Traveling with a Mooncake Mold . 帶着月餅模去旅行

 Traveling with a Mooncake Mold . 帶着月餅模去旅行 

My family loves the Crispy Custard Mooncakes that I make,  they always say it is much better than those from the famous shops in Hong Kong. Some of my friends travel back to Hong Kong for the Mid-Autumn Festival, as per what they said, it is mainly for my mooncakes.  It is really a big compliment to me.  Frankly speaking, I do agree that the custard mooncakes that I make are truly more delicious, it is because I make it with heart. That's the reason why I make mooncakes every year.

This year I brought a small moon cake mold, custard powder, coconut powder and some simple packaging materials to the United States and to make moon- cakes for my family. The rest of the ingredients were just bought locally here. One thing I didn't get used to, was unable to get the raw salted eggs in the community with no Chinatown, all I could find were only vacuum-packed cooked salted eggs, but it didn't make an issue as long as the quality of the salted eggs were good; I just modified the way to put the cooked salted eggs in use.

All custard mooncakes this time were prepared fully by hand, using no machine, except a cooking pot and an oven; I do not even get a small brush for the egg wash. It's a big success....Hahaha, of course, as always,  it tastes very good!

家人愛透我做的酥皮奶黃月餅，他們常說那是他們最好吃的月餅，較香港名店出品的更可口。有很多朋友會在中秋節前回港，他們說為的正是常吃我做的月餅。老實說，我自己也吃遍香港名店的出品，平心而論地我也覺得我做的月餅的確好吃多了，最主要原因是我用心做 ，也堅持每年都為親友做月餅。

今年帶了一個小月餅模，吉士粉，椰子粉和簡單的包裝材料到美國為家人做月餅，其餘食材就在美國就地買，唯一不慣的是在這裡只買到原隻真空包裝熟咸蛋; 不過只要咸蛋品質好，生熟都沒問題，改變一下做法就可以。

全手工，只用煑鍋和烤箱烤成的酥皮奶黃月餅，哈....就連小毛掃也沒用上，大成功。哈哈哈，當然一如以往，非常好味道啦!

Crispy Custard Mooncakes

for 32 pieces of 50g mooncake

Ingredients:

Mooncake filling-
Sugar    115g
Salt       a pinch
Cake Flour    44g
Custard Powder   46g
Milk Powder   42g
Coconut Powder   1g
Condensed Milk   56g
Egg   70g
Coconut milk   186g
Evaporated milk  40g
Unsalted Butter   96g

Salted Egg Yolk, cooked and mashed  8 pc

Crust Dough-
Sugar   118g
Salt   a pinch
Unsalted Butter  234g
Egg    40g
Evaporated Milk   46g
Cake Flour    460g
Custard powder   34g

Egg Wash-
Beaten egg, a little from the leftover  

Syrup
Any Syrup, mixed with a drop of Dark Sauce , a little 

Method:
1. Mooncake filling: in a stainless steel bowl, combine sugar, salt, flour, custard powder, add in condensed milk, egg and mix well, and mix in coconut milk and evaporated milk gradually, then add in mashed salted egg yolks, mix well, and then add butter, slightly mixed
2. Put (1) on top of a pot of hot water and cook until thickened into a dough-like about 10-12 minutes, stir from time to time. Transfer the custard filling into a ziplock bag and knead gently into a tube, let cool and put it into the fridge for about 8 hours.
3. Crust Dough: Cut cold butter into 1cm cubes. In a large bowl, combine sugar, salt, cake flour and custard powder, then cut in butter till all turned into breadcrumbs-like(this process could by done by a food processor, use pulse), mix in egg and evaporated milk until moistened and knead gently into a dough.  Separate the dough into two portions and roll slightly into two tubes, and keep them in a ziplock bag and keep inside a fridge for an hour
4. Take out the filling and divide into 32 portions, 22g each, slightly rounded. If you want to wrap in extra 1/4 salted egg yolk, please do so, you may require additional 8 pieces of salted egg yolk, just flatten the filling and wrap the yolk in. 
5. Divide the mooncake pastry into 32 portions, 28g each, slightly rounded. Roll the pastry into an oval sheet, wrap filling in
6. Sprinkle a small amount of flour on the mooncake mold, pour out the excess, roll mooncake on a bowl of cake flour, then sweep off the excess, put the mooncake into the mold, press it on a baking sheet and release. In order to reduce the heat on underside, you could line your baking tray with a few foil-wrapped card boards
7. Preheat oven at 250C, bake mooncakes For 5 minutes, remove, then brush a layer of egg wash,  air dry for about 10 minutes, then brush one of layer of egg wash, then bake at 230C for another 5 minutes; brush with a layer of syrup,  and bake for 1 to 2 minutes

Cooking Tips:

1. If you want to wrap extra salted egg yolk into the mooncakes, just flatten the filling and then wrap in 1/4 piece of the steamed salted egg yolk. Additional 8 salted egg yolks will be needed.  You may cut down the mashed egg yolks for filling to 4 pieces

2. To treat the raw salted egg yolks with Chinese Rose Wine and steam it till done and cut each into 4 pieces

3. Cook filling using Bain-Marie method is better than steaming as we can control the water content of the filling to the minimum, which can help reduce the problem of flared bottom

4. I wrapped a 45 cm (L) x 40 cm (W) x 8 cm (H) carton in tin foil, and a card board big enough to hold 32 pieces of mooncakes, to avoid overheated baking tray

5. Use ziplock bags to keep filling and crust dough in the fridge, so we could knead it with bag when needed. For crust dough, do not recommend overworking on it to avoid cracks. I use small ziplock to help rolling and shaping mooncakes

6. Ovally shaped mooncakes are easily put into molds

酥皮奶黃月餅

可做32 個50g 酥皮奶黃月餅

材料：

奶黃餡-

糖    115g
鹽    少許
低筋麵粉　44g

吉士粉　 46g

奶粉　 42g

椰子粉　1g

煉奶　56g

雞蛋　70g

椰汁　186g

淡奶　40g

牛油　96g

熟咸蛋黃, 壓碎　 8 pc

月餅皮-

糖　118g
鹽    少許
牛油  234g

雞蛋　40g

淡奶　46g

低筋麵粉　 460g

吉士粉　34g

掃蛋汁-

剩餘蛋液 少許

上色糖漿-

任何糖漿少許，加入一滴老抽，拌勻

做法：

1. 月餅餡：在不銹鍋盆把糖和麵粉、吉士粉、奶粉及椰子粉拌勻，加入煉奶、雞蛋拌勻，再逐少拌入椰汁及花奶，然後放入牛油，略拌勻

2. 把(1)的材料連盆放入一已注熱水的煮鍋隔水中大煮熟及收水，煑時要不時拌勻，約10-12分鐘。把奶黃餡放入保鮮袋，再隔袋搓勻，涼後放冰箱約 8 小時

3. 月餅皮︰冷牛油切成1 cm 粗粒。在大盆中, 先混合粉類及糖，加入牛油粒用指尖把糖及粉捽成麵包糠狀(也可用食物處理器代勞，用按/停鍵)，然後加入雞蛋、淡奶，拌勻。放冰箱待一小時

4. 取出奶黃餡，略搓勻，分成 22g 一份，略搓圓。如要另包入咸蛋黃的，先把奶黃餡壓平, 再包入 1/4隻已蒸熟的鹹蛋黃

5. 把月餅皮粉糰 分成 28g 一份，每粒壓平成橢圓形，將餡包入餅皮內

6.月餅模先灑上少量麵粉，倒出多餘的，月餅也滚上粉，再掃去多餘的，光滑面向下放入餅模中造型，再按出

7.預熱焗爐 250度。先焗 5分鐘，取出掃薄薄一層蛋漿，風乾約 10分鐘後，再掃一層蛋漿，然後230C焗 5分鐘，取出掃一層糖漿，最後烤1- 2 分鐘至上色

提示：

1. 如要另包入咸蛋黃的，先把奶黃餡壓平, 再包入 1/4隻已蒸熟的鹹蛋黃，共約需另加 8 隻鹹蛋黃; 也可先把混入餡中蛋黃減半。

2. 用生鹹蛋黃，最好用原隻鹹蛋取蛋黃，先去清蛋白，再用玫瑰露婦一層，蒸熟備用

3. 奶黃餡用隔水煑的方法較蒸的沒多餘水份，可減少出現象腳問題

4. 我用錫紙包好一個45 cm(L) x 40 cm(W) x 8 cm(H) 紙盒，上放錫紙包好硬卡，足夠放32個月餅入爐，避過低火過盛毛病

5. 利用保鮮袋放餡及餅皮入冰箱，較易處理，也可連袋搓勻餡，餅皮則不宜多搓，免增裂紋。用剪開保鮮袋把餅皮放入再按平輾開都方便

6. 月餅包成橢圓型較易入模

7. 我試過不同比例的餡與皮，從皮薄如20g 至皮厚如31g, 覺得餡對皮最佳是22g 對 28g