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

Bite-sized delights for the Moon Festival

In the previous three posts, we've looked at how to make the traditionally sized moon cakes that are about three inches across.

But there is one other variety that has become popular, perhaps because you don't have to share it: little one-inch pastries that are just right for snacking. Basically, this is the same recipe as the main one, but here are a few tips that will help you make these successfully the first time around.

Small wooden molds that are about 1-inch square are typically used for mini moon cakes. Clean and prepare them as directed below, making sure that they are completely dry before you use them. Like the large ones, they should be dusted with flour before making your pastries and then often during the process to keep the cakes from sticking.

Me-sized moon cakes

Divide the dough into 30 pieces, and roll each piece into a ball. Be sure and cover any dough you are not immediately working on.

The next step is to roll the filling into 30 small balls. Finally, have the glaze mixed, and your baking sheets lined and ready, and the oven heated to 325°F; this gets everything ready so that you will put these moon cakes together very quickly.

Lightly dust your board with flour, and then pat a ball of dough into a circle that is about 3 inches wide; leave a small hump in the center, since you will be wrapping the dough rather thickly at the bottom, and this helps to even the pastry out. Use a dough scraper as shown on the right to lift up the pastry circle, as it will probably stick to the board. 

Use your scraper to lift these up

Place a ball of filling in the center and then bring the dough up and around the filling; it might tear or break, but that's all right because the dough is soft enough that you can just patch it up.

The next step is really important for this and the regular-sized moon cakes:

Lightly roll the ball between the palms of your hands to smooth it and even out the dough. The warmth of your palms will be just enough to melt the caramel and oil so that the dough slides evenly over the filling. If you are working with an especially soft filling, like the date paste, some of the dough might poke through, but that's not a problem, as it won't leak or melt in the oven.

Wrap the dough around the filling

Press the still slightly warmed ball into some flour on one side and then pat the ball into your mold. Use your fingertips to press the dough all the way down to the bottom of the mold and along the sides so that there are no air pockets. Turn the mold over and whack it on your counter. (Use a towel to protect it if it is tile or some other breakable material). The moon cake will fall out after a whack or two. Dust off most of the flour with a soft brush and place the moon cake on the prepared baking sheet. Lightly brush the glaze all over the pastry. Repeat with the rest of the dough and filling until you are done.

Bake the mini moon cakes for about 25 minutes, turning the sheet halfway through the cooking to ensure even browning. The moon cakes are done when they are golden brown (with the dark glaze) or a honey color (with the lightglaze).

Make this a double layer ball

Caring for your moon cake molds

You can purchase moon cake molds online or in some Chinese cookware stores, especially in cities with large Chinese populations like San Francisco. Most are carved wood, and they are beautiful to have on your kitchen shelves even if you never bake a single moon cake in your life.

In addition to the traditional wooden ones, plastic molds are now available in some online stores. Use whatever you fancy and in whatever size you like.

Assorted wooden molds

Select wooden molds that have no cracks or insect damage. Check to see that the carved areas are even, have no rough edges, and look clean.

Once you get a wooden mold home, wash it thoroughly inside and out with a brush, dish soap, and hot water. Rinse the mold carefully, towel it off, and turn it upside-down to air dry.

A good way to keep your molds crack free in dry climates is to coat the wood with mineral oil. Other oils can turn rancid, especially if you don't use the utensil often, so mineral oil is what I use to coat my molds, as well as my wooden chopping blocks, salad bowls, and so forth.

After the oil has had a chance to soak into the wood (overnight is plenty enough), wipe off the excess oil with a paper towel. (Beware of trying to fill your molds with the oil, as there is always a hole in the side to allow air to enter under the dough and eliminate a possible vacuum - very clever, imho.) Store the molds out of the sunlight, which might dry and bleach them.

Not-so-guilty pleasures

Before you use the molds, rinse and dry them if they are at all dusty. Then, coat the insides of the molds with flour and knock off the excess.

As you form your moon cakes, dust the insides of the molds whenever the cakes start to stick.

Once you are finished with the molds, wash and dry them immediately so that the dough doesn't harden inside of the crevices.

If you are a lover of antiques, keep your eye open for antique moon cake molds, especially if you travel in China. Some are intensely beautiful!

Illustration 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