Chocolate with Custard Baked Mooncake

I have decided to teach traditional baked mooncake for Culinary Arts Ministry class at church this August but with a twist :)

Chocolate mooncake skin with custard filling and salted egg yolk!

My taste testers all said this is really delicious as you get a good balance of chocolate, custard and savoury salted egg yolk flavours all in one bite.

Recipe for salted egg yolk for mooncake
(Recipe is adapted from here.)
Ingredients (for 12 mini mooncakes*):
6 salted egg yolks
A small bowl of rose wine (or vodka)
1tbs cooking oil
1tsp sesame oil

*Mini mooncakes are 50g each. If you are making regular sized mooncakes of 100g each, there is no need to halve the salted egg yolks as each mooncake will have a full yolk.

Steps:
1. Preheat oven to 160℃. Set oven rack to middle position.

2. Cut each salted egg yolk into half and reshape into balls. Each half yolk ball weighs about 6-7g.

3. Dip each ball into rose wine for 30-40 seconds and set aside on baking tray lined with aluminium foil.

4. Mix sesame and cooking oil together in a small bowl. Lightly coat each ball with a brush or use your finger.

5. Bake for 5-10min until cooked but not dry. It may be hard to gauge this but watch the colour carefully. Once it starts to lighten a bit in appearance. Take it out of the oven. Mine took about 7 minutes. Cool completely before use.

Pat the excess oil and moisture off with paper towels. You may prepare this ahead of time and store in airtight container for a few days.

I used store bought custard flavoured lotus paste mooncake filling from Phoon Huat. You may make your own custard filling from scratch. Internet has lots of recipes so you may just pick your favourite :)

This filling compliments the chocolate mooncake skin very well. Together with salted egg yolk, you get a very well balanced and rich tasting treat.

For the mini mooncakes that I am making, I use the ratio of 30g filling and 20g dough. Since each salted egg yolk half is about 6-7g, I portion about 23-24g of custard filling for each mooncake. Wrap each salted egg yolk ball with the custard filling. You may do this while the dough is resting.

I adapted from Ann Low's recipe for the mooncake skin and it can be found here.

Chocolate mooncake skin recipe
Ingredients (makes about 12 mini mooncakes of 50g each):
113g plain flour
18g cocoa powder
85g golden syrup
25g peanut oil
1/2 tsp alkaline water

Steps:
1. Sift together cocoa powder and plain flour. In another mixing bowl, mix together golden syrup, peanut oil and alkaline water.

2. Add the flour mixture to the liquid mix. Mix the two together to form a dough. Cling wrap and let it rest for 30 min. Portion out the filling and wrap the salted egg yolks with it while waiting for the dough to rest.

3. Towards end of resting time, preheat the oven to 165℃. Portion out 20g of dough for each mooncake.

4. Carefully wrap each filling ball with dough. Pinch seal and roll the ball between your hands to smooth out any creases or cracks. The dough is rather easy to handle without the need for extra dusting with flour.

5. Place the ball into a mooncake plunger and press out the shape onto baking tray lined with parchment paper.

6. Bake for 10min, then cool for 10min on baking tray. Bake for another 10 min at 165℃ and cool completely before storing. There is no need egg wash but best to spray water on the surface before baking to prevent the skin from cracking.

Freshly baked!

Do wait for 3 days for the mooncake to 回油 (literally translated as "return oil") to enjoy it at its best texture although you may consume it freshly baked. The skin is more biscuity when freshly baked but becomes soft with storage.

Store the cooled mooncakes in airtight container in a cool and dry place. It can keep for a month in airtight condition.


With love,
Phay Shing