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Welcome to my Kitchen and my Bookshelf where I pair a delicious recipe with a wonderful book! Today, we will enjoy a recipe to help celebrate the Mid-Autumn Festival! Today’s recipe is a unique twist on the classic mooncake traditionally filled with an eggyolk. There are various fillings for mooncakes, including redbean, sweet potato, and more. To dare to be different, we will fill our mooncakes with a rich chocolate/almond butter center which makes these mooncakes even more special! This recipe comes from Molly Yeh. I have made this recipe more than once and I have found that it gets easier over time. I will include some tweaks that I think will help as the technique for filling the cakes is a bit finicky. But not to worry! The end result is quite amazing and worth the effort!  Before we start with the recipe, you might be interested to learn more about the myth behind the mooncake! Enjoy this 1-minute myth created by Grace Lin, author of A Big Mooncake for Little Star. Special Equipment! The mooncake design is created by placing the filled ball of dough in a special press. This one is similar to the one I used. Special Ingredient! Lye Water ~ Make your own here: Recipe for Lye Water: To make the lye water for use in most recipes, use a ratio of 1:4 (1 part baked baking soda : 4 parts water). So if a recipe requires 1 teaspoon of lye water, simply mix 1/4 teaspoon of baked baking soda with 1 teaspoon of tap water. Now on with the recipe!! I found this recipe on Food Network after watching Molly Yeh make these little darlings on her cooking show. Molly Yeh Mooncakes NOTE NOTE NOTE NOTE NOTE Here are my quick modifications, unless you are so good at making mooncakes, then skip this! Molly's recipe suggests portioning the dough and filling into 12 pieces. (dough 20g each and filling 30g each) I found that the ratio was hard to work with. So my suggestion is to double the recipe for the dough and then portion both the dough and filling into 18 pieces each (dough at 26g each piece and filling at 20g each piece) So, now, if you have 18 pieces of dough and 18 pieces of filling and you will be truly successful! Part of my problem was when I went to fill the dough balls. After I flattened the dough in my hand, as the recipe indicates, I found that I could not wrap the dough around the filling without causing holes in the dough and then a sticky mess. I'll show you my bad and my good mooncakes so that you can see how it turned it out. What REALLY HELPED me was when I remembered watching Molly Yeh make these, she flattened the dough ball on a piece of plastic wrap, placed the filling inside, then used the plastic wrap to guide the dough up and around the filling!!!!!! So, my second batch of mooncakes are a little smaller but no holes!!! Okay...enough talk! Here is my mooncake process: THAT WAS EASY! Dough Ingredients: Flour, Golden Syrup (or honey), Lye Water, Oil Filling Ingredients: Milk Chocolate Chips, Almond Butter, Cocoa Powder, Powdered Sugar The mooncakes are delicious right out of the oven. Customarily, they sit for a day or two to let the cookie crust firm up. If you want to wait, be my guest! No matter how you choose to eat them, make sure to enjoy one or both of these books.  The Best Kind of Mooncake by Pearl Auyeung (Author) I thought this would be a great first choice...primarily because I think the best kind of mooncake is filled with chocolate. “Once upon a morning in Hong Kong, in the alley of Tai Yuen Street, a girl is promised a mooncake with a double-yolk center--the best kind! The special mooncake seems like the only excitement on an otherwise boring day in the market where nothing changes... until an exhausted stranger falls to his knees right in the street! He ran through forests, swam through rivers, and even stowed away on a ship, all to get to Hong Kong. Now at the end of his journey, all he needs is a bite to eat, but no one seems willing to help--not even the girl, if it means giving up her prized treat. The girl's ultimate decision has surprising, far-reaching consequences in this mostly true story that reminds us that even the smallest acts of kindness hold the power to change lives, for the giver as much as the receiver.” - Bookshop.org  A Big Mooncake for Little Starbookshop.org/a/106339/9780316404488 (Caldecott Honor Book) by Grace Lin (Author) “Little Star loves the delicious Mooncake that she bakes with her mama. But she's not supposed to eat any yet! What happens when she can't resist a nibble?” This video chat with Grace Lin explains the inspiration for writing and illustrating this beautiful book. Little Brown Books for Young Readers Video Chat SOURCES:
Amazon Bookshop.org Food Network Grace Lin Molly Yeh Finally! I am also transitioning my newsletter over to Substack...it will take a few days to transition, but please consider clicking on this link to subscribe to the Substack so that you will be a part of the journey with me! (and you won't miss any delightful food and book pairings!!) THANK YOU FOR YOUR SUPPORT!! SUBSTACK LINK (This is a free subscription!!!!) |
