Happy Mid-Autumn Festival 2012

 

 

Wishing all a Happy Mid-Autumn Festival 2012!

祝大家花好月圆庆中秋, 举家团圆赏明月!

  

Before the festive, I was thinking of making my own spiral yam mooncakes or the traditional mooncakes since I'd tried snowskin for the last few years. I wanted to do something different to give my family a treat and not the "same old thing" again this year. As the date drew nearer, and I was so caught up with work, I had to think of alternative (read: easier and fuss-free) mooncake recipes as both the recipes seem to be a little too tight for me. Anyway I already bought 1-kg packet of white lotus paste (low sugar) and it was sitting in the fridge before I could decide what type of mooncake or recipe to follow. I chanced upon e's joie walnut mooncakes recipe which was originally adapted from Baking Mum. Quite decided to bake this until I fell sick this week and was feeling quite lethargic and restless to do anything. I had almost 2 full days of rest at home, and finally pushed myself a little to roll out some walnut mooncakes and some piggy mooncakes. Aren't these little piggies look cute (though seem slightly disfigured!)?

Walnut mooncakes
(I used 1.5x of the recipe to make 41 mooncakes)

(A) 50g icing sugar

50g shortening

220g salted butter

1/2 tsp vanilla extract

1/2 tsp ammonium (can be omitted)

(B) 1 egg

(C) 380g plain flour

25g custard powder

1/2 tsp baking soda

Filling
1kg white lotus paste (low sugar)

Others
200g walnuts (for decoration)
2 egg yolks + 2 tsp water (egg wash)

1. Cream (A) together till slightly pale and well mixed.

2. Gradually add in egg and mix well.

3. Add sifted (C) into mixture and form a dough. Do not knead or mix for too long.

4. Leave the dough in a plastic bag or cling wrap and leave in the fridge overnight or for a few days.

5. Weigh out the 20g skin and 25g filling.

6. Wrap lotus paste in the skin and decorate with walnuts.

7. Apply egg wash and bake at 175 deg C for 10 mins.

8. Bring out and leave to cool for 10 mins.

9. Apply egg wash again and bake for another 15 mins.

Note:
I added about 30g melon seeds (toasted at 180 deg C for 10 mins and left to cool) to 500g of lotus paste.
I made the piggy mooncakes following Anncoo's tutorial here.