Mixed Nuts Mooncake (五仁月饼）
Mixed Nuts Mooncake, fragrant, sweet, savory, delicious and nutty .. to be thoroughly enjoyed and slowly savored with a pot of fine Chinese tea.
Servings: 10 mixed nuts mooncakes
Ingredients
Mooncake Dough
- 75 g golden syrup
- 2 tsp lye water or alkaline water
- 3 1/2 tbsp oil
- 1/8 tsp salt
- 150 g cake flour
Nuts Filling
- 25 g walnuts
- 25 g pecans
- 25 g pistachios
- 25 g almonds
- 20 g pumpkin seeds
- 20 g sunflower seeds
- 10 g white sesame
- 10 g black sesame
- 10 g cranberries
- 10 g candied pineapple
- Optional: 15g ba kwa (Chinese grilled pork jerky)
Nuts Seasoning
- 40 g golden syrup
- 1 tbsp oil
- 1 tbsp sesame oil
- 1 tbsp dark brown sugar
- 50 g fried glutinous rice flour
- 3 tbsp water
- 1/2 tsp spiced salt or sea salt
- 1 tsp cardamom
- 1 tbsp rose syrup
Egg wash
- 1 egg yolk
- 1 tbsp water
Instructions
Mooncake dough
- Combine the golden syrup, lye water, oil and salt until well mixed.
- Add in the cake flour and stir until the liquid is absorbed. Using hands, form the flour mixture into a ball and knead for 5 minutes until shiny. Cover with cling film and set aside to rest for 1 hour.
Nuts filling
- Place the almonds, walnuts, sesame seeds and the pumpkin and sunflower seeds on a baking tray. Toast for 10-15 minutes @205C (Note: you can also toast the pecans and pistachios if you like but I didn’t see the need to as mine were nice and crisp). Let it cool.
- Once cooled, chop up all the ingredients into smaller chunks. Set aside and fry the glutinous rice flour.
- Fry 50g of glutinous rice flour on medium heat until it turns slightly golden ~ 2 minutes. There should be a slight toasted flour fragrance when it’s done. Set aside to cool.
- In a large bowl, combine all the nuts seasoning and mix well. Add in the chopped ingredients and mix till it is well coated with the seasoning. Taste at this point to add further saltiness or sweetness according to your preference.
- Add in the fried glutinous rice flour leaving ~ 1/8 for dusting later. Mix well, then add in 3 tbsp water to combine into a dough. Using hands (I wore gloves), mix in the liquid and massage the floured ingredients until it all comes together as a dough. Once the mixture can be pinched into dough portions which does not fall apart, the nut filling is ready.
Assembly
- Measure and roll the nut filling into 35g balls. Do the same with the mooncake dough. Roll the rested mooncake dough into 25g dough balls.
- Lightly flour the work table and roll out the dough ball into a circle ~ 8cm. Place in the nut filling and seal. Roll gently to smoothen out the seams.
- Coat the filled dough ball with a little cooked glutinous rice flour to prevent the mooncake from sticking onto the mould.
- Place the mooncake mould over the filled dough ball and press firmly (I used 3 firm taps) to shape the mooncake. Gently push and lift the mooncake plunger to release the moulded mooncake onto the work surface. Repeat with the other dough balls.
Baking
- Preheat oven to 165C. Before placing the mooncakes to bake, spray generously with a spritzer of water (this helps to prevent cracking). Bake for 5 min at 165C. The mooncakes will set its shape in this first 5 min bake.
- After 5 min, remove the mooncakes from the oven and do the egg wash. Be gentle and light handed as the egg wash is brushed on. The egg wash is to allow the mooncake to gradually turn golden. Return to the oven for another 5 min. Repeat the egg wash process twice more and once the mooncakes turns a vibrant golden brown, they are done.
- Remove from the oven and cool completely. Freshly baked traditional mooncakes typically hardens as it cools and should not be eaten immediately. Store the Mixed Nuts Mooncakes at room temperature and let it rest for a couple of days. This is called the 回油 process where the oil from the filling gradually seeps out into the skin, rehydrating it and making it soft and delicious. Brew a nice pot of fine tasting Chinese tea, slice the moonies and enjoy.
Video
Notes
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#1 Proportion
I used a 75g plunger mould but I made my mixed nuts moonies slightly smaller (~60g in total) than 75g as I like them in lighter daintier bites.
Depending on the size of your mould, you may make the mooncakes to any size by just keeping the dough to filling at the right proportion.
For this Mixed Nuts Mooncake, the proportion of filling to dough is about 60/40 as I like more of the nut filling in this Mixed Nut Mooncake. Depending on what’s your preference, you can go with 50/50 or keep it to 60/40 according to the mould size.
I have tested with 70/30 filling to dough for this Mixed Nuts Mooncake but I found it more challenging to seal the filling well as the mooncake dough is stretched rather thin. Some of it even resulted in cracked sides when baked. I would say, stick with maximum 60/40 or if you’d really like to have more filling, test the proportion and find that optimal combination for your preference and mooncake sealing skill!
When assembling the mooncakes, I always measure using a digital kitchen scale for accuracy. Remember, the amount of dough to filling is key to getting beautifully proportioned moonies. Also, I like to mould the mooncakes directly on the tray and bake. This way, there is no need to further touch or move the mooncakes and they remain pristine and perfect.
#2 Filling
The beauty of making your own is full control over what you put in your bakes. For this Mixed Nuts Mooncake, you can use any combination of nuts and fruits as preferred, just keep to the total weight of 195g for the filling. Some substitutes that I like are flax seeds, dried apricot, dried tangerine or winter melon, pecans, pine nuts, macadamia nuts etc. The list goes on!
#3 Chop chop chop
Make sure to chop up the nuts and fruits into smaller sizes. This helps to form a more cohesive round filling which is easier to seal into the dough.
I have tried using whole almonds in the filling and it didn’t turn out well. First, it was more difficult to get a nice round filling ball. Next, the whole nut sometimes pierce through the dough during the moulding, breaking the skin and compromising the usual clean sides of the mooncake. So chop up the nuts and fruits filling well, not too fine of course but into smaller chunks for easier moulding.
#4 Egg wash
Traditional mooncakes get its lovely golden color from the egg wash. Once the mooncake has been baked for the first 5 minute and its shape is firm, the mooncake is then egg washed and baked at several 5 minute intervals to brown and golden gradually.
Always egg wash with a light touch. A heavy hand may result in too much egg wash and therefore air bubbles in the crevices of the mooncake. These when baked will give a less than perfect golden mooncake. Still delicious of course but just not as beautiful. So think kungfu style ... dragonfly kisses water (蜻蜓点水) and you’ll get the hang of it!
Always use fresh egg wash. I found that using overnight egg wash on the moonies gave an unpleasant eggi-ness to the bake. If you have left-over egg wash and you were thinking of making another batch of moonies the next day, chuck it and use a fresh egg wash for the new batch.
#5 Golden syrup
Traditional cantonese mooncakes use an inverted sugar syrup as an essential ingredient to produce the moist, soft and shiny texture of the mooncake crust.
What is inverted sugar? - Inverted sugar is a mix of glucose and fructose. Compared to sucrose, the granulated sugar we consume every day, inverted sugar is sweeter. Adding inverted sugar to a bake helps to keep the sugar from crystallizing. Bakes made with inverted sugar syrup are moist with a tender texture giving a great taste and feel on the palate.
Typically, golden syrup, a type of inverted sugar syrup with a rich amber color and a fruity aroma is used in mooncakes. If you want to make mooncakes at home, this is a must-have ingredient. It helps to enhance the golden color of the mooncake and gives a pleasant subtle sweetness to the crust.
Therefore do not attempt to replace this with regular sugar. How about honey, one might ask. Honey is a possible substitute. However, do note honey has a distinctive taste which I find changes the taste of the crust. Honey is also a natural inverted sugar which is not acidic. If substituting with honey, you will need to adjust or omit the use of lye water (碱水 or kansui) which is added to neutralize the acidity in golden syrup (made with lemon).
#6 Storage
Freshly baked mooncakes tend to be crumbly and hard. They need to rest for a couple of days for the crust to become softer in texture and more shiny in appearance, before consuming.
Therefore once cooled, store freshly baked mooncakes in airtight containers at room temperature for 1 to 2 days. This is called the “回油” (huiyou) process where the oil from the filling gradually seeps out to the crust making it more tender and shiny.
Thereafter, this Mixed Nuts Mooncake can be stored in the fridge for up to 2 weeks. Let it sit out to room temperature before serving. Enjoy.
Did you make this? I'd love to know how it turned out 😊 Please leave me a comment or tag me on Instagram, FB hashtag #thesugarcrumble