![]() When I told my mom that I finally made some great looking mooncakes, she was surprised and said “why bother? you don’t even like mooncakes.” It has become more standardized, less creative, and less fresh. It has started to become superficial and cliche, as people only purchase them to give them away. The third reason, and the most important one, is that the quality of traditional mooncakes has dropped significantly and they’re just not as tasty anymore. The other reason is that more modern styles of mooncake have become trendy, such as the snow skin mooncake (with a no-bake dough made from mochi) and French style mooncakes (made with French pastry dough and a jam-like filling). There have been scandals, such as one where a mooncake company reused a stock of year-old mooncake filling and used gutter oil to cut costs. The other fact is that traditional mooncakes are becoming less popular in China. You see, a family can get so many boxes of mooncakes without spending a cent, and you probably only want to eat a few anyway (they’re too sweet and too heavy). We get a big box of mooncakes from our employer, from our community center, from relatives and friends who bought too many boxes and can’t finish them. It’s a deep-rooted cultural tradition, where people send mooncakes to family and friends as a gift, starting two weeks before the festival. You might wonder, do we cook mooncakes at home, just like we cook homemade dumplings to celebrate lunar new year? The answer is a big NO.Īside from the complicated cooking process and the fact that an oven is not commonly found in a Chinese kitchen, it’s simply because mooncakes are a very high-volume item. It’s the day that family members sit together and enjoy mooncakes and a peaceful night with the brightest moon. It’s the the 15th day of the 8th month of the lunar year – the middle day of autumn and the day of the full moon. ![]() Mid-Autumn Festival is a big thing in China, and eating mooncakes with family members is a must. A bit about traditional mooncakes and why people don’t cook them at home You can also find more information about golden syrup and kansui in my other posts, and learn how to make them with typical household ingredients. If you don’t want to read the whole thing, be sure to browse the cooking notes before going to the recipe. I tried to shorten it, but the post still ran very long (>4000 words), due to the sheer amount of information. With this information, you’ll easily be able to adapt this recipe to the available ingredients you have, or whatever filling you prefer. Moreover, I listed every tip and note I have, to help you make homemade mooncakes successfully. In this recipe, you get a delicious black sesame filling, a dough that has a good mouthfeel and keeps its shape, and thorough step-by-step pictures of the whole process. 7.This recipe shows you how to create traditional Cantonese mooncakes from scratch without purchasing golden syrup or kansui. The crust is made from chocolate and the filling can be oats, berries, Oreo flavor, etc. The attractive mooncake appearance and the thick scent of chocolate mix traditional Chinese culture and Western romantic culture together. ![]() ChocolateĬhocolate (巧克力 qiaokeli /chyaou-ker-lee/) mooncakes make Mid-Autumn Festival more romantic. Fillings including honeydew, litchi, and pineapple make this traditional dessert healthier. Vegetable and Fruitįruit and vegetable (果蔬 guoshu /gwor-shoo/) mooncakes are filled with fresh vegetables and fruits, and taste soft and smooth. The fillings can be sweet or savory, or both, such as fruit and duck egg yolks. Now some people add juice to the crust to make it look more colorful. The crust is made of frozen glutinous rice, and looks snow white. Snow skin (雪皮 xuepi /shwair-pee/) mooncakes are non-baked mooncakes, which originated in Hong Kong, and have become fashionable in China. Lotus seed paste is considered the most luxurious mooncake filling.ĭue to the high price of lotus paste, white kidney bean paste is sometimes used as filler, sometimes with duck eggs, so make sure you don't go too cheap and get a real lotus paste mooncake. ![]() Lotus seed paste (莲蓉 lianrong /lyen-rong/) mooncakes are a famous Mid-Autumn Festival dessert of Cantonese origin, which have become popular all over China and even overseas.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |