Mooncake or Chinese moon cakes

The bamboo steamer allows you to create delicious dishes, such as mooncake or Chinese moon cake: here's the recipe!

The mooncake or moon cake is a Chinese dessert consumed during the Chinese Mid-Autumn Festival dedicated to the cult of the Moon (which falls on a different date every year). Traditionally they are round or rectangular and have a thick, pasty filling, usually composed of anko or lotus seed paste : however, there are also very imaginative ones that are far from tradition, especially when you move away from their area of ​​origin.

There are many versions of these moon cakes, we offer you a fairly traditional one, but with the possibility of customizing it according to your tastes . Follow us.

Preparation of mooncakes

1. First, pour the flour, oil, glucose syrup (or honey) and alkaline water into a bowl.
2. Work with a whisk to make everything homogeneous , then knead by hand until you obtain a smooth and homogeneous ball , which you will wrap in cling film and leave in the fridge for about 3 hours .
3. While the dough rests, prepare the filling : place the anko jam or the bean jam in a small bowl and chop the dried fruit to taste (we suggest mixing sesame seeds to taste with about 100 g of chopped dates and the half of the soaked and chopped raisins) which you can add or not to the more liquid part of your choice.
4. Then take the dough and make small balls of about 12-15 g (you should have about a dozen).
5. Roll them out with a rolling pin or spread them out with your hands.

6. At this point comes the fun part, stuffing them . If you decide to add the hard-boiled egg yolk as per tradition, we advise you to wrap the yolk with a thin layer of jam or beans, then place the ball in the center of the dough and delicately close the dough on itself, wrapping all the filling and sealing it well. If, however , you do not want to add the egg yolk, we recommend mixing the jam with dried fruit, making a ball which you will place in the center of the dough before proceeding with the closure.

7. Press the balls into the appropriate molds to obtain the decoration you prefer and remove them.
8. Proceed with cooking: place in the oven at 180°C for about 5 minutes .

8. Remove the cakes, brush them with 1 beaten egg and put back in the oven for another 15-20 minutes .

9. Serve mooncakes or Chinese moon cakes only after they have cooled . If you prepare them with the yolk in the center when cut, you will feel like you have a full moon inside.

In this video you can see all the steps to make them and discover how the special mooncake mold works.

Conservation

You can keep the mooncakes for about 1-2 days in the fridge , but we recommend consuming them at the moment.

Origin and history of Chinese mooncakes

Between reality and legend, the origins of mooncakes are lost in the mists of time. Today they are the dessert par excellence of the Chinese Mid-Autumn Festival , also known as Mooncake Day . This falls every year on the fifteenth day of the eighth month of the lunar calendar therefore, compared to our calendar, it varies from year to year. This day, called Mid-Autumn or moon night , is dedicated to the cult and observation of the star, personified by Chang'e, the lunar goddess of immortality.

According to the Book of Rites , the emperor was to offer sacrifices to the sun in spring and to the moon in autumn, immediately after the harvest. Thus it was that in 420 , during the Song dynasty , this day of celebration was established, which is still very much felt today although less known than the Chinese New Year.

But there is also a legend regarding the dessert. In fact, it seems that during the period of government occupation by the Mongols, these cakes were used by Chinese revolutionaries to transmit secret messages . These could be contained inside or written on the surface in the form of a puzzle: four cakes with different designs were packaged together; to recompose the mosaic they had to be cut into four and reassembled so that the message could be read on the surface.