Mooncakes are a very elegant pastry traditionally served during the mid-Autumn festival in the Far East. They traditionally are made with egg yolks symbolising the moon and can have a variety of fillings and a variety of crusts.
However, as thought I would try a completely vegetarian mooncake with a partially rehydrated dried apricot instead of yolk, and chestnut puree for the filling instead of lotus paste - which honestly I couldn't find anyway.
Actually, this is only the filling for the mooncalkes, but there were a couple of issues with the skins recipe and then I realised it is OK to have the filling on its own as a dessert :)
Makes 15-16 mooncakes
15-16 partially rehydrated yellow-orange dried apricots
(To rehydrate the apricots - cover with warm water and soak for 1 hour, then dry the water)
454 gr - 1 can chestnut puree
4 tbsp groundnut oil
100 gr almond powder
70 gr golden caster sugar
Method:
Heat the oil in a pan, add the puree and the sugar and fry at low heat for some 30 minutes. Remove from heat and add the almond powder. Knead well. Shape it like a cylinder with width about 4 cm and height around 2 cm. Cut to 16 equal parts.
Take each part and shape it as a ball, the make a pit in the middle and place the apricot, push down and cover it with the chestnut and almond paste.
Place in mooncake moulds and voilà , it's ready.
4 comments:
These look really good, I love how they're moulded like Oreos! Great sounding flavour comb too.
Thanks!
I am so disappointed the skin dough didn't work :(
Have to practise it harder! :)
I must admit I really don't like mooncakes normally. Too greasy and with fillings I rarely care for...does that make me a bad Chinese girl? ;p But honest to god, this is the most delicious sounding mooncake-like treat I've ever encountered. LOVE chestnuts and apricots. Great idea and good luck on the skin in the future.
Hey, thank you for the appreciation! :)
Actually I got the idea from a photo of a real mooncake - I didn't know the round yellow-orange thing in the middle was a yolk, so I thought it might have been an apricot :)
And as I have issues with undercooked eggs, especially yolks, so just developed the idea and ended up with the chestnut filling.
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