Traditional mooncake is a Chinese dessert eaten during the Mid-Autumn festival. Mooncake is a must during the Mid-Autumn festival and a customary present as a gift for family and close friends.
Over the years mooncake prices have become overly expensive not because of the cost of making them, but the elaborate packaging, a bigger chunk of the price than the cake itself.
Making them at home is a lot cheaper and fun too. There is nothing more satisfying than being able to make something from scratch.
Besides the traditional lotus seed paste, you may add in any paste of your liking, check out our mooncake paste collection.
CHINESE VERSION: 制作月饼不难-亲手制作过中秋
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Traditional Mooncake Recipe | MyKitchen101en
Yield: 4 mooncakes (16 servings)
Ingredients:
Dough Ingredients: (Divide into 4 with 48 g each)
- 100g Low protein flour (cake flour)
- 60g golden syrup/invert sugar
- 30g Cooking oil
- ½ tsp. Alkaline water (lye water)
Filling:
- 460g Lotus seed paste (4 x 115g each)
- Some White melon seed
- 4 salted egg yolks
Egg Wash:
- Milk for lighter color or
- 1 egg yolk + 1 tbsp. milk for darker color
Note: tsp. = teaspoon and tbsp. = tablespoon
Instructions:
1 Ingredients for making traditional mooncake are surprisingly simple.
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2 Mix golden syrup, cooking oil and alkaline water. Sieve in flour and mix well until all ingredients fully combined into dough. Do not over knead/mix.
3 Wrap with cling wrap, rest the dough for 2 hours.
4 Roast some white melon seeds at 160°C/320°F for 5 minutes.
5 Mix salted egg yolks with 1 tbsp. of rose cooking wine (or any cooking wine) to remove unpleasant smell from salted egg yolks, steam for 5 minutes.
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6 Mix lotus seed paste with some melon seed, place a salty egg yolk in the middle and roll into round shape.
7 Place dough between cling warp and roll out evenly into 2-3mm thin disc shape with a rolling pin.
8 Wrap mooncake filling with dough.
9 Shape mooncake with mooncake mould (lightly oiled).
10 Bake in preheated oven at 160°C/320°F for 10 minutes. Spray mooncake with some water to avoid crust from cracking during the baking process.
11 Remove from oven and brush with egg wash.
12 Bake for another 10 minutes or until golden brown.
13 Crust of Mooncake will become glossy with softer texture after 2-3 days in air-tight container and ready to be served.
Traditional Mooncake With Lotus Seed Paste Filling
Traditional mooncake is a Chinese dessert eaten during Mid-Autumn festival. Mooncake is a must during Mid-Autumn festival and a customary present as a gift for family and close friends.
- mooncake mould
For dough: Divide into 4 with each 48g
- 100 g low protein flour (cake flour)
- 60 g golden syrup
- 30 g cooking oil
- ½ tsp alkaline water (lye water)
For filling:
- 460 g lotus seed paste (4 x 115g each)
- white melon seed (adequate)
- 4 salted egg yolks
For Egg Wash:
- 1 egg yolk
- 1 tbsp milk
Ingredients for making traditional mooncake are surprisingly simple.
Mix golden syrup, cooking oil and alkaline water. Sieve in flour and mix well until all ingredients fully combined into dough. Do not over knead/mix.
Wrap with cling wrap, rest the dough for 2 hours.
Roast some white melon seeds at 160°C/320°F for 5 minutes.
Mix salted egg yolks with 1 tbsp. of rose cooking wine (or any cooking wine) to remove unpleasant smell from salted egg yolks, steam for 5 minutes.
Mix lotus seed paste with some melon seed, place a salty egg yolk in the middle and roll into round shape.
Place dough between cling warp and roll out evenly into 2-3mm thin disc shape with a rolling pin.
Wrap mooncake filling with dough.
Shape mooncake with mooncake mould (lightly oiled).
Bake in preheated oven at 160°C/320°F for 10 minutes. Spray mooncake with some water to avoid crust from cracking during the baking process.
Remove from oven and brush with egg wash.
Bake for another 10 minutes or until golden brown.
Crust of Mooncake will become glossy with softer texture after 2-3 days in air-tight container and ready to be served.
This recipe yields 4 mooncakes divided into 16 servings.
The nutritional value for reference is for a quarter of mooncake.
What size mould did you use for this?
The mould is for 150 g-180 g mooncake.
Do you fill your mould full or do you leave a small gap to push down ? When I do it I feel to the top and when I push it all the bottom half comes out the bottom because it’s too full
If your mould is smaller, then do a smaller mooncake.
Can we use natural water instead of alkaline water?
The alkaline water here is a.k.a. lye water (kansui), it is same as the one used to make Chinese kee Chang, not alkaline drinking water.
After baking mooncakes how do you store them if you don’t want to eat the all yet?
For homemade mooncake, I always keep refrigerated. Return to room temperature before serving. Serve within 2 days if kept at room temperature. I used to freeze it for up to 3 months, still ok.
Thank you for the step by step guide!! Inspires me to make my own one day – being away from HOME, not that many chinese shops here too, so be good to make one’s own
How long can this mooncake put?
I usually make mooncake using homemade paste and will keep the mooncakes refrigerated for storage. For store-bought paste, not sure how long it can be kept at room temperature, may be 8-10 days, you may try leaving one at room temperature to see how long it can be kept.
Is there any ingredient that can replace cooking wine?
Wine is just for removing unpleasant smell of the egg yolks, it is optional, you may omit it, just wash the yolks before steaming.
Yummy and Great Recipe….
Gorgeous mooncake. Recipe is very simple to follow except it is truly labour intensive. Recipe also uses the famous golden syrup. I am hungry.
What is golden syrup?
http://mykitchen101en.com/homemade-golden-syrup-recipe-invert-sugar/
My oven only have the up fan. Can I still bake this yummy moon cake?
You may try.
May I know what is the liquid that u pour onto your palm before you cling wrap the dough ball and roll it using a rolling pin?
It is cooking oil.