September 29, 2009

Best Recipe Ever: Moon Cakes

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The Harvest Moon Festival and Moon Cakes are very special to me. First of all, it was one of the first foods I tasted many years ago when I went to live in Taiwan. If you happen to go to Chinatown, you will see the Chinese bakery shelves are filled with numerous varieties, each one with a different filling. The Chinese like their moon cakes stuffed with red bean paste, lotus seed paste, and dried fruits and occasionally garnished with a salty duck egg yolk. Sound appetizing? They can be cloying and not as appealing to the western palate.

I learned a wonderful version of moon cakes from a Chinese chef years ago in Taiwan and I’ve further adapted the recipe. My Five-Treasure Moon Cakes have a buttery-vanilla crust stuffed with a sumptuous apricot marmalade filling, and it is one of my favorite recipes. I like to make a batch or two of the dough and filling and stuff them. I then freeze the uncooked, shaped cakes in plastic bags and bake them the day I am serving them. They are delicious served with tea.

Let’s all celebrate this beautiful, but poignant time of year! (Winter’s on the way.)

Enjoy the full, harvest moon and make moon cakes.

Nina

Moon cake presses can be ordered through Woks ‘n’ Things, 2234 S. Wentworth Avenue, Chicago, Illinois. Phone: 312-842-0701

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September 28, 2009

Five Treasure Moon Cakes

FIVE-TREASURE MOON CAKES
makes20 moon cakes

Mooncakes

During the Harvest Moon Festival, Chinese bakery shelves are loaded with moon cakes — salty with a meat or vegetable filling, or sweet with red bean date pastes or candied fruits. I’ve developed an easy filling that’s a mixture of apricot jam, raisins, dates, and coconut. I recommend using a moon cake mold (see note *), but you may improvise by hand-shaping the cookies into circles and drawing a simple design on top.

CRUST
4 cups all-purpose flour
3/4 cup dried milk powder
1 tablespoon baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
3 large eggs
1 1/4 cup sugar
3/4 cup unsalted butter, melted and cooled to room temperature
1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract

Filling
1 cup apricot preserves (one 12-ounce jar)
1 cup chopped pitted dates
1 cup sweetened, flaked coconut
3/4 cup raisins

Glaze
1 large egg, lightly beaten
2 tablespoons water

  1. To make the crust, sift together the flour, dried milk powder, and salt. Break the eggs into a mixing bowl, add the sugar, and beat vigorously until the mixture “ribbons” off the beaters, about 5 minutes. Add the melted butter, vanilla extract, and the sifted, dry ingredients to the egg mixture, folding after each addition. Mix to a rough dough, turn out onto a lightly floured surface, and knead briefly to a smooth dough. Form the dough into a long, snake-like roll and cut into 20 pieces.
  2. Mix together the ingredients of the filling and stir to combine evenly. Divide into 20 portions.
  3. Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F. Lightly grease 2 baking sheets. Using your fingers, press each dough piece into a 3-inch circle with the edges thinner and the center thicker. Place a portion of filling in the center, gather up the edges of the dough to enclose the filling and pinch to seal. Roll the cake into a ball and flatten it to a 3-inch round. Press into a moon cake mold or carve a crisscross design on top. (If you are using a moon cake press *, arrange on a cookie sheet and chill overnight.) Rearrange the the cakes about 1 inch apart on lightly buttered baking sheets. Brush the surface of the moon cakes with the glaze. Bake the cakes for about 30 minutes, until golden brown. Cool on a rack and serve.

 

From “Moonbeams, Dumplings, and Dragonboats,” by Nina Simonds

* Moon cake presses can be ordered through Woks ‘n’ Things, 2234 S. Wentworth Ave., Chicago, Ill., 60616. Phone: 312-842-0701
 
 
 
 
 
 

 

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