With the Mid-Autumn festival (Moon festival) approaching, I set the mood to make mooncakes since last week. Last year, I didn’t make any mooncakes. Why? I can’t really remember. I could come up with some excuses, but I bet you don’t want to hear it. 😛

The Mid-Autumn festival is really a family holiday. It’s the occasion we celebrate family reunion. When I was a little girl, I remember we would have all family members gathering together for the day and have a big dinner. After dinner, my parents normally would take us out to a fire cracker show and a lantern event to do the lantern riddles. My dad always made a lantern for me for the moon festival, either the traditional type (red and round) or the rabbit shape lantern. Writing all this just brings all my childhood memories back. So much fun we had. I even won a riddle reward one year.

Sharing a mooncake is a tradition in our family. My mum would always cut one mooncake into four pieces. Then, we could share it. These days, there are much bigger varieties for mooncakes, the Cantonese mooncakes, the snowy skin mooncakes, the icecream one, the traditional one with red bean paste, and so on. This baked custard mooncake is one of my favorites. I thought I shall share the recipe here with my blogger friends.

Makes 8 (50g each)

INGREDIENTS

Filling:

• 20g caster sugar
• 30g Corn flour
• 20g Parmesan cheese powder
• 25g milk powder
• 15g condensed milk
• 30g coconut cream
• 30g cream
• 50g butter – melted

Pastry:

• 40g butter – room temperature
• 20g icing sugar
• 10g milk powder (light)
• 10g condensed milk
• 20g cream
• 15g coconut cream
• 100g plain flour
• 10g Parmesan cheese powder
• 1egg yolk – egg wash

Tool:

• mooncake mould ( you can get one from ebay)

 

INSTRUCTIONS

Make the filling:

1. Put all the ingredients together in a  heat resistance bowl, except the Parmesan cheese powder.
2. Mix all the ingredients well, and put the bowl in a pot to steam for 30 mins over medium heat. Stir every 5 mins. (If you don’t have a big pot, just use the double boiler method over a medium heat and keep stirring it until it becomes thick.)
3. Set aside and add the Parmesan cheese powder. Mix well with a spatula and let it cool a little. When the filling is cool enough for you to work on it, wear food grade vinyl gloves to knead until it’s smooth and soft. Cover and leave it in the fridge for an hour. 

 

Make the pastry:

1. Mix all the ingredients in a mixing bowl and knead until it form a dough. Cover and leave it in the fridge for an hour. 

Make the mooncakes:

1. Before you start working on the mooncakes, wear the food grade vinyl gloves. It is much easier to make mooncakse in this way because the dough and the filling can get sticky.
2. Divide the filling into 8 and shape into balls. Same for the pastry dough.
3. Flatten a pastry ball to a circle and place a custard filling ball in the middle. Pleat and pinch the edges to seal into a ball.
4. Prepare a baking tray and line with baking paper.
5. Preheat the oven to 200°C.
6. Place each ball into  the mooncake mould. Put the mould on the baking tray and press the top gently against the baking tray to make sure the ball is very well shaped in the mould.
7. Gently push out the mooncake onto the baking tray. 
8. Brush the mooncakes with egg wash. Bake for 10 minutes or until the mooncakes are golden. 
9. Cool on a rack completely and enjoy!

The custard mooncakes can be kept in an air tight container in the fridge for 2 weeks.