Saturday, September 15, 2012

Red Bean Moon Cake with Flaky Pastry (紅豆螺絲酥皮月餅)


Last week I went to school to help out the hospitality students to understand cultural diversity.  Six of the parents participate all came from different background including Thai, Indian, German, South African, Italian and Chinese.  One of the thing we were taking about was the festival celebration, and I mentioned that lots of Chinese dessert for celebration was round as the roundness mean smooth and harmony.  The Chinese Moon Festival is coming up on 30 September and I got the idea making this flaky pastry mooncake from my mother-in-law when she posted her taro mooncake on FB.

I always have difficulty in making the swirl looking flaky pastry and I got the step-by-step instruction from Cherri, ch3rri blossoms.  I use canola oil instead of shortening as it is a healthier oil and I baked it instead of deep fry.  The other popular flavour for the mooncake include taro, green tea and lotus.  Moon cake usually has an salted duck egg yolk inside the filling, I have opted that out as I prefer it eggless.

The Moon Festival is the second biggest festival besides the Chinese New Year.  People give mooncake as a gift and everyone gather together for a family dinner on a full moon night.  A true happiness for me is to enjoy the time with my family, just as simple as that.



Red Bean Moon Cake with Flaky Pastry
(make 16)

Ingredients:

Filling:
red bean paste (store brought)

Water dough:
200g plain flour
1/2 teaspoon white vinegar
50g canola oil
30g sugar
100g water

Oil dough:
180ml plain flour
100g canola oil

Method:

  1. Roll the red bean paste into 16 golf ball sized balls.
  2. For the water dough; mix all together to form a dough, rest 20 minutes.  Then divide into 4 equal portions.
  3. For the oil dough; mix all together to form a soft dough, divide into 4 equal portions.
  4. Flatten the water dough and place the oil dough into the middle and wrap around it.  Do not flour the bench as the dough is oily enough and will not stick to the table.
  5. Roll out the dough into a long shape, fold half from the short side, then fold over to the right.  Roll out one more time.
  6. Then roll into a swiss roll from the long side, cut into 4 pieces.
  7. Roll each piece flat into a round shape, about the size of the dumping pastry.  Place a piece of red bean paste into the middle, wrap around to form a ball and seal the bottom.  Repeat for the rest of the dough.
  8. Preheat oven at 170c. Place the mooncake sealed size down onto the paper lined baking tray(s), bake 25 mins or until brown.
Source: http://ch3rri-blossoms.blogspot.com.au/2009/12/flaky-taro-pastry.html

water dough and oil dough
Flatten water dough and oil dough on top
Oil dough wrapped inide of the water dough
1st time roll out 
roll half from long side
roll half to the right
2nd time roll out
cut into 4 pieces
Roll flat and fill with filling
ready to bake! 











7 comments:

  1. this cake sounds amazing. so unique and different. What a great thing you did with that class. I wish I had a class by you

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  2. It would be really great if you can join us and tell us all about Texas, Jess!

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  3. your mooncake looks lovely,Veron. Happy Lantern Festival!

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  4. Veronica:

    Have not try flaky skin mooncake before thanks for sharing. They looks good. I just made a batch of tradition baked mooncakes this afternoon too.

    Mooncake festival just next week, sending earlier wishes to you and family members. Happy mooncake festival and 八月十五月圆庆团圆。

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  5. Thanks Jen and Yin, happy Lantern Festival to you, too!

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  6. They look melt-in-mouth crumbly and delicious!

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  7. Dear Veronica, these moon pies look delicious. I tried them many years ago and enjoyed them very much...perhaps I will try making them sometime. Blessings, Catherine xo

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