Shanghai mooncake

I made the lotus paste using Christine's recipe. I used white lotus seeds so the paste is fair in color. The texture of the paste is not so right. It's too dry to be considered as paste, probably because I cook it for too long. I like the taste, not too sweet, unlike the commercial ones.

I used SeaDragon's recipe for the Shanghai mooncake. I made plain and egg-yolk version, and everybody (who had eaten) prefers the egg-yolk version. The skin is a little too moist, it would be better if I can make it a little more flaky.

For the egg-yolk version, I used half salted egg-yolk per mooncake. The egg-yolk is pre-cooked in the oven, 180C for 10 mins. I topped it with some black sesame seeds for decoration, also to indicate it's egg-yolked.

After our lantern session, we had some mooncakes with hot tea.

中秋节快乐!

Jelly Mooncakes

I've made jelly mooncakes a few years ago, but totally forgotten how was it. This year I planned to try making it again since nowadays commercial mooncakes are getting too expensive.

I started with the simplest one which is jelly mooncakes. It actually should be called mooncake jelly because it's really just jelly, with the shape of traditional mooncake.

Simplest in the sense of ingredients and steps. The tricky part of making jelly mooncake is timing. Making the 'filling' at the center of the 'skin' requires good timing. Too soon (when the first layer of jelly not readily set), the filling will drop to the bottom of the mould - causing the 'filling' to be on top of the mooncake; too late (when the first layer is set and 'dries up'), the second layer of the skin will not stick to the first layer - causing the mooncake to split into half when done. This I learn from the hard way, trial and error to capture the correct timing.

Another miskate I made is didn't bring the liquid mixture to boiling point before taking off heat and pour into the mould, the jelly did not set, it remains liquid after refrigerated for one night.

I used the recipe from here. And modified it accordingly to the flavour/ingredient I like. The recipe is enough to make 6 'filling' jelly (I use muffin tray as mould) and 4 mooncakes.

A: 'Filling'
1 1/4tsp Agar-agar powder
40g castor sugar
100ml evaporated milk
200ml water
1/8tsp salt

B: 'Skin'
1/2 tbsp Agar-agar powder
70g castor sugar
350ml water
100g dragon fruit (blended)

'Filling'
Mix all ingredient A together and boil it, then pour the boiling mixture into the muffin tray. Let it set, to be used later.

'Skin' and assembly
B: Mix Agar-agar powder and castor sugar, then boil it in water with the blended fruit, scoop some boiling mixture into the mooncake mould, about 20% full, let it slighty set in room temperature, then place the 'filling' at the center. Pour the remaining mixture into the mould till full. Can poke a few holes in the jelly with toothpick to avoid the bottom and top part split off. Let it set in room temperature, then refrigerate it overnight. 

Cuti-cuti Malaysia

Next time when you are planning for a location to visit during a vacation, do consider local destinations first. There's really a reason why Malaysia is attracting so many tourists every year :)

Batu Caves - Selangor

Berjaya Hills, Pahang

Ipoh Train Station - Ipoh

Perak Cave (Temple) - Ipoh

Melaka River - Melaka

Dutch (Red Square) - Melaka

St. Paul Church - Melaka