Learn how to make moon cakes with Hong Kong Foodie! Let us bring you into the kitchen of a 53-year-old Chinese bakery in Sham Shui Po. The pastry chefs here are ramping up the production of moon cakes for the upcoming Mid-Autumn Festival. If you are visiting in September, be sure to join us on our Sham Shui Po Foodie Tour for our annual moon cake tasting. You might even have a chance to experience the behind-the-scenes of moon cake making at this legendary Chinese bakery on our Foodie Tour! Here’s a sneak peek of what they do in their kitchen:
Prepare the moon cake crust
In this traditional Chinese bakery, the moon cake production is done by four chefs. The chef on the right in the back is preparing the dough for the crust. Traditional moon cake crust dough ingredients include all-purpose flour, butter, golden syrup and alkaline water.
Get the salted egg yolks ready
You do not have to dry and preserve your own salted egg yolks. You can easily buy them at local Chinese grocery stores. Salted egg yolks are the key ingredient in traditional moon cakes as they symbolize the full moon on the Mid-Autumn Festival evening.
Make your own lotus seed paste
Finding good quality lotus seeds is extremely important to the making of good moon cakes. As you can see in the picture, that mountain of lotus seed paste requires thousands of lotus seeds. After washing and cleaning the lotus seeds, a key step is to remove the stem in the heart of the lotus seeds as it would make the lotus seed bitter. Once you have that removed, you can go on to grind them into a paste and add sugar to it.
Assemble everything
To assemble the different ingredients together, first, you need to use a rolling pin to roll the crust dough such that it is thin and yet enough to hold all the filling. A good moon cake must be “crust thin filling good”, as the Chinese say. Secondly, you stuff one salted egg yolk in the lotus seed paste. In order to make sure each dough of the filling has the right amount, you need to measure on a scale and scrape off the excess lotus seed paste. Then use your fingers on both hands, skilfully press and turn the dough such that the crust can wrap around all the filling. Once you have the dough, put it in a moon cake mold and press it out. It is then ready to be baked! After baking for a few minutes, take them out and put a layer of egg wash such that the crust will have a golden brown color. Bake them a few more minutes and then it’s ready to be devoured!
Besides learning how to make moon cakes, are you interested in knowing the meaning of moon cakes behind Mid-Autumn Festival? Revisit our old blog post to read more.
Moon Cake Tasting on Sham Shui Po Foodie Tour
Join us on our Sham Shui Po Foodie Tour between now and September 13th, 2019, for the moon cake tasting. The special tour held on the actual Mid-Autumn Festival day on Friday, September 13th, will be the highlight as you will experience locals going to the markets early and preparing for the family dinner in the evening to celebrate the festival. Book yourself and your friends and family on this Sham Shui Po Foodie Tour now!
To check out the festivities in Hong Kong during the Mid-Autumn Festival, visit Hong Kong Tourism Board’s website.
Happy Mid-Autumn Festival!