Mooncakes

Grad school can be dispiriting. I came here over three years ago with the vague hope of learning to change the world through finance. After three years of psychological (and intellectual) rigor, I can only hope I'm closer, but in sometimes it's easy to feel like I could have made a bigger impact volunteering or doing anything else remotely useful.

In the meantime though, cooking helps keep my mind off of the existential void. My mom has always loved to develop her own recipes, and probably almost 10 years ago now she set out to make mooncakes (freshly-made mooncakes are impossible to find in Arkansas, as sadly there are no Chinese bakeries). For the last several years I've been making my own, and every year I send a big pile of packages to friends and family. Despite my grad-school woes, mooncake time always brings a smile to my face.

My mooncake-making has always been a series of trials and errors, as online mooncake recipes tend to be a little spotty, and I find traditional mooncakes a bit too oily and dense anyway. For this year's Mid-Autumn Festival, I tried a few new things. In particular, many Cantonese mooncake recipes call for an ingredient called kan sui, or lye water, and I could never figure out what it was. From searching on a few Asian food blogs I got a hint that kan sui was actually potassium carbonate solution, which can be found at Super 88 and most other Asian markets in Boston. It's a clear liquid usually found near the vinegars and rice wines, which suggested edibility, but then again Chinese people are also known to use borax as a baking ingredient. The directions on the label definitely gave me more than a moment's pause:

Direction: Mixed 1 part of solution to 50 parts of water to refresh dry squid
Warning: Thoroughly rinse the food after soak in this solution

Could mooncakes made with dry squid refresher really be edible? There was only one way to find out. Kan sui actually smells kind of bad, and the baked dough can taste little bitter at first, but somehow the bitterness dissipates and the finished mooncakes are nothing but delicious.

My own mooncake dough recipe (scroll down) makes a lighter, flakier dough, which is appealing in its own right but doesn't hold the shape of the molds very well. Cantonese-style mooncake dough is more like the ones you find in bakeries and has that caramely consistency found in no other pastry. Furthermore, with the Cantonese recipe you don't have to use eggwash, which means you can make vegan mooncakes!

Another note - Lyle's Golden Syrup, a canned cane syrup which can be found in some grocery stores, actually works really well in mooncakes, so you don't have to make your own.

The other major innovation this year was to combine my mooncake-making with a fundraiser for two great NGOs supporting rural Chinese development, the Zigen Foundation and AIDS Relief Fund China. With an email campaign and the help of many friends and family, I was able to raise a total of $1000 for these organizations. Organizing the fundraiser really helped me put things into perspective, and it was just a great feeling to know that even if I've spent most of grad school stumbling around, at least I've been able to do something good.

Anyway, here is the recipe for Cantonese mooncake dough and the full mooncake recipe from my cookbook.

Cantonese mooncake dough

400g golden syrup
1/2 tsp baking soda
1 1/2 tsp alkaline water (AKA lye water, kan sui, or potassium carbonate solution)
100g corn oil
550g all-purpose

Mix sieved baking soda, golden syrup, alkaline water, and oil allow to rest for about half an hour in large mixing bowl (if you don't have time you can avoid the resting period). Fold in sifted flour gradually and mix evenly to form a smooth and soft dough. Let the dough rest for half an hour to an hour. See below for instructions on wrapping, molding, and baking.

Mooncakes

Mooncakes are a very special Chinese dessert for the mid-autumn festival. Making them is quite complicated, and requires special molds which I have only been able to find in China; but the results are beautiful, unique mooncakes which taste very different (and I think, better) than store-bought versions. To make mooncakes, you must first make a simple sugar syrup. It is said that the syrup gets better over time, but I’m not sure if this is true. If you want to make the syrup ahead of time, be sure to keep it in a sterile container in the refrigerator. The next step is to make the filling. Traditional fillings such as red bean paste and lotus paste are available premade in cans, but these tend to be of very low quality and often taste like metal.
Homemade fillings are much tastier, and I’ve included several recipes below. In my view, if you’re willing to take the trouble to make mooncakes, you might as well go all the way and make your own filling as well. As for the egg yolk which is traditionally included in mooncake fillings, simply take precooked salty egg yolks and fold them into the middle of the filling when making the mooncakes. However, I tend not to like these, so a fun alternative I’ve come up with is using balls of pistachio or almond paste in the shape of egg yolks. Cans of pistachio and almond paste can be purchased at the King Arthur Flour online shop.

When making your own fillings, it is important to make the fillings very moist, more so than you may think is correct. In order for the mooncake pastry to take on its characteristic soft texture, it must absorb moisture from the filling, so if you don’t make the filling extra moist then it will become dry and hard with time. After the mooncakes are baked, they should be carefully placed into airtight plastic containers for a few days in order for this absorption to occur. Thus, mooncakes are at their best several days after baking.

As a final note, even when you follow the directions, making the mooncakes turn out well and keep the shape of the mold is very tricky. Precise measurement is essential, so don’t try it without an accurate kitchen scale.

Golden syrup
1200g sugar
lkg water
1 lemon - squeeze in the juice and put in the rind as well
3 tbs maltose
3 tbs vanilla extract

Put sugar, water and lemon slices into a saucepan. Bring the mixture to a boil, and remove the lemon slices. Simmer for about 30 minutes, until the syrup is golden and very sticky. Cool to room temperature before use, and store unused syrup in an airtight container. Some say it is best to let the syrup cure for at least several weeks before use, but it can certainly be used right away if you don't have time.

Fillings

Nutella Red Bean Paste
340g dried red beans
200g nutella
100g sugar
150g peanut oil

Soak red beans in water to cover overnight. Bring a large pot of water to a boil, and turn down heat to low. Simmer beans until soft (may take several hours). When the beans are soft, pour the mixture into a blender or blend with an immersion blender until smooth, adding more water if necessary. Return the mixture to the saucepan and add nutella, oil, sugar and water, and continue heating until the mixture can be formed into a firm ball. Cool and store in the refrigerator until use.

Lotus paste filling
600g dry lotus seeds
600g sugar
400g peanut oil

Soak the beans overnight in water to cover. Often dried lotus seeds have green sprouts in the center, which are very bitter and not good to eat, so before you cook them you should break the softened beans in half and remove the sprouts. If you can find them, be sure to buy the lotus seeds without the sprouts. Bring a large pot of water to a boil and then simmer over medium-low heat for about 2 hours until beans are very tender. Pour the beans along with a sufficient amount of bean cooking water into a blender and blend until smooth. Before returning the puree to the pan, heat the sugar and oil cook until the sugar turns golden brown. Pour the bean puree to the pan and continue heating until the mixture can be formed into a firm ball. Cool and store in the refrigerator until use.

Green tea-flavored mung bean paste
300g peanut oil
680g dry beans
200g sugar
400g green tea powder

Soak beans overnight in water to cover. Bring water to a boil and then simmer over medium-low heat for about 2 hours until beans are very tender. Pour beans along with a sufficient amount of bean cooking water into a blender and blend until smooth. Return bean puree to the pan, add remaining ingredients, and continue heating until the mixture can be formed into a firm ball. Cool and store in the refrigerator until use.

Mooncake dough
900g flour
600g syrup
140g peanut oil

Egg Wash
1 Egg Yolk
2 tsp water
A few drops soy sauce

1. Mix the syrup and oil until well-blended. Mix in the flour and knead until well-blended. Cover dough with plastic wrap or put it in a plastic bag so it doesn’t dry out. Let the dough rest for 30 minutes.

2. When working with molds, it is necessary to determine the correct amount of filling and dough for your mold. In order to get good results, the best way is to weigh both portions for each mooncake you make. For my standard-sized mooncake molds, I usually start with about 70g of filling and 60g of dough, but you should try out different weights for your mold and fillings and then use the same weights for all of your mooncakes

3. Preheat oven to 425°F. Whisk the egg wash ingredients together in a small bowl. Dust a mooncake mold with flour, tapping the mold to coat all of the crevices and to remove excess flour. To make the mooncake, take one portion of the dough and roll into a thin circular piece. Shape one portion of the filling into a flattened ball and wrap with the mooncake skin, sealing the edges together tightly. Press the dough smooth side down into the mold. Tap gently on your hand to demold. Arrange mooncakes on baking trays and bake for 10 minutes. Then brush them with egg wash using a pastry brush and continue to bake about 5 more minutes until golden brown.