drippings from the maple-glazed turkey OR 1/4 cup fat such as butter or bacon fat
1/4 cup flour
2 cups chicken stock OR turkey stock
salt & freshly ground black pepper
1 lemon
Cooking Directions
Pour the drippings from the maple-glazed turkey into a pan, or add whatever fat you’re using. Set pan over medium heat and whisk flour into the drippings until smooth.
Gradually add stock while continuously stirring. Raise heat to high and bring to a simmer while stirring regularly, until gravy is thickened to your preferred consistency.
Season with salt and pepper, to taste, and fresh lemon juice, to taste.
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A juicy turkey seasoned with sage butter and maple syrup, and topped with bacon – we’re making a whole maple-glazed turkey today!
You may be thinking, Allison, it’s the beginning of October, it’s a little early for turkey don’t you think?
But if you’re wondering that, then you may not realize that Canadian Thanksgiving is the second Monday in October!
And can I just note how amazing it is to be in such an interconnected world? The internet may be trash sometimes, but without the web we’d all be so much less likely to be exposed to cultures and countries outside our own.
But thanks to the internet, I’ve been introduced to new foods and holidays and cultural norms… such as my Canadian friends celebrating their Thanksgiving a month before ours!
And… since it’s Canadian… what’s more appropriate than a maple-glazed turkey?
If you’ve been keeping up with our videos then you may have an inkling of what’s coming up soon… but if not, I’ll keep it a surprise!
Let’s make our turkey!
Step 1: pretend this chicken is a turkey, because it’s October! And I’m in California! And I can’t find a reasonably priced turkey that will fit in my teeny tiny oven anywhere! Have you seen the size of my oven? There is NO way I could fit a 14lb turkey in there.
We want the skin to dry out a little so it has a better chance of crispiness. So put your whole turkey/chicken on a rack in a roasting pan, breast-side up, and let it sit out at room temperature for an hour.
Also, make sure you remove any giblets or neck that came with the turkey – there’s usually a bag inside the body cavity. Although… are you even a real cook if you haven’t accidentally cooked the giblets bag at least once? I definitely have. Unfortunately this chicken didn’t come with ANY giblets. I feel cheated!
While your bird is coming to room temperature, mince some fresh sage leaves. This is what will give it that really “Thanksgiving” smell – it’s floral and earthy and almost pine-scented. Stir that into some room temperature butter that we’ll be using to slather our turkey, and then season that with kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper.
Before preheating (although let’s be honest, I regularly forget to do this ahead of time and always end up hanging a hot rack on our pot rack – say that five times fast) put the oven rack in the bottom third of your oven so your turkey will fit, and remove the top rack. Now, preheat your oven to 350F.
Before we butter ’em up, liberally sprinkle the turkey with salt and pepper, and use your hands to rub it both inside and out so as much as the turkey as possible is seasoned. Really get in that body cavity.
Once your turkey is seasoned, spread the sage butter over the entire turkey. Since it’s butter, it got pretty slippery, so I just tried to dab it on as much of the surface area as possible. Ease your hand under the skin, and slowly pull the skin away from the meat, getting as far under the skin as you can get without tearing the skin itself. Then stuff some of the butter under the skin as well, trying to get an even layer.
Truss the legs with kitchen string. This helps prevent the skin from burning, but also works to keep the meat moist by minimizing the surface area of the bird.
And – since this is a maple-glazed turkey after all – we’re going to baste our turkey with maple syrup that’s been diluted with a bit of hot water. Since the butter is rather precariously attached to the skin, I kind of dribbled the syrup over the turkey, since painting it with the pastry brush would just brush the butter right off. Don’t worry about using all the syrup, as you’ll be basting several times as it cooks.
And now it’s time to cook! Since I’m using a small chicken instead of a big turkey, my timing is quite a bit different, but I’ll give both times just in case.
Either way, expect to be cooking your bird for about 13 minutes per pound. My 4lb chicken only took a little over an hour to fully cook, but a larger 12-14lb turkey may take closer to 3 hours or more.
Every so often, baste your bird with more maple syrup. For a larger turkey you can do this every half hour, but for my small chicken I did it every 15 minutes.
When about 2/3 of the time has passed (so for a larger turkey, after 2 hours; for our smaller chicken, 45 minutes), take the bird out of the oven, and lay strips of bacon over the breast. Since our chicken was starting to brown quite a bit, we also put bacon over the legs and wings… because more bacon is always a good thing.
Baste the bacon-covered bird with the maple syrup again.
If you have an oven-safe meat thermometer, then insert that in the meatiest part of the thigh, without touching the bone, and put the turkey back in the oven. I just tested the temperature every time I took it out to re-baste.
From here, you’re cooking the turkey until the temperature hits 165F. Continue basting every half-hour. If the bacon is fully cooked before the turkey is done, you can cover it with foil so it doesn’t burn.
When the temperature hits 165F and the juices run clear, remove your bird from the oven! Tilt the turkey so all the juices run out into the pan – Shrimpy will be using that for gravy next video.
Then place your turkey on a cutting board, tent it with foil, and let sit for half an hour before carving.
1 12- to 14-pound fresh or frozen turkey, completely thawed
3/4 cup 1 1/2 sticks butter, at room temperature
3 tbsp finely chopped fresh sage
salt & freshly ground black pepper
1 cup pure maple syrup
1/4 cup hot water
8 strips bacon
Cooking Directions
An hour before roasting, take turkey out of fridge, unwrap, and remove bag of giblets and/or neck. Place turkey on a rack in a large roasting pan, breast side up, to allow it to dry and come to room temperature.
Place oven rack in the bottom third of the oven and remove the top rack. Preheat oven to 350°F.
Stir minced fresh sage into softened butter until well combined. Season well with salt and pepper.
Liberally sprinkle the turkey, inside and out, with salt and pepper. Carefully slide your fingers under the skin of the breast and drumsticks to lift it away from the meat. Slip spoonfuls of sage butter underneath the skin and gently smooth over the top of the skin to spread out the butter in a thin layer. Repeat everywhere that you can reach under the skin until all of the butter has been used. Truss the turkey legs.
Combine maple syrup and hot water. Use a basting brush to baste the entire turkey. Place turkey in the oven, basting with maple syrup every 30 minutes. If the breast and/or the tops of the drumsticks turn golden brown before the rest of the turkey, shield them with foil. Plan to roast your turkey for about 13-20 minutes per pound.
After about 2/3 of your expected total cooking time has passed, remove the turkey from the oven and insert an oven-safe meat thermometer into the meatiest part of the thigh (without touching the bone). Baste the turkey with syrup once more and arrange the strips of bacon over the top of the turkey with no gaps in between them, until they cover the entire breast. Return the turkey to the oven, continuing to baste about every 30 minutes. Continue cooking, watching the bacon closely so that it turns crisp but does not burn. If the bacon is done before the thermometer inserted in the turkey reads 165°F, shield the bacon with foil (as well as any other parts of the turkey that are brown enough, which might end up being the whole turkey) and continue cooking until the turkey is done.
Once the temperature of the turkey reaches 165°F and the juices are running clear, remove the turkey from the oven. Tilt the turkey in the pan so that the liquids run out of the cavity. Transfer turkey to a cutting board, tent with foil, and allow to rest for 30 minutes.
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Today, ya boi Shrimpy is cooking some caramelized onions!
They’re easy to make, but if you want good caramelized onions, you gotta be prepared for it to take a while. No burnt onions on my watch!
Shrimpy Tips: using a combination of oil and butter keeps the butter fats from burning!
Caramelized Onions
Ingredients
4 big onions (or lots of little ones!)
2 tbsp olive oil
2 tbsp unsalted butter
Cooking Directions
Peel and thinly slice the onions.
Heat a nonstick pan over medium-low heat, then add the oil and butter.
Add the onions and cover 15 minutes. Then remove the cover and cook for another 1 1/2 – 2 hours, stirring occasionally until the onions are nice and caramelized.
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2 gal whole pasteurized cow or goat milk (not ultrapasteurized)
2 oz buttermilk or 1 packet mesophilic blend from New England Cheese Supply or 1/8 tsp mesophilic culture blend such as MA 4000 or MM 100
3/8 tsp calcium chloride diluted in 1/8 cup cool, non-chlorinated water
1/2 tablet vegetarian rennet, crushed, dissolved in 1/4 cup cool, non-chlorinated water
1 – 2 tbsp kosher salt
Cooking Directions
Pour the milk into the smaller of the two stainless steel pots. Fill the larger pot half-full with water. Set the smaller pot inside the larger pot, and set the assembly on the stovetop. Warm the milk to 90°F (32°C), add the buttermilk. Cover, and hold at 90°F for 1 hour (we turned off the heat completely).
Add the calcium chloride mixture by pouring it onto the ladle, and stiring well. Add the rennet mixture by pouring it over the perforated ladle to help splatter it across the top of the milk. Stir up and down (instead of round and round) for 1 minute. Then still the movement of the milk by holding the spoon or ladle at the top of the milk. When the milk is still, cover and let set quietly until ready to cut — about 45 minutes.
Check for a clean break by cutting a slit in the top of the curd with a knife, then inserting the flat wide side of the knife and lifting the curd just where the slit ends. If the curd is ready, the slit you cut will continue forward, leaving a clean-edged opening. Cut the curd into 3/8- to 1/2-inch (0.75–1.25 cm) pieces. Cut vertical columns into the milk first, then turn the knife at an angle and make diagonal cuts down through the top toward the sides. The pieces will not be even-sized; you have to settle for as close to even as possible. Let the cut curds set, covered, at 90°F for 5 minutes.
With the spoon or ladle, gently stir the curds from the top down. If you see any large pieces, cut them smaller. Begin raising the temperature of the curd slowly. Your goal is to reach 100 to 102°F (38–39°C) over a 30-minute period. Hold the temperature and keep stirring for 30 to 45 minutes. The curds should feel springy and even-textured when you break one open. If you’re checking pH, the goal is to reach 6.2 to 6.10.
Let the curds settle for about 5 minutes. Then gently press them to the bottom of the pot with the backs of your hands to form a solid mass. This can take a few minutes. (Mine never formed a mass, so I skipped ahead to draining.) Scoop this mass out, place it in the colander, and set the colander in the pot. It should sit well above the level of the whey. If it doesn’t, remove some of the whey. Place the thermometer into the curd, and keep it at about 98°F (37°C). Cover, and let rest for 15 minutes so the curds knit together.
Cut the slab of curd into two pieces; stack them on top of each other. Cover, and let set for 15 minutes. Restack by flipping both pieces and moving the bottom piece to the top. Double up two ziplock bags, and fill the inside one with about 1 1/2 quarts of water at 98°F (37°C); place that on top of the stacked slabs. This helps get rid of whey and causes the curd to firm into the desired texture. Continue restacking as above every 15 minutes until 2 hours have passed (about eight flips). Check the texture of the curd. When you tear it, it should be like cooked chicken breast.
Place the pieces of curd, which should now be flattened out to about 1 inch (2.5 cm) thick, on a cutting board and cut into strips that are 1 inch (2.5 cm) wide. Cut the strips crosswise into pieces that are 2 inches (5 cm) long.
Place the pieces of curd back in the warm colander and sprinkle with half the salt. Stir with your hands or a spoon for a few minutes. Cover and let set for 5 to 10 minutes; this allows the salt to start absorbing. It will also expel more whey; if you added all the salt at one time, much of it would be washed away. After 10 minutes add the rest of the salt and stir well.
Now let the curds cool at room temperature. Stir a couple of times so the salt continues to absorb. Once you can’t see any more salt, guess what—the curds are done! Store them in a bag in the fridge. They will keep in the fridge for a couple of weeks (but lose their squeak in a day or so). You can also freeze them. If you are a fan of flavored curds, you can add spices and flavoring when you add salt.
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We’ve been so busy filming and working on videos all the time that I have no idea what day it is anymore.
Almost forgot to post this week’s Weekly Wanderings!
It’s been HOT again, so we’ve been surviving on daily ice cream. My mom made pistachio gelato, and we found some of this fig ice cream in the freezer we had forgotten about!
Now that it’s no longer smoky, we’re aiming for daily walks again. Found a pretty succulent.
And a chalk bird.
Tooooo much information.
Breakfast sandwich (with a double egg because I accidentally broke a yolk).
Son wanted toast and then his bread tried to make a break for it. It somehow slipped between the metal wires in the rack and landed on the heating element in our toaster.
A chewy crepe with a layer of egg, filled with a spicy dobanjiang peanut sauce, green onions, and kettle chips – we’re making jianbing today!
We’d been up at 3:30 am to catch our flight from LAX to Portland. We took the train into downtown… and then got hopelessly lost, as the tall buildings interfered with our attempts to use GPS.
But that early in the morning, our hotel room wasn’t ready for us – so we dropped off our luggage and headed off to wander Portland.
In an exhausted daze, we walked, and ate, walked and ate some more. Hainan chicken and doughnuts, wandering across bridges that were a stark reminder of my fear of heights. We had just barely wandered into Powell’s when the text came – our room was finally ready for us.
All that walking had worked up a good appetite – so after we dragged our luggage to our room, but before our badly needed nap, we headed out once more.
Portland is known for its food carts, and lo and behold there was a food cart lot just a couple of blocks from our hotel. We wandered our way around it once, twice… so many options, how to decide?
We happened upon a cart called Bing Mi, which I recalled hearing about before our trip. They serve jianbing, which literally translates to “fried pancake” – Chinese crepes that were filled with egg, sausage, black bean paste, chili sauce, pickled vegetables, green onion, cilantro, and a crispy fried cracker.
It was the perfect pre-nap snack.
When Elgnad redeemed “chef’s choice” as her cookbook redemption and told me to choose any cookbook I liked, I instantly decided to cook from The Art of Escapism Cooking. Mandy Lee, the author, is the writer behind the Lady and Pups blog. I cooked a lot of recipes from both her blog and her cookbook back on my Twitch stream – I love how she puts an even more Asian twist on Asian dishes, and just about every recipe I’ve made of hers has been fantastic.
Some of her recipes can be a bit of a project, with a lot of components to make for the final recipe. And they’re absolutely worth it (plus I can just have Shrimpy cook them for me), but for the first recipe that I cook from Mandy’s cookbook on this YouTube channel, I wanted to make one of her simpler recipes.
Mandy’s version of jianbing starts with the batter.
All-purpose flour makes up your base, and then a whole grain flour such as spelt, rye, buckwheat, mung bean, or whole wheat flour. I happened to have a bag of rye leftover from a failed attempt at a sourdough starter earlier this year, so that’s what I’m using. This will add heft and flavor to your crepe.
Then, we’re adding tapioca starch, which will give your crepe a wonderfully chewy texture. You know we’re all about that QQ.
A bit of water and vegetable oil to bring it all into a batter.
And then just a touch of brown sugar and sea salt to round out the flavors.
Whisk that all together, and let it sit for half an hour.
While you’re waiting on your batter, make the douban chile sauce.
Doubanjiang is a spicy fermented bean paste used commonly in chinese cooking. It’s SPICY, so if you’re not a fan of heat, you can absolutely use less and tone down the spice a bit.
Add a little milk to thin it out.
And then honey for sweetness, and to balance the spice a little.
A bit of peanut butter, to add an earthy nuttiness that will come through the spice.
And a single grated garlic clove.
Mix all that until smooth, and set aside.
You should also beat together your eggs and dice your scallions, if you haven’t already.
Now it’s time to cook. Heat your empty nonstick pan over medium heat for about 30 seconds. The recipe says medium-high, but I had trouble spreading my batter thinly enough if it’s too hot.
Without adding any oil or anything, pour some of your batter into your pan. For most pans you can aim for three crepes, but I’d recommend starting with a scoop of batter, using a pastry scraper or back of a ladle to smooth the batter as thinly as possible, and then adding a little more batter around the edges if possible.
You really want the thinnest crepe you can manage – the first one we made ended up a little thicker, and it wasn’t nearly as tasty.
Let the crepe cook a few minutes, until it starts to brown in spots.
Pour a third (or less, depending on the size of your pan and how much batter you used) of the beaten egg over the crepe, and spread it evenly over the crepe.
Dust with freshly ground black pepper, and let it cook for a minute, until the egg has started to set.
Turn off the heat, and carefully flip your crepe. Brush the eggless side of the crepe with the douban chile sauce – a very thin layer! The recipe makes more sauce than you’ll probably need, as it’s quite spicy. We originally put a decent layer of sauce on the jianbing and practically had flames shooting out our ears. We were much happier with a very thin layer – but even then, it’s still pretty spicy!
Then scatter half the green onions over the sauce, and then sprinkle it with a handful of crushed kettle chips, which she uses instead of baocui or a fried wonton cracker.
This isn’t part of the recipe, but if you have it, you could also add cilantro or pickled vegetables such as mustard greens into your crepe.
Fold the sides in to make a square, cut in half, place in a paper bag, and serve immediately!
Spelt (or rye) Jianbing with Kettle-Cooked Potato Chips
1/4 cup (35g) whole grain spelt (or rye, buckwheat, mung bean, or whole wheat) flour
1/4 cup (32g) tapioca starch
3/4 cup water
1 tbsp vegetable oil
1/2 tsp light brown sugar
1/4 tsp fine sea salt
Douban chile sauce
3 tbsp doubanjiang
2 tbsp whole milk
1 1/2 tbsp honey
1 tbsp smooth peanut butter
1 garlic clove, grated
Toppings
2 large eggs, lightly beaten
freshly ground black pepper
2 tbsp finely diced scallions
2 tbsp chopped cilantro, optional
2 tbsp chopped pickled mustard greens, optional
2 small handfuls lightly salted kettle-cooked potato chips
Cooking Directions
In a large bowl, whisk all the batter ingredients until smooth and lump-free. Let rest for 30 minutes at room temperature before using.
To make the douban chile sauce, in a small bowl, mix the douban chile sauce ingredients together until smooth and set aside until needed.
It’s best to use a nonstick crepe pan about 13″ in diameter, which will make 2 jianbing. If you have a smaller crepe pan, that’s fine as well, and you’ll probably end up with 3 smaller crepes.
Have a pastry scraper ready on the side. Heat the crepe pan over medium-high heat, without oil, for about 30 seconds, until warm. Pour half of the batter into the pan (if your pan is smaller, you’ll need less), and use the pastry scraper to spread the batter outward with a circular motion until it just thinly covers the entire pan. Don’t worry about getting it perfect in the first spread. You can keep spreading the batter over itself, and it will eventually smooth out any uneven parts. This is why you want the pan to be warm and not hot, so you’ll have more time to spread the batter out. Let the crepe cook for several minutes, until the first side starts to show a few browned spots here and there (lift the crepe up with a spatula to check).
Now pour one-half of the beaten egg on top (again, you’ll need less if the pan is smaller) and use the pastry scraper to spread it out with the same circular motion until it covers the entire crepe. Dust with freshly ground black pepper and let cook for 1 minute, until the egg is set enough to be flipped (it should still look a bit wobbly), then turn off the heat and flip the crepe over.
Brush a generous amount of douban chile sauce on the eggless side, enough to cover the entire crepe. Scatter some of the scallions, cilantro, and/or pickled mustard greens all over, then lightly crush a small handful of potato chips in your hands and scatter them in the middle. Fold two sides of the crepe towards the middle, then the other two sides as well to make a large square pocket. Serve immediately in a paper bag.
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I’m not much of a bar person – I don’t really drink – but I love the concept of bar food. Tasty, greasy, sometimes spicy, snackable foods.
I particularly love izakayas – bar food, but make it Japanese.
Edamame, karaage, sashimi, tebasaki, yakitori… y’all can keep your booze, I’m just here for the food.
One dish often found at izakayas and yakitoryas is grilled shishito peppers. A generally non-spicy pepper (although once in a while you’ll get one with a kick), they’re often grilled in the same manner as yakitori.
Today we are making something that, to me, is the perfect intersection between American and Japanese bar food. (The perfect intersection between American and Japanese? It’s me!)
This salt n’ pepper shishito recipe from Life’s Ambrosia is something that we make every time we can get our hands on shishito peppers, because it’s so snackably delicious! They’re smoky and garlicky and have that craveable salt n’ pepper flavor that you so often find in Chinese cooking.
Whether you’re a beer kind of person or not… you should definitely try these if you ever see shishito peppers in the market.
First things first, we’re going to make the FLAVAH. This garlicky oil will be added to the shishito peppers as soon as they’re done cooking, so we gotta make it ahead of time.
Mince a bunch of garlic. Like, a BUNCH. The recipe says six cloves, which I’m taking to mean like 20 tiny ones. We’re using fresh garlic and mincing it ourselves this time, because you want those fried garlicky bits at the end.
Mix that with some olive oil, salt, and pepper.
Now it’s time to prep our peppers – about half a pound or so of shishitos. They should be firm and without blemishes. We’re going to cook them whole, and they’re typically not a spicy pepper, so there’s no need to remove the seeds.
We’re going to dry-fry them – so no oil or anything – in a cast-iron pan until they’re nice and blistered. Get some color on them, start to smell that fruity, smoky char. The shishitos will transform from that bright vibrant green color to a lighter yellow-green, and start to soften as they cook.
Turn off the heat, and add that oil mixture in with the peppers. Cast iron retains heat, so this will continue to cook things – cook just a minute more. You definitely don’t want to burn your garlic, because it will end up bitter, but a nice brown will get the perfect toasty garlic flavor. Everything should smell toasty and garlicky and delicious by now.
Add in a sliced green onion for that bright pop of flavor, remove it from the pan immediately so none of that delicate garlic burns, and you’re ready to eat!
Stir together garlic, olive oil, black pepper and salt.
Heat a cast iron skillet over medium high heat. Add in peppers and cook, stirring frequently, until they start to blister and blacken.
Once most of the peppers have started to blacken and soften, turn off the heat and add in the garlic oil. Toss the peppers to coat for 1 minute, so the residual heat just cooks the garlic. Add in green onions and toss once more.
Immediately transfer to a serving platter and serve hot.
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And now, it’s what you’ve been waiting for… time to make the mooncakes!
We are using a recipe from Omnivore’s Cookbook, which I’ve used several times with good results.
We are going to start with a bit of golden syrup. Mine is store-bought – it’s reasonably easy to find online. But if you can’t get that, it’s also possible to make your own golden syrup at home – you just need a bit of time.
Next, add in your kansui. This is lye water – and if you happen to make ramen at home, you might already have some on hand. However, it’s also fairly easy to make at home. All you have to do is bake some baking soda to make it more alkaline, and then mix it with water. I used the homemade version.
Mix those together well, until emulsified.
Next, we’ll add in a bit of oil – peanut or a mildly flavored vegetable oil would work well. It won’t completely combine, but try to blend it as well as possible.
And then your flour. I’m using cake flour here. It makes the dough very tender, but you can also use all-purpose.
And just a little bit of salt.
Gently fold that together until thoroughly combined, then knead it just a few times. Seal it in plastic wrap, and let rest for an hour, kneading it again halfway through.
Next step – filling your mooncakes! If you need some ideas for more traditional fillings, you can check out the post we published last week, where we showed how to make mung bean, red bean, and lotus seed pastes.
If those aren’t as accessible to you, you can pretty much use any sort of filling that will be solid enough to roll into a ball at room temperature, and that is already cooked and safe to eat since the baking time of mooncakes isn’t very long. Bean pastes, lotus seed, black sesame, and nut fillings are common, but I even tried out a mooncake with pumpkin pie filling and it worked out great.
Depending on the fillings you’re using, you may want to take them out early and let them come to room temperature. For me, the mung bean filling really needed to warm up before it was malleable, but the red bean and lotus seed needed much less time.
When you’re ready to make your mooncakes, make a ball with your fillings. If desired, you can carefully form the ball of paste around a salted egg yolk – but note, you’ll have to use a larger press – we’ll talk about mooncake molds in a minute. For small (50g) molds aim for quarter-sized balls; for large (100g) molds, it’ll be closer to the size of a golf ball.
If any of your fillings are too soft, you can form balls and then stick the balls back in the fridge to harden up.
This isn’t as traditional, but you can also have a bit of fun with it. We decided to experiment with che ba mau mooncakes. Che ba mau is a Vietnamese three color dessert, and it’s made with mung beans, azuki beans, and pandan jelly. We already had two of the three flavors, and to make the pandan layer we just mixed pandan flavoring with some of the mung bean paste until we were happy with the color and flavor.
Then we took a tiny ball of each flavor, and layered them before wrapping – which is our next step!
In order to wrap the mooncakes take a small ball of dough. Roll it into a ball (depending on the size of your mold, you may be aiming for a quarter-sized or silver dollar-sized ball), then roll it out. You can use a rolling pin if you’d like, but I found that using my fingers to press it into a thin sheet worked just fine.
Once your piece of dough is nice and thin, wrap it around your ball of filling. Make sure all of the filling is enclosed. Roll it into a smooth ball, and now it’s time to press!
These are the presses I have – the kind where you fit the ball into the mold, and then firmly press down with the handle to shape the mooncakes. The one I have came with two shapes and two sizes, with three patterns each, for a total of 12 different mooncake designs.
There are also wooden molds where you press the mooncake into the mold with your hands.
Either way, if you have trouble with the mooncake dough sticking to the mold, you can lightly dust with more flour before molding your mooncakes. I didn’t have any issues with my plastic molds, but I imagine wooden molds might stick more.
But what if you don’t have mooncake molds and don’t want to purchase any? If you want to form them into shapes, then you could probably press it into a muffin tin or cookie cutters. But honestly, they work wonderfully as balls! Just put your ball of filling and dough on your baking sheet, and continue as is. (We’re henceforth calling these Moonballs!)
If you’re making mooncakes with multiple fillings, you can use food coloring to mark which mooncake is which.
Now it’s time to bake! Preheat your oven to 350F. Place all your mooncakes on a parchment paper-lined baking sheet, making sure there’s about an inch of space between them. Then bake for 8 minutes.
While they’re baking, whisk an egg with a pinch of salt for your egg wash.
After 8 minutes, take your mooncakes out, brush them with egg wash, and then put them back in the oven for another 8 minutes.
Once they’re done cooking, let your mooncakes cool completely, and then store them at room temperature in an air-tight container. Technically you can eat your mooncakes immediately if you’d like, but realistically you should let them sit at least 24 hours before eating. If you can hold off, they’re even better after 3 days – the oils from the filling will seep into the dough, and the wrapper will change from crumbly to super soft and luscious.
100g cake flour and extra to dust the mooncake dough
1 batch of your desired mooncake fillings
1 egg
Cooking Directions
To make the dough:
Combine golden syrup and kansui in a large bowl. Mix with a spatula until emulsified.
Add oil and mix again until evenly blended. They will still appear separated, but try to mix as evenly as possible.
Sift cake flour into the bowl. Gently fold the dough with a motion of scraping from bottom to top, like you are folding a cake dough. Do not stir the dough in a circular motion. It will toughen the dough.
When the flour is fully combined, shape the dough into a ball. The dough should be soft and a bit sticky but still hold its shape. Slowly add more flour if the dough is too difficult to handle. Gently knead the dough a few times with hands, with a folding motion. Seal with plastic wrap. Let rest for 30 minutes.
Gently knead the dough a few more times and place it back in the plastic wrap. Let rest for another 20 to 30 minutes. Then the dough will be ready to use.
To assemble mooncakes:
Work on the mooncakes one at a time. Scoop 2 tsp dough, roll into a ball, and press into a flat disc.
Place the filling ball in the center of the dough sheet. Carefully wrap the dough around the filling. Spread the dough until it seals the filling in completely. Try to wrap the filling in a thin, even layer of dough. If you find the dough on some spots is too thick, pull off the dough and smooth the surface. It is doesn’t matter if the dough is so thin that it reveals the color of the filling.
Dust both hands and the dough with a bit of cake flour. Roll the dough betweens hands so the surface will be dusted evenly.
Carefully place the mooncake into the mold. If you find it difficult to do without scraping off dough, you can gently roll the mooncake to fit into the mold.
Place the mold on the parchment and press the handle until you cannot move it any further. Pull the handle up and release the mooncake.
Carefully hold the mooncake without squeezing it, and remove the pattern disc.
If you find the process too difficult and cannot shape a clear pattern, wrap all the mooncakes first and shape them into balls. Place the mooncake balls onto a large baking tray and seal it with plastic wrap. Place in fridge for 10 to 20 minutes until the dough hardens a bit (do not chill the dough for too long).
To cook mooncakes:
Preheat oven to 350F.
Place mooncakes on a baking tray, 1 inch apart. Spray a thin layer of water onto the mooncakes to prevent the dough from cracking.
Bake on the middle rack for 8 to 9 minutes, until the dough toughens and the edges of the mooncakes start to turn golden.
Meanwhile, beat the egg in a small bowl with a pinch of salt.
Remove the mooncakes from the oven. Brush a thin layer of egg wash on the surface of the mooncakes. Only brush the top surfaces, not the vertical surfaces. If you accidentally brush too much egg wash and it fills up the pattern, use a small brush to clean the gaps and remove excess egg wash.
Place mooncakes back in the oven and continue baking until the egg wash turns golden brown, about 8 minutes.
Let mooncakes cool in the tray before removing. Use a spatula to gently push mooncakes to detach them from the baking tray. Transfer to a plate to cool completely.
Store mooncakes in an airtight container. The mooncakes can be served after 24 hours, and they will look and taste better after 3 days.
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Now that we’ve made our salted egg yolks, the question is – what filling to make for our mooncakes?
Mung bean, azuki bean, and lotus seed pastes are some of the most common fillings, and I love them all. Personally, I’m especially partial to lotus seed – which is your favorite?
But I’ve also seen some more modern interpretations – black sesame, chocolate, fererro rocher… if you could put any filling in a mooncake, what would you try?
Pumpkin pie might be good. Pecan pie? Or… what about the flavors of che ba mau, the Vietnamese three bean dessert – azuki bean, mung bean, and pandan?
6 tbsp coconut oil, or other solid fat of your choice (i.e. lard or shortening)
Cooking Directions
Soak the beans overnight in plenty of water.
Drain and place in a medium pot with enough water to submerge the beans or seeds by at least an inch. Simmer on medium-low heat for 1 1/2 to 2 hours, adding water as necessary to keep the beans or seeds covered, until the bean mashes easily between your fingers or the seed is fork-tender.
Drain and place in a food processor or blender with the sugar and a slight pinch of salt, if desired. If you don’t have a processor or blender, you can make the red bean paste simply by mashing with a spoon or potato masher, but I wouldn’t recommend making lotus paste without one. Blend until smooth and about the consistency of hummus.
Return the paste to a saucepan and combine with the coconut oil over medium heat. Cook, stirring continuously with a wooden spoon or heatproof spatula, until the paste thickens considerably and turns glossy. When it resembles very soft cookie dough and sticks to your spoon in one mass, you’re done. Chill the filling in the refrigerator while you make the mooncake skin — ideally, the filling should be firm and cold by the time you assemble the cakes.
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