This is a delayed posting because I was on my holiday visiting family and friends in Philippines. I wanted to bake something for my family because I do miss having my family appreciating/criticizing my work! Baking in Korea is different; I only have my H to taste my baking. At first, I thought of making a fondant cake, but I have hesitations if it would travel well. Should I or shouldn't I go for fondant cake...?
Well, I didn't. Since Mooncake festival was coming up, why not make mooncake?! This is not your ordinary mooncake; it's an apple pie mini mooncake!
Mooncake festival also known as Mid-Autumn festival is celebrated every fifteenth day of the eighth month of the lunar calendar in China, and basically all Chinese community around the globe. It is believed that this time of the year is when the moon shines at its brightess. Legend has it that in the thirteenth century, Chinese used mooncakes as a medium to hide messages to spread the plan of revolt against the Mongolian rulers. There's actually other legends behind the Mooncake festival, but I won't go into it anymore.
molded mooncakes before baking
my cookie stamp mold
Mooncakes are pastries that are as big as a human palm that is filled with sweet dense fillings. Traditional fillings are lotus seed paste with salted yolk on the center, sweet black bean paste, and mixture of pickled melon and nuts. There's also another version of mooncake, which is called snow-skin mooncake. This was created around the 1980's. The snow-skin mooncake has a soft outer cover that is made from glutinous rice. There are now loads of modern versions of mooncakes from durian filled to ice cream filled, basically more choices now to choose from especially in countries like Singapore and Indonesia.
Back to my version, I used pate brisee for my pastry and apple walnut cinnamon for the filling. I don't think the pastry was the right choice though, because it didn't hold the engraving from my cookie stamp. Yes, I used cookie stamp instead of a traditional mooncake mold. I was actually optimistic to find a wooden mooncake mold here in Korea because they have a similar dessert that uses a similar mold. Indeed I found a wooden mooncake mold, but the price made my heart drop! About $90 for a wooden mold! I wasn't prepared to pay that, so I improvised with a $10 cookie stamp instead, and I was lucky to find a stamp that has the Chinese character for lucky engraved on it. It actually worked really well, for my apple pie mini mooncake project!
filling and molding the mooncakes
I'm really happy how this project turned out. Next Mid-Autumn festival I'll try to use the traditional pastry for a mooncake, and try to hunt down a reasonable priced wooden mold!
Charlotte
Hi Charlotte! When searching for cookie cutters for the challenge I saw this stamp and was quite interested, but didn't have a recipe. Your moon cake looks delish with walnuts and apples. You encouraged me to buy one and try your recipe! I will very soon! Thanks for sharing!
ReplyDeletethe stamp was definitely a nice tool :) but i want to find the perfect pastry so it could hold the shape the stamp gives.. :)
ReplyDeleteMaybe if you don't use baking powder (like the tip given for the cookie recipe of last challenge) ?? And leave the ready-to-bake mooncakes in the fridge for a while before baking... I might try that. Maybe it'll hold its shape. Despite the design almost disappearing, I still like that they turned out a little "chubby" ... yum!
ReplyDeleteHi Charlotte! Just baked mine... but they turned out very similar to yours even though I haven't used any leavening agent and I chilled the cakes before baking. But I LOVED the end result I made a very traditionally savory Brazilian Mini pie with chicken filling. I'll blog about it and will certainly mention your post as my inspiration! Thanks for sharing!
ReplyDeleteawww.. that's so sweet Renata!:) I'm glad my post gave you inspiration; really humbled by that :) I'll keep an eye out on your post, can't wait to see your creation as yours are always spectacular!:)
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