Ice Mooncake with Pineapple Fillings

The Chinese Moon Festival also known as the Mid-Autumn Festival falls in the mid-August in the Lunar Calendar.  It is one of the biggest festival besides the Chinese New Year and this year it falls on 12th September.  Besides China and Hong Kong, many south-east Asia countries and Korea also celebrate this festival.   I remembered my Grandmother prepared fruit such as pomelo, starfruit and persimmon to pray for our ancestor.  Then we would gather together for dinner and enjoyed some mooncake.  The traditional mooncake is made from lotus seed filled with salted duck egg yolks and baked with pastry.  The highlight of the night was to play with the kids from the neighbourhood with our lanterns.  Each year, my mum would buy me a new one.  There were many choices such as lanterns made in rabbit, dragon or starfruit shape.  We carried our lanterns and had an adventure in our buildings running up and down the storey.  It's as fun as going to "trick or treat" at Halloween as you would imagine.  It is also a popular day for marry as it is full moon, this day represent good family relationship so many people like to tie their knots on that day.

Since we migrated to Australia, we still have mooncake every year.  Few years ago, people were tired of traditional baked mooncake and ice mooncake was created and it got very popular in Hong Kong.  I actually prefer it than the traditional one as it has no egg yolks and less fat.  One year I went to Hong Kong for holiday and brought back a few with different flavour such coffee, mango and durian.  You eat it half-frozen which is a new experience to me then.  My mother-in-law gave me a mooncake mould few years ago that I nearly forgot about it.  This year I finally make mooncake and that is fun!  I added pineapple to the filling from the recipe I got from the newspaper and I adopt the pastry from Christine's Recipe.

Ice Mooncake with Pineapple Fillings
(make 10-11)

For the pastry:
25g glutinous rice flour
25g rice flour
20g wheat flour
59g caster sugar
100ml milk
20g condensed milk
20g vegetable oil
extra 3 tbsp cooked glutinous rice flour (for dusting the bench)

Filling:
100g yellow split peas
50g caster sugar
50g milk powder
1 Tbsp chopped canned pineapple
10g butter
1/2 cup water
pinch of salt
1 tsp egg yolk

Method:

1. For the pastry: mix the three rice flours with sugar onto a shallow dish, then add in two milk and oil.  Steam with hot water for about 15 minutes.
2. When the dough is cool enough to handle, knead a little and divide it into 10-11 equal portions.  Dust the bench with a bit of cooked flour and roll the dough thin and flat with a rolling pin.  Place filling into the centre of the pastry and seal.  Put it up side down into the mooncake mould and press to flatten the bottom.  Tip it upside down and place onto a lightly floured tray and freeze.  When it is ready to eat, leave it stands for 15-30 minutes when the cake is thawed but still hold its shape, not mushy.
3. For the fillings: wash the peas and soak it with water for 30 minutes.  Drain.  Cook the peas with 1/2 cup water in a small saucepan for about 5 minutes or until it is soft.  Add a little of water if needed.  Blend the cooked peas in a blender until smooth.  Return it to the saucepan and add in sugar, milk powder, salt and pineapple.  Stir it with low heat for about 8 minutes or until it is very thick.  Add in egg yolk and butter and stir until combined.  Cool before use.
4. For the cooked glutinous rice flour:  pan fry the flour in a saucepan (don't add oil) until it is slightly yellowish.

mooncake mould and fillings