered in the refrigerator for not more than a day, as the yolk will start to dry out. (For a picture of what this glaze looks like, see the second photo of the coconut moon cake up near the top of the page.)

Tips

You can use any type of shredded coconut you like; just adjust the sweetening to your taste.

In both of these recipes, and in the glazes too, liquors are used as the liquid. This serves to season the pastries and also to provide moisture that is easily evaporated as the moon cakes bake. If you don't use alcohol, just add a little more caramel syrup to thin out the yolk, while for the fillings, use enough caramel instead of the liquor to bind the ingredients. Don't add another liquid, as the fillings will then be too moist.

Coconut rum is used here to heighten the rum flavor; Malibu is my favorite brand. However, you can use any other liquor here to fit your taste. 

Dried lotus seeds can be found in just about any Chinese market or herbal store. Look, as always, for places with fast turnover. Check the bag for bugs and debris. Fresh lotus seeds should appear relatively chubby with little wrinkling.

Be sure and remove the green centers from the lotus seeds before using them in any dish. This is easy once the seeds have been soaked, as they soften once they plump up and can be squeezed open.

I like adding a bit of Cortas brand rose water to the lotus paste to heighten the suggestion of roses in the Meiguilu white liquor. You can't really taste the roses, but it provides a subtle undercurrent. This is, of course, totally optional.

Shelled pine nuts can be used either raw or toasted in this recipe. I prefer toasted here for the heightened nut flavor and color contrast. Either buy the pine nuts toasted or toast them yourself in the oven or a dry wok. The main thing to look for is freshness, so check the expiration date. Store unused pine nuts in the freezer if you don't use them often, as this will keep the oils from going rancid.

This time of the year, salted yolks can be found prepackaged (without the whites) in many Chinese markets, usually in the same case as the other eggs. Make sure they are from the U.S., rather than China. Refrigerate any leftover yolks in a sealed bag and use them within a week or two. Discard any that look or smell wrong.

As the moister moon cakes sit around, the sugars in their fillings will start to gently soften the pastry dough. And that is not a bad thing. In the first day or two, these moon cakes will be nicely crumbly and buttery. But then they slowly turn ever-so-pillowy, the pastry wrapper gently conforming to the rich filling. It's all rather comforting, in some strange way.

If you would prefer the pastry crisper, just reheat the moon cakes in a 325°F oven; do keep an eye on them so that the moon cakes don't burn.

Store the moon cakes in plastic zippered bags. Try not to stack them up, as gravity will before long work its own magic and start to squish the cakes down. That's why commercial moon cakes always have their own individual coffins plastic indentations to keep them in shape.


Illustration from All Under Heaven (McSweeney's + Ten Speed Press, Spring 2016)
Copyright (c) 2015, Carolyn Phillips

Date and red bean fillings for your moon cakes

All right. We have the basic moon cake recipe up with a fantastic fruit-and-nut filling. Now it’s time for some more extraordinarily delicious things to stuff inside that tender, caramel-scented crust. Here are a couple of my favorites.

Both of these - just like any other Chinese pastry filling - can be made in advance. You can even freeze them. Both are excellent inside of rice tamales or as fillings for things like eight treasure rice (bābǎo fàn 八寶飯 - a scrumptious recipe for that will be in All Under Heaven).

Mill the cooked dates

Date paste filling with toasted walnuts 
Hétáo zǎoní 核桃棗泥
Guangdong
Makes about 2½ cups

8 ounces dried pitted red Chinese dates (jujubes)

Water, as needed

¼ cup unsalted butter

¼ cup roasted sesame oil

½ cup caramel syrup (see main recipe)

¼ teaspoon sea salt

⅓ cup dark brown sugar, packed

1 cup chopped walnuts

Red Chinese dates

1. To make the filling, soak the dates for 8 to 24 hours by covering them in cool water. Steam the dates and their soaking water for 45 minutes until the dates are very soft. Drain off the liquid (save it for something else; see Tips). Then, run the dates through the fine holes of a food mill (or a coarse sieve), discarding the skins. 

2. Pour the date puree into a wok and add the rest of the filling ingredients, except for the walnuts. Bring the puree to a boil and then lower the heat to medium so that you have a steady simmer. Use a silicone spatula to continuously stir the bottom of the puree; this keeps the puree from sticking and allows the steam to be released, as otherwise the puree will boil and spit. 

Done

3. When the puree is reduced to a thick mashed potato-like paste, continue to stir and cook it until it changes from a mahogany color to a dark reddish brown. There should be absolutely no moisture left in the paste. When it's ready, you should be able to draw your spatula down through the paste to the bottom of the pan, and the paste will stay put. (See the photo on the right.) At this point, pour it into a bowl to cool completely. (The filling can be made weeks ahead of time and covered stored in the refrigerator. If you are keeping it for longer than that, freeze it to avoid spoilage.)

4. Before you use it to fill moon cakes, check the moisture of the date paste once again. It should feel slightly oily without a trace of wetness, and it should look super glossy. If it fails any of these tests, fry it again without adding any other ingredients. (Moisture will ruin your moon cakes by seeping into the cooked wrappers and making them soggy, hence the attention to this important detail.) 

Glossy paste with walnuts

5. To toast the walnuts, place them in a cold wok and turn the heat under the wok to medium-high. Continually stir the walnuts as they toast to keep them from burning; no additional oil will be necessary. When the nuts are evenly toasted, pour them into a bowl to cool. Mix the toasted walnuts evenly into the date paste. Divide the date paste into 10 pieces and roll them into balls; moistening your hands will make this go a whole lot easier. Chill the date paste before filling the moon cakes, as it is rather soft.

Red bean paste with chestnuts 
Dòushā lìzi  豆沙栗子
Guangdong

Makes about 2½ cups

6 ounces dried red or adzuki beans

Water, as needed

4 ounces peeled frozen or fresh chestnuts

6 tablespoons unsalted butter

¼ teaspoon sea salt

⅓ cup dark brown sugar, packed

1. Soak the beans for 8 hours or overnight in a medium saucepan. Drain them, cover them with fresh filtered water, and bring the pot to a boil. Reduce the heat to a simmer, and then cook them until they are very soft, adding small amounts of water as needed to keep the beans from burning; cook off any excess water. Remove the beans to a heatproof work bowl and let them come to room temperature.

Arrange chestnuts on bean paste

2. While the beans are cooking, place the chestnuts in a heatproof bowl and steam them for about 25 minutes, or until very tender. Remove them from the steamer, drain them, and let them come to room temperature. When cool enough to handle, use a paring knife to remove any bits of red skin still attached to them. Do not chop the chestnuts, but leave them more or less whole.

3. Place the cooked, mashed beans in a wok and add the butter, salt, and sugar. Heat these together over medium-high heat, stirring constantly with a silicone spatula, until all of the moisture has evaporated and the bean paste is dark and thick. Taste and adjust the seasoning. You can add more brown sugar or even caramel (see the recipe in the Zester link) to heighten the sweetness, but be sure and cook the paste down again until it is thick and glossy. You should have absolutely no moisture in the bean paste, as this will soak into the cooked moon cake pastry and make it soggy.

4. Cool the bean paste in a work bowl and then chill. Roll the bean paste into 10 balls of even size. Distribute the chestnuts among the bean paste balls and scoot them into the paste, covering them completely. 

Tips

The best Chinese dates are found in herbal shops where the turnover is fast and the dried ingredients are at their best. Look for plump, shiny dates with no sign of insects or powder at the bottom of the bag.

Chinese dates that are pitted were done so by machines, so beware of the occasional pit or chips. The food mill will remove any lingering pieces, which is another good reason to use it instead of a food processor.

Don't use dates that have been processed or sweetened, just plain old red dates. Look at the list of ingredients to be sure; all it should read is "dates."

Chill the date paste before rolling it into balls, as this is the softest of all the fillings. Even then, bits of date paste will peek through the filling, making a marble effect, which I think is actually quite pretty. The paste is thick enough, though, from all that sugar that it will not melt even though it's exposed to the heat of your oven.

Reserve the water in which the dates steamed, as this is incredibly delicious. Drink it as is, cold or hot, or add it to other things like oatmeal or tea.

Red and adzuki beans are best at busy Chinese markets and health food stores. The fresher they are, the faster they cook.

You can mill the skins off of the cooked red beans (as with the red dates), if you wish. But I much prefer the texture of the paste with the skins on. As with all things of this nature, follow your own preferences.

Both the date and bean pastes can be easily doubled. In fact, I always make at least twice as much of these recipes since it takes just as much time to make that much as the smaller amount. The extra can be frozen for later use and makes desserts for parties a snap.