Today my mom spent the whole day making mooncakes. Really, from afternoon until night! She prepped all the nuts yesterday and the day before. She said mooncakes are a lot of work. They definitely are. They require a lot of fine work, which is why I didn't help. A lot of work goes into moulding and pressing of the mooncakes.
The mooncakes are settling on the baking tray in the oven now. They can't be eaten or photographed yet as the skin needs time to settle and soften. By tomorrow they should be ok so I will post the pictures tomorrow when we eat them. Sorry, I really wanted to share the mooncake stories today... so tomorrow will be the taste test!
First, my mom rolled the lotus paste into balls with the nuts. Below are the lotus paste balls. Some have a salted egg in the centre. There are 2 types of lotus paste. One type is normal and the black one is red bean lotus paste. They are sweet and soft, and really yummy. You could even eat them raw. But that's not why we're here hehe. We're here to make mooncake lol. The nut you see below is "kuachi" or melon seeds.
Another type of mooncake is the nuts and fruit kind. They are really expensive to make as they have all types of nuts. They also have candied winter melon, lime leaves and dried orange peel. They are the most difficult to mould as they don't use lotus paste. They have a sticky gum that binds it all together. It is sticky indeed and kept getting stuck on my mom's hands, giving her a hard time. But they are worth it! Gives some variety to the mooncakes. My mom said old people like this traditional kind of mooncake and are a must.
Below are the nuts and fruit that went into the nuts and fruit mooncake.
Then there is the mooncake skin. We are making the traditional mooncake skin, which is brown in colour. It uses super fine flour, alkaline water, golden syrup and oil. The golden syrup and alkaline water gives it the brown colour. Once made the skin, it is time to form the mooncakes! A delicate task as they are so dainty and detailed.
Below you can see the balls of mooncake skin ready to be moulded around the lotus paste. The also are weighed so they are uniform. The wooden moulds are used to form the shape of the mooncake. My mom covers each soft lotus paste ball with the soft skin. So it becomes a ball which she puts into the mould and knocks it out again. So I could hear hammering sounds as they were being expelled.
Below are all the moulded mooncakes! (Before putting egg wash.) Don't they look pretty? These are only one type. The round type. There are also square ones... will show you tomorrow. I can't wait!
After she moulds them, my mom paints them delicately with egg wash and bakes them in the oven. In the end, they look really pretty and glossy due to the egg wash. It looks good as well as tastes good!! Can't wait to eat them tomorrow... will post the pictures tomorrow. A perfect way to celebrate Mid Autumn Festival!
Labels: baking, celebration, desserts
