Mooncake: Cook-off IV

[Tepee]

Jelly mooncakes? A loaded question.

First thing's first. 'Jello' to you is 'jelly' to us, and our jelly is made from a gelatine base. The jelly mooncake is a misnomer; it should correctly be called agar-agar mooncake as it's almost completely agar-agar. These days you find a array of jelly mooncakes with ingredients such as fruit (berries, red dates..), coffee or chocolate, cream cheese combos, whatever!! ((verging on swearing)). All these are gelled together with agar-agar.

The mooncake festival has to be the most innovative of all chinese festivals, as you can see in the new flavors being offered every year. Why, jelly mooncakes indeed? WHY? (Digressing a little....) Because jelly cakes are taking over everything, that's why. People here are buying jellycakes over regular birthday cakes or christmas cakes, and now mooncakes. I used to wonder (with exasperation) how these jellycake buyers can appreciate something which has zero-creativity. All the maker has to do is color the bottom layer according to the mould, and fill with layers and layers of agar-agar. Then it dawned upon me that in this case taste is put above creativity. In a country which is hot and humid, the respite offered by the cool agar-agar is always welcomed.

And so we come to the question of, why, jelly mooncakes? Its versatility which lends itself to very creative compositions, coupled with its refreshing taste, tells us that the jelly mooncake has entrenched its position as a mooncake, and is here to stay...

As for me, if I can't beat them, I guess I'll join them....will be making some later this week. *Sigh*

[jackal10]

I went to the Chinese supermakert and all they had was

a) garish coloured agar agar powder red and green. They had run out of blue.

Obviously chemical dyes that I'm not sure I want to eat.

b) somthing that looked like transparent (or red or green) crinkly stuff.

How do I use it? I think the agar-agar powder I usually get has buffers and acidity regulators in it.

What flavour combinations do you reccomend? I saw a recipe for strawberry with a cream centre. Any others?

or should I do a mooncake version of the multi-coloured jello mould Rachel featured at the Pig Picking?

Edited September 13, 2005 by jackal10 (log)

[Tepee]

I went to the Chinese supermakert and all they had was

a) garish coloured agar agar powder red and green.

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LOL, you could make christmas mooncakes.

Seriously. Have you looked at some of the links I posted at post#1 of this thread? If your powder has already got acids/stuff in there, there's not much you can do to vary it. Very unfamiliar territory for me...your agar-agar powder. We can find plain uncolored agar-agar powder here easily. Besides, it's strange to have sour agar-agar. Did they specifically say that it's agar-agar on the wrapper or is it jelly powder? Never mind.

If you want to go Rachel's route, you could check out my jelly cake recipe if you're sure it's agar-agar. I suppose if it's jello, you can just follow the instructions on the packet.

[sheetz]

Bumping this up. Where are the mooncake makers?

My lye water FINALLY shipped from pacificrimgourmet.com today, so it looks like I'll be attempting them this weekend or early next week.

[Tepee]

... it looks like I'll be attempting them this weekend or early next week.

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*cough* The mooncake festival falls on this Sunday Sep 18....but, well, I understand. It makes a good nibble any time of year.

[sheetz]

... it looks like I'll be attempting them this weekend or early next week.

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*cough* The mooncake festival falls on this Sunday Sep 18....but, well, I understand. It makes a good nibble any time of year.

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Oh, this year is just for practice.

[Tepee]

OKie dok, I'm done with traditional mooncakes for the year...still have some mini Shanghai's, jelly mooncakes and Koong Chai Paeng to do.

Clockwise from right-hand front: Mixed Nuts..ran out of egg yolks (bought a batch that wasn't mature enough), White Lotus Single Yolk (stinged on the yolks for the same reason), red bean (yolkless - for the kids). The skin for the Mixed Nuts have to be thicker to prevent the nuts from elbowing out.

Mini Shanghai mooncakes a la Jackal10, the size of golfballs, with a quarter of a yolk in each.

Edited September 15, 2005 by Tepee (log)

[Tepee]

*whistle* *whistle* *echo* *echo*

Made koong chai paeng (doll biscuits)/chue chai paeng (piggie biscuits) for the children. I've got some moulds but I don't like them...must hunt for nicer ones next year. Anyway, made these freehand.

[hzrt8w]

Wow... you really are a food artist! These little piggies look so cute!

[Dejah]

Wow... you really are a food artist!  These little piggies look so cute! 

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You mean you JUST noticed???!

Have you checked out the work on her website?

[Pan]

TP, I'm sure your daughters love(d) those biscuits!

[Tepee]

Thanks, people.There are actually more...I made enough for all my nephews and nieces. I love to see their faces and hear their squeals of delight about how cute they are.

Sue-On cheh-cheh, if I ever open a bakery, I'll be sure to sign you up as my publicity manager.

Edited September 18, 2005 by Tepee (log)

[sheetz]

Wow... you really are a food artist!  These little piggies look so cute! 

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You mean you JUST noticed???!

Have you checked out the work on her website?

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No kidding. Tepee makes me feel SOOOOOO inferior!

I made my first ever batch of red bean paste last night following Tepee's recipe. I forgot to presoak the beans, so I added a teaspoon of baking soda to the boiling water to soften the beans. Boiled it for maybe a half hour, possibly less, and mashed it up using a potato masher. Then pressesd it through a sieve, which took a fair amount of elbow grease, I might add. Finally put back into the pot along with sugar, maltose, and vegetable oil (didn't have any peanut/groundnut oil) and heated it until thick. It didn't take anywhere near 1 hr, more like 30 min. I forgot to buy rosewater so I stirred in some vanilla extract at the end.

Comments:

1. One little bag of red beans makes A LOT of red bean paste! At first I wasn't sure if Tepee's recipe would make enough so I used the entire 12 oz (340g) bag. But boy, do those suckers expand after they are cooked! LOL

2. Despite using only flavorless vegetable oil, this was easily the best red bean paste I have ever tasted. Most red bean pastes I have eaten have been too sweet, and the stuff out of a can has a terrible metallic aftertaste. OTOH, this red bean paste is rich and creamy with an incredible depth of flavor. The vanilla took it to an even higher level. It's so good I could eat it all straight out of the bowl, which I guess is what you want in a mooncake filling.

3. Tepee, have you ever tried making red bean paste using butter or lard? I have some extra bean mash and I'm thinking of making a batch using unsalted butter. Butter might affect the texture to the point that any refrigerated paste would have to be brought to room temperature before molding, but I think the improvement in flavor might be worth the trouble.

Edited September 18, 2005 by sheetz (log)

[Ben Hong]

I made enough for all my nephews and nieces. I love to see their faces and hear their squeals of delight about how cute they are.

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I am squealing already!! Don't forget your old Sook-sook

[Tepee]

As a matter of fact, I did make a cute little dinosaur..........

[Tepee]

Oh, Sheetz (long sound, not short), I'm so happy for you!. You've discovered the beauty of homemade filling. I know it is irresistible alright...and you sort of feel you deserve to be rewarded after all that pressing through the sieve (worst part for me, too) and the stirring.

Have you made the mooncakes already? No, I haven't tried using butter or lard. I don't think the filling will look very pretty with solidified butter or lard if you refrigerate the mooncakes, though taste-wise, it should add some zing. Come to think of it, I'm sure they used lard in the early days.

[sheetz]

Have you made the mooncakes already? No, I haven't tried using butter or lard. I don't think the filling will look very pretty with solidified butter or lard if you refrigerate the mooncakes, though taste-wise, it should add some zing. Come to think of it, I'm sure they used lard in the early days.

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I was going to make them but I was out of a couple of ingredients, so I'll have to put it off for a day or two. I'm going to try a batch of red bean paste with the unsalted butter and report back how it turns out. Worst case I'll just zap them in the microwave for a few seconds before eating.

[hzrt8w]

1. One little bag of red beans makes A LOT of red bean paste! At first I wasn't sure if Tepee's recipe would make enough so I used the entire 12 oz (340g) bag. But boy, do those suckers expand after they are cooked! LOL

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Yeah. Red beans expand quite a bit when soaked. From my experience, they expand to 2-3 times by volume.

[Pan]

Hi, everyone. I think it's appropriate for me to give a link here to a thread I just started in Food Media & News on the largest mooncake, a 9.76-meter-long replica of the ship on which Admiral Cheng Ho (aka Zheng He) sailed to Malacca.

[jackal10]

My attempts:

Moon cake pastry, and a strawberry jelly mooncake in the mould. Unfortunately it fell apart when I tried to unmould it

Moulded mooncakes; unfortunately I overcooked them.

Also Shanghai mooncakes, large and small, and a commercial one.

[Tepee]

Ouch (!) and ouch (!).

Before we go into the fix-it...EVERYBODY....give a BIG hand of applause to Jack for his brave attempts, considering the difficulty of obtaining ingredients and I bet he's never tasted half of them in his life.

Jelly mooncake: Yours look so pretty in the mould. I've never made jelly mooncake in a wooden mould before, but I know it can be done. I suppose a wooden mould has more 'grip' on the jelly, so releasing could be somewhat more difficult. Unless...the mould was well-oiled and just before pouring in the jelly, wet. Was the texture of the jelly firm or soft, Jack?

Traditional mooncake: Very nice. I can see skill in the moulding as the skin is thin enough. Like brownies, it's better to underbake than to overbake a mooncake. 10 minutes at a go. That way you have control over how dark you want it. Baking too long might cause the filling to expand too much, possibly cracking the surface, and the mooncake might go out of shape. Usually, if the crust/skin is not dark enough (which is a desirable tone), go a few rounds of baking for 10 mins, take out and rest for 10, put in another 10mins...and so on.

The minis are too cute. Were they finished off as well?

Edited September 19, 2005 by Tepee (log)

[jackal10]

Nothing was left over. Unfortunately the sky was overcast, although the moon had been brilliant the night before.

The cream centre was firm, but the strawberry jelly was too soft, so the centre fell out and the jelly fell apart. I'd made soem in flexipan moulds, but the same thing happened.

Next year maybe..

[sheetz]

OK, another question for Tepee. I'm trying to make golden syrup. The directions only say that I'm supposed to boil it until it turns light golden brown. Having no experience with golden syrup I have no idea what the finished product is supposed to be like. Do you know how I can tell when I reach that stage? Is there some temperature that I should be heating it to? My golden syrup seems a bit on the runny side.

[Tepee]

For very clear instructions on how to make golden syrup for mooncakes...scroll down to the last post.

...which means you can't do your mooncakes for another 2 weeks at least.

Can you not find Lyle's Golden Syrup? This is the best...for color results and reliability.

[sheetz]

For very clear instructions on how to make golden syrup for mooncakes...scroll down to the last post.

...which means you can't do your mooncakes for another 2 weeks at least.

Can you not find Lyle's Golden Syrup? This is the best...for color results and reliability.

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Ok, so it seems I need to boil it to just below the soft ball stage.

To be honest, I'd never even heard of Lyle's Golden Syrup and it's probably not widely available in the US, especially if you're like me and don't live in a large city.

I'll check around at some of the specialty grocers but I'm not optimistic...