It's that time of the year where you can see lots of commercialized mooncakes in the shopping malls and beautiful lanterns and decorative mooncakes boxes on display to attract buyers...seriously, consumers are really spoilt for choice! People from all walks of life can be seen busy taking photos and enjoying the festive ambience! This time around, I tried my hands on making Shanghai mooncakes....after seeing Jessie's (ofJessie-CookingMoments) beautiful creations, I got tempted to try it for the first time:)
I basically followed her recipe for the skin dough but used the yam fillings recipe from Sonia's (of Nasi Lemak Lover). Both are very good bakers and I love visiting their blogs for inspirations:)
Yam filling:
625g yam peeled, cut into chunks
100g caster sugar
38g salted butter
Method
1. Steam the yam chunks at high heat till soft. While still hot, add in sugar and butter and mash with a fork or potato masher. Set aside to cool.
2. Weigh out 30g each and shape it to ball.
Orange sweet potato filling:
200g peeled, steamed and mashed
20g confectioner's sugar
20g unsalted butter
Method:
1. While the mashed sweet potato is still hot from the steaming, add in the butter and sugar in. Mash with a fork. Set aside to cool before use.
2. Weight 20g and wrap over yam ball, set aside.(I rolled it into a ball and wrap the yam filling around it)
I put the yellow sweet potatoes in the middle to replicate the egg yolk
240g Butter(or margarine), cut in small cubes
3tbsp Milk (I used evaporated milk)
360g Low Gluten Flour, sifted
2tbsp Parmesan Cheese (I used cheddar)
A handful of pumpkin seeds for decoration (I used melon seeds)
1 egg yolk mixed with a tablespoon of milk for glacing
1. Place Ingredients 1 into the mixing bowl of a stand mixer. Fit in K-beater & use medium speed to mix the ingredients until pale & fluffy.
2.In a separate bowl, mix all Ingredients 2 with a spatula until well-combined.
3. With low speed, add (2) into (1) slowly. Once a dough is formed, increase to medium speed & continue to mix until a smooth & soft dough is formed.
4. Wrap dough with a cling wrap and refrigerate for 20 minutes.
5. Preheat oven to 170C.
I actually bought two yams and had enough left over sweet potatoes to do the swirl (spiral) mooncakes too...the recipe is adapted from Sonia's blog too as she has just recently baked a ghee version but I decided to use her shortening version since I have a big tub available. Please check out her site for the ghee version here...
Flaky Swirl Yam Mooncake
*makes 12 pcs
Water dough
200g all purpose flour
15g icing sugar
70g shortening
90g cold water
Method
- Sift flour and icing sugar.
- Rub in shortening.
- Slowly add cold water and combine to form a soft dough
- Cover and rest for 45mins
Oil dough
160g all purpose flour
80g shortening
1/2tsp yam paste (omitted)
A drop of purple coloring (I mixed a drop each of red and blue colors to get purple)
Method
- Combine all ingredients together to form a soft dough.
- Cover and rest for 30mins
Use the same recipe above for the filling. If you wish to add salted egg yolks, brush some chinese wine and steam yolks for a few minutes before using.
1. Divide water dough weighing 60g each and oil dough 40g each into 6 portions accordingly and shape into ball.
2. Weight yam filling into 30g each for 12 portions.
3. Flatten water dough and wrap oil dough inside. Repeat till finished.
4. Roll out into long shape and roll up like swiss roll. Rest for 10mins.
5. Roll from the shorter side into long shape and roll up like swiss roll from shorter side. Rest for another 20mins.
6. Cut the dough into 2 portions and repeat the rest of the dough until get 12 portions together.
7. Flatten the dough start from the swirl side and roll out into a round shape.
8. Flip over and wrap in yam filling, egg yolks (optional) and seal it tightly, seal edge facing downwards.
9. Place on baking tray and bake in preheated oven 170C for 25 mins. I baked mine for 30 minutes.
10. Cool well before cutting.
I had so much fun making these pretty mooncakes:)
