Baked Mini Mooncakes

Today I tried a new recipe for baked mooncakes as my sister said that the mooncake pastry of the other recipe is a little tough. I am not sure what the texture of this pastry is as I have to wait for the baked mooncakes to "return oil" ( 回 油 ) which is about 3 days later before I can tell you which recipe is better.
Anyway, for those who are keen to try I have posted the recipe below.





Ingredient: (6 mini mooncakes and extra for 1 piggy biscuit)
100g plain flour
30g peanut oil
65g golden syrup (Abram Lyles)
1/2 tsp alkaline water

Filling:
180g lotus seed paste
salted egg yolks (optional)
roasted melon seeds (optional)

Egg glace:
1 yolk + 1 tsp water lightly beaten and strain

Method:
1. Mix peanut oil, golden syrup and alkaline water together in a big cup and sit this cup in a bowl of boiling water. Stir till mixture is well combine. Remove and leave aside to cool till warm state but not cold.
2. Sieve plain flour into a mixing bowl. Make a well in the flour and pour in the warm syrup. Mix till a dough is formed. Cover the mixing bowl with a wet towel and rest the dough for 30 - 45 minutes.
3. Divide dough and filling according to the size of your mould. Shape the dough into a round flat sheet with sides thinner than the centre.
4. Wrap in the filling and mould it into a ball shape. Coat it with flour.
5. Dredge wooden mooncake mould with flour and put the mooncake into the mould. Flatten it with your floured palms and make sure that the mooncake fills up the mould nicely.
6. To dislodge the mooncake, bang the mould on a hard surface with equal force in the north, south, east and west direction.
7. Place mooncakes on a lined pan and spray the mooncakes with some water. Bake at 180C - 190C for 10 minutes. Remove from oven, cool the cakes for 5 - 10 minutes then apply egg glace and bake for another 10 - 15 minutes or till golden brown. As every oven varies, please standby to check on your mooncakes. If you are doing standard size mooncakes, the baking time might be longer.
8. Store cooled mooncakes in an airtight container and serve only after 3 days.

Notes:
Salted egg yolks
I soaked the yolks in 1 tbsp Chinese wine (紹興酒 or 玫瑰露) for 15 minutes.
I used raw yolks but you can bake it at 160C for 2 - 3 minutes.
If you are adding in egg yolk, wrap the yolk in the lotus seed paste.

Melon Seeds
I love to add melon seeds to my paste as it gives it an extra crunch and it occupies space so you use less paste...healthier...maybe!
I roast the melon seed in the oven at 160C and when they start popping, you can remove them from the oven.
Cool them before kneading into your lotus seed paste.

Scale
My mini mooncake mould can hold a total of 55g, so I used 25g pastry and 30g filling.
30g filling means lotus seed paste + melon seeds + salted egg yolk = 30g.
Of course you can use less pastry and more filling or vice versa depending on your preference.

Mooncake moulds differ in sizes, so please adjust weight of pastry and filling according to the size of your mould.

This is a published ratio of pastry to filling for baked mooncakes which I read from somewhere (couldn't remember where) and I have posted it here for your reference:
1st class mooncakes : 1 part pastry to 5 parts filling
2nd class mooncakes : 1 part pastry to 4 parts filling
Standard mooncakes : 1 part pastry to 3 parts filling

After notes (21/08/2005):
I used Abram Lyles Golden Syrup instead of Taikoo Golden Syrup for these mooncakes. I just found out from net friends that if you use this particular golden syrup, the mooncakes will be darker in colour.