Mooncakes with Lotus Seeds and Salted Egg Yolks

中文食谱：莲蓉蛋黄月饼

Mid-autumn Day is a very important festival day for Chinese people.  It is kind of like thanks giving day.  It is a tradition for families and friends to get together on this day.  One of the traditional designated foods is mooncakes.  Their round shape represents happiness and life fulfillment.  

I make mooncakes every year.  Nowadays mooncakes come in many shapes and with tons of different fillings.  My personal favorite is lotus seeds filling with salted duck egg yolks.  It is old fashion and I just love it.  The combination sounds exotic?  Trust me; it is really tasty and amazing! O(∩_∩)O~

I posted detailed instructions last year

Spray the duck egg yolks with a couple teaspoons rice cooking wine and roast them in preheated oven 375F/190C for 8 minutes.  

Salted duck egg yolks can be bought from Asian grocery store.  I love to buy fresh duck eggs from our local farmers market and make them myself.  Here is how to make them at home.

After 8 minutes, the yolks are done

Divide the lotus seed fillings into 25g/each.  Gently press down, wrap around egg yolks, and shape each of them into a little ball between palms

When the mooncakes are molded, transfer them to cookie pans lined with baking mats .

Preheat the oven to 350F/176C.

Bake for 5 minutes.  Take them out and gently brush them with egg wash.

Send them back to oven to bake for another 15 minutes or until they all get gold brown.

Wrap them in individual little pastry boxes

Gift packaged them in pastry boxes and share with my friends O(∩_∩)O~

Oven Roasted Chestnuts

中文:  糖烤栗子

Have you ever tried roasted chestnuts?  A lot of Asian people, including us, would enjoy fresh chestnuts in late fall season.  Cooked chestnuts taste like roasted buttercup squash, only sweeter and starchier.

My friend sent me a bag of really fresh chestnuts, so the second day I made oven roasted chestnuts.

Ingredients:

30 to 40 chestnuts
1/2 cup water
2 to 3 tablespoons sugar

Directions:

Preheat a toaster oven  to 425F/218C

Make a shallow cut on the top each chestnut with a sharp knife or scissors. I prefer scissors for cutting chestnuts.  Add them to a round cast iron pan

Bake in the toaster oven for 15 to 20 minutes.

Add water and sugar to a medium pot . Heat over high heat until it boils.  Reduce the heat to medium.  Continue to cook for another 2 to 3 minutes. 

Add chestnuts to the pot.  Stir with a wooden spoon so that chestnuts can be evenly coated with sugar syrup.

Send the chestnuts back to oven to roast for another 15 to 20 minutes.

The whole house is filled with sweet aroma which is really nice.

Be sure to wait until the chestnuts are cool to touch. 

It is really easy to shell the chestnuts when roasted this way.  Now enjoy the sweet chestnuts! O(∩_∩)O~

Mooncakes with Yolks and Lotus Seed Paste Fillings

中文菜谱： 蛋黄莲蓉月饼

2016 Mid-Autumn Day is September 15.  It is a traditional Chinese festival to celebrate harvest time, family and friendship.  Yes, it is kind of like Thanksgiving Day.  Mooncakes will be served as the traditional dessert on this special day. 

I love to make them from scratch every year not just because it is fun to do so, but also because I am trying to create the taste of home for my own family O(∩_∩)O~

Mooncakes with yolks and lotus seed paste may sound bizarre.  As a matter of fact, they are so tasty that they remain the number one flavor on my mooncake list.  The combination of salted duck egg yolks and sweet creamy lotus seed paste is very pleasantly balanced and wonderfully tasty. 

I posted how to make salted duck eggs before too. 

The whole salted duck egg process takes about a month.  So I made a batch one month ahead of time. 

Do not boil the eggs.  For this recipe, we need raw duck eggs.

Crack them into a small bowl. 

Spoon the yolks onto a baking pan.

Spray them with rice wine.  I use Vodka. 

Bake in an oven preheated to 375/190C for 8 minute

I am planning to use 50 g mooncake mold.  So the whole yolks need to be sliced into halves.  Otherwise, they would be too big in the cakes.

Each of them weighs between 9 to 12 g. 

The ready to use version duck yolks are available in most Chinese grocery store.  You can find them in frozen food section. 

Don’t forget to thaw them under room temperature before using.

Cut them into halves too. 

Now we can move on to lotus seed paste.

For the lotus seed paste：

300 g dried lotus seeds
water for boiling
130 to 150 g oil
280 to 300 g sugar

Boil the lotus seeds in water for about 90 minutes.  Puree them with a hand blender or in a food processor. Transfer to a nonstick pan.  Sautee over medium high heat; stir constantly.  Add sugar and oil in between.  Cook until the paste is thick and has the texture of apple butter. 

Completely cool down to room temperature before using. 

With a digital kitchen scale, divide the paste into 25 g each, 35 g each if no yolks is added later. 

Pat them down a little bit and add a piece of yolk.  My friend’s hand is posing here O(∩_∩)O~

Wrap it up.  Repeat until all yolks are done. 

The mooncake recipe is adapted from : http://web.wenxuecity.com/BBSView.php?SubID=cooking&MsgID=472418

For the dough:

150 g cake flour
75 golden syrup
40 g oil
1/2 teaspoon lye water  (also available in Asian grocery store)
a pinch of salt
egg yolk wash

Preheat the oven to 375F/191C

Mix flour, syrup, oil, lye water and salt together

With a digital kitchen scale, divide it into 15 g pieces. 

Gently press them down with fingers.   Add the fillin 

And then wrap it up. 

I use 50 g mooncake molds

Use the mooncake mold to shape each of them.  Transfer to large cookie pan lined with baking mat

Bake in the oven for 5 minutes.  Take them out and brush with egg yolk wash. 

Send them back to oven to bake for another 15 minutes or until they are nicely golden brown. 

They need to sit in an air-tight box for a couple days before serving.  These extra couple days will help the mooncake to develop their flavors and textures. 

Pack them in pastry boxes and send them as nice little surprise gifts to my friends.

Happy Mid-Autumn Day! O(∩_∩)O~

Asian sweet sesame cake balls

中文菜谱：开口笑

The sesame cake balls you see here rank number one on my childhood favorite list.  Cake balls are coated with sesame seeds and then deep fried to golden brown.  They taste crunchy on the outside, soft and fluffy and sweet on the inside.  They are the most delicious snacks I could think of as a child.

Ingredients：

2 cups of cake flour
1/2  egg
1/4  cup water
1 teaspoon oil
1/2 cup sugar (use more if you have a sweet tooth)
1 and 1/2teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 cup white sesame seeds
1/2 cup black sesame seeds
oil for deep frying

Directions：

In a medium bowl, add water and sugar.  Whisk until the sugar dissolves.  Add oil and egg.  Whisk until well combined.

Shift together cake flour, baking powder, baking soda.

Add shifted flour to egg mixture.  Mix with a wooden spoon or a pair of chopsticks.

When everything starts to come together, transfer the dough to a well dusted wood board. Knead with hand until a dough ball forms.

Divide into 28 to 38 equal pieces.  I like to make them each between 20 g to 30g.

Roll each piece into a small dough ball.  Quickly dip in water and then coat with black sesame seeds.

Or you can also coat them with white sesame seeds.

Deep fry them until golden brown.

Bon appétit!

Dried Sweet Potatoes

中文： 红薯干

Dried sweet potato was one of my childhood favorites.  It can be served as a snack or a side dish.  It is sweet, soft, and a little bit chewy because of the drying process, which makes it so much joyful to eat dried sweet potatoes.

In sweet potato harvest season, most people in my hometown used to make dried sweet potatoes at home.  The homemade version is so much better than the ones you can buy from grocery store.  They were dried under the warm autumn sunshine, with the dry warm wind blowing over.  For the ten-year-old me, fall is the best season of the year. 

That is also why I still make a large batch of dried sweet potatoes every year.

Ingredients：

10 pounds sweet potatoes
water for steaming/boiling

It is super easy and fast to make dried sweet potatoes at home.  Steam/ boil them over medium high heat for 25 to 45 minutes, depending their sizes, or until a fork can easily pierce through the center.  Remove from heat and let them cool down to room temperature.

Peel the sweet potatoes and cut each into 6 to 8 halves.  Transfer to dehydrator racks and dehydrate at 135F/ 57 C for 7 to 8 hours.  The time needed is also depending on the sweet potato sizes and how chewy you want them to be.  I like mine on the soft side.  Dehydrate for a couple more hours if you prefer chewy texture.

There is a natural way to DIY dried sweet potatoes if you don’t have a dehydrator handy.  Place them on a cooling rack or any kind of racks you have, and dry them under the sun for 2 to 3 days.  It might take an extra couple days to dry if it is cloudy or cold.  Again, it is all depending on the sweet potatoes and your personal preferences.

The natural sweetness from sweet potatoes is good enough for me.  So I didn’t add any sugar.  If you have a sweet tooth, add sugar as needed when steaming or boiling them.

Here it is, one of my childhood favorites!