Moon Cake with Date Paste Filling (廣式棗泥月餅)

Mid-Autumn Festival (中秋節) is upon us again in 2015.  This is the time when boxes and boxes of moon cakes (月餅) pile up in the Chinese Markets.  Last year, we thought we'd learn to make moon cakes, just for fun.  It was indeed fun and rewarding, with some minor technical difficulties :-). This recipe makes Cantonese-style Moon Cakes, the type with soft flour skin, as opposed to Shanghai-style Moon Cakes (蘇式月餅, those with fluffy flour skin), and Ice-skin Moon Cakes (冰皮月餅, the contemporary ones with soft skin made of rice powder).

Before trying this recipe, you'd want to buy a moon cake mold from Amazon (like the one shown above), that is designed to make 60-gram moon cakes (the smaller ones), with 20 grams allocated to the flour skin and 40 grams to the filling.  It is also essential to get a digital scale, to measure out the weight of the filling and the dough for each moon cake.

I. Making dough for the moon cake skin

1. Mix wet ingredients evenly in a small mixing bowl: 4 Tbsp (i.e., 1/4 cup) of Golden Syrup thoroughly mixed with 2 Tbsp of warm water (150-180-deg-F, by heating 1/4 cup of water in microwave for 15-20 seconds), 2 Tbsp of Vegetable Oil, 1 tsp of Lye Water.   Note- Lye water can be found in any Chinese Market (see the right-hand-side image for product package).  Golden Syrup (see the left-hand-side image for product package) can be found in World Market, or from Amazon.  Golden Syrup is known to be an Inverted Syrup that won't crystallize in the long run. The diluted Golden Syrup needs to be as thin and fluid as everyday Corn Syrup. Too thick a syrup mix makes the moon cake skin harder, and longer to turn soft after baking (see Step 8 below).  
2. In a medium mixing bowl, add 1 cup of all purpose flour, form a well in the center, and pour the wet ingredients into the well.  Stir the mix evenly, and roll the mix into a dough.  Continue to knead for 4-5 minutes.  Leave the dough in the mixing bowl, cover the bowl with a plastic wrap, and let sit for 30 minutes.
3. Roll the dough into a long roll, and cut the roll into ~13 pieces (each piece weighed 20 grams on the digital scale, a baker's dozen). Cover the pieces with plastic wrap.  

II. Making the Filling of Date Paste with Pine Nuts (棗泥松子)

1. Get a pack of 500-gram date paste from an Armenian Market (see the picture to the right for the product image of 1-kg pack).
2. Place the date paste in a microwave-safe ceramic bowl, cover the bowl with plastic wrap and heat for 2 minutes.  
3. Mix 1/3 cup of roasted pine nuts or 1/2 cup of walnuts with the date paste (raw pine nuts or walnuts need to be tossed in a dry pan on stovetop till golden, but not brown, at low heat; stir constantly; walnuts need to be cut to ~1/4"-square size).
4. Scoop out 38-40 grams of the date paste mix (measure with digital scale), and roll the mix into a ball (use plastic wrap or a plastic bag to wrap around the date paste mix while rolling, because the mix is very sticky). Note- For multi-nuts filling (五仁月餅), please reference this very nice YouTube video.

III. Making the moon cakes

1. With a rolling pin, roll each 20-gram piece of dough into a flat round that is slightly bigger in diameter than the 40-gram ball of date paste (see picture to the right).  
2. Pickup the ball and cover the top of the ball with the flat round on its top, like a cap.  Use the thumb and forefinger of left hand to form an open circle, and put this circle of two fingers on top of the flat round. Massage the flat round gently down the ball of filling with the circle of fingers, while pushing the filling up gently with two fingers of right hand. Continue this motion of downward-massage and upward-push until the flat round covers the filling ball completely and evenly, with an opening at the bottom of the ball.  Close the opening by massaging and squeezing the dough edges gently together (try to keep the closed edges as thin as the rest of the ball surface, i.e., not to have the dough bunched together at the bottom). Please see the YouTube video referenced at the end of Part II for a similar method.
3. Place the ball that is now covered with flour skin on a kneading board (with the closed edges at the bottom).  Place the mold on top of the ball (make sure the edges of the ball do not touch the mold, lightly brush a small amount of water or flour on top of the ball before fitting it into the mold, which is not necessary if the dough is not too sticky, i.e., if it is not stuck to your rolling pin).  Push the handle of the mold firmly downward onto the ball with one hand while holding the mold in place with the other hand (to imprint the pattern of the mold on the ball).  Release the handle, lift the mold, and push the now imprinted moon cake out of the mold.  Take the moon cake down and place it on the kneading board (if the moon cake is hard to remove from the bottom of the mold, clean up the mold and brush on water or flour before imprinting next time).  Cover the moon cakes with plastic wrap.
4. Repeat Step 1-3 for all 13 moon cakes.  Place a piece of aluminum foil on top of a cookie sheet (i.e., a flat bottom baking pan), and place all 13 moon cakes on top of the aluminum foil. Note- the aluminum foil is used to reduce heat at the bottom (to prevent the bottom from being burnt).  
5. Preheat oven to 325 deg-F.  Place the baking pan in the oven and bake for 10 minutes.
6. Take the baking pan out and spray the top of the moon cakes with a thin layer of water mist (to cool the surface of the moon cake).  Brush on a very thin layer of diluted egg fluid (1 beaten egg with equal amount of water, stir and mix evenly).  Let the moon cakes cool for 10-12 minutes. Note- Make sure the egg fluid is not too thick to clog the mold pattern.  
7. Set the oven to 275 deg-F, and bake the moon cakes till golden brown (12-15 minutes).
8. Take out the moon cakes, let cool.  Place them in a gallon-bag and let them sit in the fridge for 2-3 days for the skin to soften.  Serve at room temperature afterwards.  Here is a picture of the finished product.