The making of… Vegetarian mooncake
Mooncake festival is coming soon, and many restaurants and bakeries alike are actively promoting this once a year event to the public. These days, the mooncake has evolved from the conventional lotus paste filling to various creative fillings such as coffee paste, chocolate paste, ice-cream, green tea, yam and lots more. I had the privilege of attending BigBoysOven baking class a few weeks ago, whereby they introduced Vegetarian mooncake instead. The guest chef that day was Mrs. Wong, who’s the owner of Yishensu Vegetarian chain restaurant. It was an eye-opening experience to attend a class because it was my first time. It was like watching a live TV show by Martha Stewart. *LOL* Anyway, the interior of Yishensu was tastefully decorated and comfortable chairs were laid out for all participants.
Yishensu interior
Chairs for students
We were given handouts for the recipe of the mooncake, and the ingredients are as shown below:
INGREDIENTS
1. Skin
Flour 500gram
Maltose Syrup 500gram
Alkaline Water 3/4 spoon
Cooking Oil 3 spoon
2. Filling 1
Candied Mandarin (chopped) 75g
Candied Lemon (chopped) 75g
Walnuts (toasted & chopped) 300g
Crystallised Candied Melon 150g
Pumpkin Seed (toasted) 150g
Almonds (cleaned & toasted) 300g
Cooked Glutinous Rice Flour 300g
Sesame Seeds (toasted) 150g
Lemon Leaves (chopped) 8 pc
Olive Kernels (toasted) 300g
3. Filling 2
Ginger (shreded & colored with red coloring) 32.5g
Rose Syrup 150g
Water 3/4 bowl (Chinese bowl)
Shochu 3 spoon
Cooking Oil 1/2 bowl(Chinese bowl)
Maltose Syrup 1/2 bowl(Chinese bowl)
Look at all the ingredients nicely prepared on the table.
Ingredients
Bowls of oil
This is Mrs Wong, who’s the teacher that day.
Mrs Wong with Sunny in the background
The handout
Steps:
1. Combine all the ingredients for skin in a mixing bowl. Leave it for at least 6 hours. It is very important to leave it for at least 6 hours for the skin to be elastic and firm enough to wrap the filling.
Mixing for the skin
Maltose Syrup 500gram
Alkaline Water 3/4 spoon
Mix until it becomes a dough
In order to save time (instead of waiting 6 hours!), Mrs Wong had prepared another tray of skin the night before.
Skin prepared beforehand
2. Make into equal portion of 30g balls to be used as skin.
3.Combine all the ingredients for filling 1 in a mixing bowl, mix well.
Mixing the ingredients for filling 1
Continue mixing
Just toss away!
4. Then add filling 2 into filling 1, mix well.
Cooking oil
Water
Maltose syrup
Shochu
Ginger
Rose syrup
Mix
5. Make into equal portion of 130g balls to be used as filling.
Measuring into 130g balls
6. Flour your hands lightly and wrap with skin over the filling. Seal the edges.
Flattening the skin
Wrapping around the filling
7. Lightly dust the moon cake mould with flour.
8. Place each portion into the mould.
9. Press slightly the level with the flat of your palm.
Press it firmly
10. Give the mould a few hard knocks to dis lodge the moon cake.
Knock knock
Tadaa!
11. Place it on a lightly greased tray and bake in a preheated oven at 180ºC for 10 minutes.
Baking
12. Remove moon cake from oven, leave aside for 2 minutes.
13. Brush egg glaze over it and bake at 180ºC for another 8 minutes until golden brown.
Look at the final product! Golden brown and irresistible!
Vegetarian mooncake
Mrs Wong and her creation
Most amazingly, the skin was extremely thin. It’s a wonder how it could cover the whole mooncake perfectly without any nips. And needless to say, the mooncake tasted fabulous! Not too sweet and very crunchy with various nuts. Commendable indeed.
Mooncake with thin skin
After attending this class, I feel motivated to bake my own mooncake! *LOL* We shall see.
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Comments (30)
This is so cool! Look easy to prepare. Never know that vegetarian mooncake so interesting.
.-= email2me´s last blog ..Kuala Lumpur Best Nasi Lemak at Jalan Ipoh, In Front Of HSBC Bank =-.
Yea, looks pretty easy to prepare eh? But I think the background work (frying/chopping nuts) can be tedious!
.-= iamthewitch´s last blog ..Fancy Mee Corner Pan Mee =-.
1st
2nd
.-= haiseong´s last blog ..Little updates =-.
*hugs*
Thanks for able to attend!
.-= Big Boys Oven´s last blog ..Baking at Anna’s Culinary Singapore =-.
Very happy to do so.
Now that’s interesting. Really have to find time to do this one day!
.-= ablogaway´s last blog ..A Child’s Prayer =-.
Ya ya! Do it and let me know how it turns out.
This vegetarian mooncake looks like what we called ‘kam tui’ (golden leg)…
Exactly, you’re right.
this must be an incredible experience! making vegetarian mooncake summore! the environment for the students looks good too:)
.-= Christine´s last blog ..Dessert’s Bar @ Casa Tropicana, PJ =-.
The environment was definitely not bad.
So, you gonna have a mooncake party at your humble abode?
.-= Neo´s last blog ..Controversial Youtube videos =-.
LOL I don’t have a proper oven yet. I’ll let you know if I successfully make one some day.
hihi, nice meeting you that day. ^^
this is such a nice event. so, have you start baking mooncakes?
.-= ai wei´s last blog ..Memorable Birthday 09 Part 4: the blast @ Wong Kok Char Chan Teng =-.
Hey Ivy! Nice meeting you too! Nope, I haven’t started yet. Wait til I get myself a nice oven.
*excuses*
Looks nice and comfy
.-= Plaz´s last blog ..Bit Tie & family 2009 =-.
And Delicious!
So when can I get to taste your home made mooncake? I like mooncakes you know cos I have sweet tooth, but I prefer the ping pei (snow skin) ones.
.-= foongpc´s last blog ..My Very First Li River Cruise (Part 1) =-.
Ahh… that’s the million dollar question, isn’t it?
I’ll let you know if I make one SOME day. *LOL*
I LIKE MOON CAKE ~~~
^^
IAW, you don’t need an oven to make mooncakes. If you have a slow cooker, you can bake mooncakes in the slow cooker. See my comments on this page (with pictures):
http://cornercafe.wordpress.com/2008/09/11/shanghai-mooncakes/#comment-1211
can i get vege moon care at the shops??
and pls telme the vege moon cake name??/so that i canget it from the shops???thank you…. regars shree
Hi Shree,
There’s no special name for the mooncake as far as I’m concerned. Do ask for vegetarian mooncake from Yishensu.
tanx dear….im an indian gal bt love moon cake bt cant eat al as im vege,tats y…thanks
You’re most welcome!
OMG! They just look irresistible… x)
Are you going to try making it?