Red Azuki Bean Mooncake Recipe

The Chinese Moon Festival is Celebrated by Eating this Rich Pastry

Oct 4, 2009 Yahan Wu

This is an important holiday in the Chinese calendar where family and friends gather to celebrate the end of the summer harvesting season. One custom is eating mooncakes.

The Mid-Autumn Festival, also known as the Moon Festival, or Zhongqiu Jie in Chinese, is a popular harvest festival celebrated by not only by Chinese people, but Japanese, Korean and Vietnamese people celebrate it as well, dating back over 3,000 years ago to moon worship in China's Shang Dynasty.

The Mid-Autumn Festival: Traditions and Customs

The Festival is held on the 15th day of the eighth month in the Chinese calendar, which is usually around late September or early October in the Gregorian calendar. In 2009, this festival is on October 3, whenhe moon is supposedly at its fullest, brightest and roundest. Farmers celebrate the end of the summer harvesting season on this date.

The moon Festival is one of the few most important holidays in the Chinese calendar, and is a legal holiday in several countries. Traditionally on this day, Chinese family members and friends will gather to admire the bright mid-autumn harvest moon, and eat moon cakes and pomelos together.

Chinese people celebrate the Mid-Autumn festival with dances, feasting and moon gazing, putting pomelo rinds on one's head, carrying brightly lit lanterns, and most of all, eating the traditional food of this festival, mooncakes, and there is a wide array to choose from.

Celebration with Mooncakes

While baked goods are a common feature at most Chinese celebrations, mooncakes are inextricably linked with the Moon festival. One type of traditional mooncake is filled with lotus seed paste. Around the size of a human palm, these mooncakes are quite filling and meant to be sliced diagonally in quarters and passed around.

This explains their rather steep price (around $5.00 in Canada) and its high calories. The salty yolk in the middle, which is found in “traditional” mooncakes (different varieties and flavours have sprung up in recent years) represents the full moon, and is an acquired taste.

While mooncakes took up to four weeks to make in the past, technology has speeded up the process considerably. Today, mooncakes may be filled with everything from dates, nuts, and fruit to Chinese sausages. More exotic creations include green tea mooncakes, and ping pei or snowskin mooncakes, a Southeast Asian variation made with cooked glutinous rice flour.

Mooncake Recipe

• Prep Time: 20 minutes
• Cook Time: 20 minutes

Ingredients:

Filling:

• 1 pound red azuki beans
• water
• 3/4 cup lard or oil
• 1 - 3/4 cups sugar

Water-Shortening Dough:

• 2 cups flour
• 5 tablespoons lard
• 10 tablespoons water
• 1/4 teaspoon salt

Flaky Dough:

• 1 cup flour
• 5 tablespoons lard
• red food coloring for design

Preparation:

1. Soak red beans in water to cover 2 hours. Drain and discard the water. Cover with 8 cups fresh water and bring to a boil, then simmer over low heat 1-1/2 hours or until skins open. Strain the beans and discard the skins. Place the strained beans in several layers of cheesecloth and squeeze out any excess water.
2. Place in a saucepan with the lard or oil and the sugar. Cook, stirring continuously, until almost all the moisture has evaporated. Let cool.
3. You will need 2 cups of filling for the mooncakes. Divide this into 20 portions and shape into balls. Mix ingredients for the water-shortening dough and the flaky dough separately until smooth. Divide each dough into 20 equal portions.Wrap one portion of flaky dough inside each portion of water-shortening dough. Roll out each piece of dough, then fold in thirds to form three layers. Roll out again, and once more fold in thirds to form three layers.
4. Flatten each piece of dough with the palm of your hand to form a 3" circle. Place one portion of filling in the center. Gather the edges to enclose the filling and pinch to seal. Place the filled packet in the mold, gently pressing to fit. Invert and remove the mold.
5. Dilute red food coloring with water and pour onto a damp paper towel on a plate. Take some food coloring onto the cookie-design stamp, then press on top of the mooncake.
6. Repeat process for remaining mooncakes. Arrange mooncakes on a baking sheet. Bake 20 minutes at 350 degrees. Let cool before serving.

Source: About.com with recipe reprinted with permission from GourMAsia.

The copyright of the article Red Azuki Bean Mooncake Recipe in Asian Cuisine is owned by Yahan Wu. Permission to republish Red Azuki Bean Mooncake Recipe in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.

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Comments

Oct 5, 2009 7:27 AM

Guest :

dope article...

Oct 6, 2009 11:11 AM

Guest :

Looks Very delicous , ill try it!!!

2 Comments