Is This Moon Cake Originates From Shanghai? Shanghai Moon Cake (上海月饼）

INTRODUCTION

My kids loved Shanghai moon cakes not because of the egg yolk or filling, but the short crust pastry. At times, while I am not paying attention , they will “dig” out and throw away the filling and egg yolk  and eat the pastry only.. The same with my wife who is not a fan of moon cake at all. 

As a result, I have decided to prepare some moon cakes that are “thick skin” with minimum fillings.. But the recipe have been adjusted to the ratio of one filling to one skin (Skin: filling = 1:1).

I have a post on short crust pastry mooncake last year resembling the one sold by the famous bakery in Kluang. Locally, they called it the “mouse moon cake” and if you are interested, you can take read the post; Moon cake – Short Crust Pastry Moon Cake 

The colloquially so called Shanghai moon cake is characterized by its short crust pastry but it seems that Shanghai do not have such type of moon cake. It was not even listed in the Wikipedia’s listing of moon cake. The origin of it is rather doubtful..

Putting that aside, the Western style of short crust pastry definitely goes well the oriental moon cake fillings.

This recipe is my recipe modified from the above post. I have used butter instead of vegetable shortening as what most other recipe have called for.

Preparation is not difficult at all. In fact, among all the moon cakes, this should be one of the easiest and failure rate is very low.

The size of the moon cake will depends on your preference and if you like smaller sizes, you will need to get hold of more salted egg yolks as compared to 4 stated in the recipe.

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WHAT IS REQUIRED

Servings: Prepare 4 Shanghai Moon cake

Short Crust Pastry

• 80 grams of butter, chilled and cut into cubes and keep in the fridge waiting for later use
• 1 egg, lightly beaten
• 200 grams of self raising flour, sifted
• 40 grams of sugar powder
• 30 grams of custard powder
• 20 grams of milk powder (not in picture)
• 1-2 tablespoons of milk (not in picture)

Fillings

• 4 salted egg yolks (pre-steamed for 5 minutes or microwave for15 seconds)
• 50 grams of chopped walnuts
• 350 grams of lotus seed paste

Egg washing

• 1 egg yolk plus 1 tablespoon of milk plus a few drops of cooking oil, beat and sift

Others

• Some melon seeds  for decoration
• Some sesame seeds for decoration

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STEPS OF PREPARATION

• Preheat the oven to 180 degrees.

• Mix the chopped walnuts to the lotus seeds fillings, knead until well mixed. Divide into 4 balls (or your desired number of balls), wrap a salted egg yolk in each ball. Shape round and set aside for later use.

• Sift custard powder, self raising flour, icing sugar and milk powder in a bowl. Add the cold butter and use fingertips to rub the butter until it resembles some crumbs. Add the beaten egg yolk and cold milk, lightly knead until it forms a pliable dough. If the dough is too dry, add teaspoon by teaspoon of milk gradually.

• Divide the dough into 4 equal balls (or your desired number of balls). Take one ball, flatten the dough, wrap a ball of filling, seal the edges and transfer to the cupcake cups or a lightly greased tray.  Egg wash the dough as thoroughly as possible and baked in the oven for 10 minutes.

• After 10 minutes, egg wash for the second time and while it was wet, put the melon seeds and sprinkle with some sesame seeds. Send back to the oven and baked again for another 10-15 minutes. The baking time is for your reference and depends very much on the size of your moon cake. (Note: Alternatively, you can choose to egg wash once, but you have to put the melon seeds and sesame seeds once you do your first egg wash).

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CONCLUSION

This is the ratio of one filling to one skin (1:1) However, do make provisions for yourself and choose a ratio that you are most comfortable (possibly 1.2 skins : 1 filing) with and come out with a presentable moon cake. This dough can be rather dry, remember: Add cold milk TEASPOON BY TEASPOON until you are able to handle it. Handling shall be light and swift for the pastry.

This recipe was included in Page 14-15 of the “Easy Mooncake Recipes E-book”. For more mooncake recipes, you can have a copy of “Easy mooncake recipes  – A step by step guide” that was packed with 20 recipes, 45 pages at a reasonable convenience fee of USD4.00. The recipes covered various recipes from durian mooncake, traditional baked mooncake and also the less common Teochew mooncake . You can purchase by clicking the link above.You can either pay using Pay Pal or Credit card account. Please ensure that you have an PDF reader like Acrobat or iBooks in your mobile phone or iPad if you intended to read it in your ipad or mobile phone. Should there be any problems of purchasing, feel free to contact me at kengls@singnet.com.sg and separate arrangement can be made.

For this year, I have planned to prepare this moon cake as hand gifts to friends and relatives if there are additional images, I will upload in the post.

Hope you like the post today. Cheers and have a nice day.

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