MOONCAKE PASTRY

The process of making traditional mooncake sounds complicated, but it can be mastered easily in four stages Mooncakes with hand made filling may not look nice but it always taste better.I made this mooncake using two year back syrup with only 150g left ,I cooked another batch of syrup ,I take out 150g to add to the old syrup and the rest I kept for next year.My lotus paste is 150g and pastry  60g.
and altogether I made 15 mooncakes.

MOONCAKE PASTRY

Ingredients;
300g syrup
90g cooking oil
3 tsp alkaline water
400g flour
3 slices ginger

Method;
1.Put 3 slices into ginger into oil and deep fry until ginger floats up. discard ginger and leave the oil to cool.
2.Place syrup into blender.Add in alkaline water and evenly blend in k mould. Add in oil,continue blending till combine.Add in flour and blend to become soft dough.
3.Cover with cloth and set aside for 2 hour or longer (a total of 790g).
4.You may add some flour if the dough is too sticky ( the concentration of syrup as the main factor).
Tips; can be mixed by hand

Method of wrapping;

1.there are various mould sizes.You may wrap the lotus paste with cling film,then press it into the mould.After deducting the weight of pastry,only the weight of the filling remains.
2.Flatten mooncakes pastry,place the filling ball on top. Hold with your palm and press the top with your thumb. Use another hand lightly push the pastry up, so that the filling ball is fully wrapped ( do not seal the edges) then place it on tray.
3.Pat the mould with some flour, then knock out excessive flour.
4.Put the dough into mould and press it hardly ( to make sure the edges of cake is fully in shape with clear peripheral lines)knock the four sides of the mould,unmould and place it on baking tray,keep a distance in between of them,so that all the cakes are fully baked.
5.brush with beaten egg (beat 1 egg with 1 tbsp water,then filter).
6.place in a 190c preheated oven and bake for 5 to 10 minutes till light yellowish.
7.remove and brush with second layer of beaten egg (beat 2 whole eggs with 1 egg yolk,then filter)
 set aside for 5 to 10 minutes,then bake again till golden brown. ( use your own oven to adjust the temperature).

Keys of point;
it is best to use low protein flour or pau flour to make the pastry skin.All purpose can be use reluctanly.high protein flour cannot be used at all due to its high gluten level and elasticity.Pastry made by high protein flour is hard and easy to crack.it will blur the patterns and create dull appearance as well.