Traditional Mooncake

My first attempt at making mooncakes. So bear with me, the mooncakes don't look perfect.
I don't bake everything perfectly each time and I'm not shy to admit it.

It's ok, it's a been there, done that. And for those of you who have been asking me whether I have mooncake recipes, here you go.
I don't know if I'll make more mooncakes, as in baked mooncakes, real mooncakes as I seriously don't enjoy eating a lump of filling. It's just a personal thing.

The outlook of my mooncake is all my fault.

I overdosed on the alkaline water. Cos I didn't bother to take out my measuring spoon, and added in too much. My mooncakes look soooo dark.
I didn't really bother to read up much on how to do it. I read just 1 blog and that was it. Lazy :(
I didn't know that resting between bakes was crucial and hence one of my mooncake cracked.
I forgot I shouldn't be glazing the mooncakes while it's hot is a bad idea. The egg yolk bubbles up and the embossed patterns are lost under the eggs.
and now.... I know.
I read all the comments on that post..but somehow, these weren't mentioned. Or maybe I didn't notice. Anyway.. my fault.

When one bakes without passion, it kills the bake.
I was totally not excited about baking mooncakes, instead was dreading the whole thing.
But then again, I'm glad that my yolks all stayed in the center and the crust was even. That was the only achievement I accomplished.

Everybody who ate this said it was dry and then wondered how much oil is in the commercial ones. They also said it's less sweet comparatively. But they would also gladly sacrifice the smoothness of the filling for less oil and sugar.

My husband thoroughly enjoyed these. He ate most of it.
And yes.. when my mother ate this, she said, the one she reminisced about was a white lotus mooncake.
I think I want to go bang my head on the wall.

Lyanne, next year you better not smuggle anymore lotus seeds into my shopping basket.

Traditional Mooncake
by Wendyinkk 
Pastry recipe adapted from Aunty Yochana
Makes 8 mooncakes

One portion (1kg) homemade Lotus Paste Filling(click for recipe)
30gm melon seeds
2 tbsp golden syrup (or you can use maltose)
8 salted egg yolks
Egg yolk for glaze

Mooncake pastry
175gm Low Protein flour
45 gm oil
100 gm Golden Syrup
1/2 tsp alkaline water
Small pinch of salt

1. Prepare Pastry dough. Mix low protein flour with salt. Mix with the rest of the ingredients until it forms a "batter". Cover and leave it for 1 hour and it will turn into a lump of dough.
2. Meanwhile, Put melon seeds onto one side of the baking pan and egg yolks on another side with baking paper underneath. Bake at 140C (preheated) until the melon seeds start to puff up. Remove the tray from oven and let both yolks and seeds cool off.
3. Place lotus paste into a mixing bowl. Add in golden syrup and toasted melon seeds. Mix it with the mixer until the seeds are well dispersed. Weigh the total weight of filling and divide into 8 portions. Roll each into a ball. It will turn oily at this point.
4. Weigh the dough and divide it into 8 portions.
5. Create a hole in the filling and put in 1 egg yolk. Seal up the lotus paste ball. Roll it back into a round ball. Complete this before wrapping with dough.
6. Flatten one portion of dough and wrap the filling in, as thinly as you can. Repeat until all are wrapped.
7. Depending on the mould you have, lightly dust the formed dough with flour and press into mooncake shapes.
8. Bake at 180C for 10 minutes. Take it out and let it rest for 15 minutes.
9. Brush the mooncakes with egg yolk, top only. And bake it again for another 10-15 minutes, check on the colour and stop when it's nice and golden. The crust will be very firm.
10. Leave mooncakes for 2-3 days for it to soften, then only consume.

crazy phone pics....