This is a late overdue Mid Autumn post but I have decided to post it anyway. 

My 92 year old Dad fell last month and suddenly we have been completely pre-occupied with the many changes that had to be made for his caregiving.

Mid Autumn  .. the time of family ❤️

God is good. Thankful for His divine hand of protection and favor which helped us to put in place all that is needed to take care of Dad. Grateful that Dad is in good spirits and recovering, getting stronger by the day. 

The Mid-Autumn Festival is always about celebrating family. As we come together to sip tea, feast on mooncakes and gaze upon the most beautiful and brightest moon at Mid Autumn, the spirit of reunion is embraced even if one is at a different place a thousand miles away. 

Dad and I … 我家大宝 ❤️

Counting my blessing that I have the opportunity to make this Dubai Chocolate Mooncake for Dad. 一轮明月挂天边，中秋感恩送祝福。 

Petite and pretty ..

This Dubai Chocolate Mooncake is a gorgeous No Bake chocolate moonie, filled with delicious pistachio kunafa. Crisp, crunchy and oh-so chocolatey.  Enjoy。

Celebrating family … always. 

WATCH HOW TO MAKE IT!

If you like this recipe tutorial and like to see more, subscribe to my YouTube channel here. 

If you like this Oreo Mooncake, you may also like my other mooncake recipes 😊

• Ridiculously Easy Oreo Mooncake
• Orange Cointreau Chocolate Snowskin Mooncake
• Rainbow Mooncakes
• MaoShanWang Snowskin Mooncake
• Mixed Nuts Mooncake

And if you like these mooncake recipes, you may also like my Asian recipes 😊

• My MIL’s Yummy Pineapple Tarts
• Ridiculously Easy Homemade NianGao (年糕）
• How to make your own Lohei (捞起）
• CNY Blessings Carrot Cake
• Easy Florentines, our favorite Chinese New Year snack
• Homemade Ba Kwa
• Grandpa’s Hainanese Mutton Soup (阿公的羊肉汤）
• Kaffir Lime Spiced Nuts
• Laksa Cookie

What to watch out for ..

#1 Chocolate mooncake skin

All are equal but some are more equal than others. If you are using Oreo black biscuits with cream that has been bought quite a while back, be aware that they could have absorbed moisture from the air, the cream (especially in humid environment) and may be soft and not crisp anymore.  

Fresh oreos, crisp and bought without cream

Using such softened oreos may require less liquid to form the dough skin. In this case, I would recommend to ADD THE MILK GRADUALLY and stop once the mooncake dough forms and is nice and malleable. 

This was my experience trouble-shooting with a good friend who made my Ridiculously Easy Oreo Mooncake which uses the same mooncake dough. Hers could not form and was too liquidy with the recipe’s 100ml milk. To save the dough, in the end we added more oreo crumbs to balance out the liquid and she still got a delicious dough skin and made her mooncake in time for Mid Autumn 🙏🏻😊

Use crisp oreos and avoid this

One way to avoid this problem? Taste your oreo cookies before using .. if they taste soft and not crisp, chuck them and buy fresh ones!

#2 Kunafa filling

The kunafa filling (once measured and rolled into balls) must always be frozen before moulding. I tried to assemble the mooncake when the filling was only chilled firm (and not frozen) and it was a FAIL!

Too soft to hold its shape .. a FAIL

When we handle the mooncake, heat from our hands (even with gloves) will soften the mooncake dough making it difficult to seal the filled dough ball if the filling is also softened, too malleable and loses its shape easily. 

Always assemble & mould with frozen filling

Hence, always assemble this Dubai Chocolate Mooncake with frozen kunafa filling.

#3 Making the mooncake

I used a 25g round hand plunger and a 30g square hand plunger to make this Dubai Chocolate Mooncake.

Use smaller moulds for petite bonbon pieces

When using moulds of different sizes, I would broadly apply the 50/50 rule – which is half mooncake skin and half filling. In this case, my overall mooncake mass was ~28g (in between my two mould sizes) consisting of 13g filling and 15g chocolate dough. 

#4 How to get clean sharp edges

For clean pristine sharp edges, I like to clean out the mooncake mould after a couple of plunges as small dough bits may get stuck in the crevices of the plunger.

For sharp edges, clean your mould

These remnant pieces if they remain, will affect the moulding of the next mooncake therefore take a minute to remove them. This little effort will give you success in getting those nice pristine sharp edges and a beautiful mooncake.

#5 Make Ahead 

I usually make the kunafa filling, measure and shape into balls one day ahead as they need to be frozen hard for moulding. On the day of gifting or consumption, I simply whip up the mooncake skin, assemble the mooncake and gift them freshly made to family and friends. 

#6 Storage

This Dubai Chocolate Mooncake is best consumed within 2-3 days and stores well air-tight and chilled in the fridge. When serving, let the mooncake sit out at room temperature for a couple of minutes before serving and it should be nicely firm and perfectly creamy!

Have fun glamming them up!

Did you make this? I would love to know how it turned out. Tell me more 😊  Please leave me a comment or tag me on Instagram or Facebook hashtag #thesugarcrumble