A pumpkin recipe! Rarely do I share pumpkin recipes because I get overwhelmed by all the pumpkin recipes that surface the internet during the fall months and pumpkin just isn’t my favourite ingredient. Don’t get me wrong, I love using kabocha squash (or Japanese pumpkin) in a lot of my cooking and baking — kabocha cheesecake cream puffs, kabocha salted egg yolk sesame balls, and kabocha mooncakes —but I’ll always choose kabocha over pumpkin for both flavour and texture. These pumpkin mochi cakes might be the only exception.

These 3-ingredient mochi cakes call for canned pumpkin purée (not pumpkin pie filling) that one would use to make pumpkin pie or muffins. It’s a great way to use up any pumpkin purée you have leftover from other fall baking projects. Because there are no eggs involved, you can easily scale the recipe up (to make 20 mochi cakes) or down (to make 4 mochi cakes). Glutinous rice flour, or sweet rice flour, is added to the pumpkin purée to create the base of the mochi dough. It’s important to get glutinous rice flour and not just regular rice flour so you get the chewy, sticky mochi texture. Granulated sugar is added to the mixture for a bit of sweetness and you can leave it at that if you like. I normally make it a plain pumpkin mochi but if I’m feeling fancy, I will make a simple 4-ingredient brown sugar filling (making this a 7-ingredient recipe!) for the mochi. The brown sugar filling is warm and sweet, much like the filling for a brown sugar pop tart. The mochi cakes are pan fried, giving them a crispy, golden exterior while the centres remain soft and chewy. Mochi cakes are best consumed right after they are made by you can reheat them on the pan until they get soft again.

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Crispy Pumpkin Mochi Cakes (3-Ingredients)

These pumpkin mochi cakes are crispy, tender, and chewy! They only require 3-ingredients: pumpkin purée, glutinous rice flour, amd sugar. The mochi cakes are pan fried, giving them a crispy, golden exterior while the centres remain soft and chewy. Because there are no eggs involved, you can easily scale the recipe up or down.

Servings 12 mochi cakes

Author Amy

Ingredients

Pumpkin Mochi

• 300 g (1 1/4 cup) pumpkin purée
• 260 g (2 cups and 3 tbsp) glutinous rice flour
• 50 g (1/4 cup) granulated sugar

Brown Sugar Filling (Optional)

• 67 g (1/3 cup) brown sugar
• 3 g (1 1/2 tsp) all-purpose flour
• 1 tsp cinnamon
• 1/4 tsp salt

Instructions

Brown Sugar Filling (Optional)

• Whisk together ingredients in a small bowl and set aside.

Pumpkin Mochi

• In a large bowl, combine pumpkin purée, glutinous rice flour, and sugar with a rubber spatula, mixing until smooth. The mixture will resemble play-doh. If the mixture is too sticky, add more glutinous rice flour, one tablespoon at a time.
• Divide the dough into 12 equal portions and roll each portion into a ball between the palms of your hands.
• Using your knuckle, create an indent at the centre of mochi dough. Add 1 – 2 teaspoons of filling to the centre and pinch the dough to seal the filling.
• Flatten the filled dough ball between the palms of your hands. Using the dull side of a butter knife, create marks on the side of the mochi to create the shape of a pumpkin. Repeat with remaining dough balls
• Heat up a nonstick pan on medium heat. Brush on a thin layer of vegetable oil to the pan.
• Add mochi cakes to the heated pan. Fry mochi cakes until golden, about 2 – 3 minutes. Using a spatula, flip the mochi cakes over.
• Add 1/4 cup of water to the pan and add a lid to the pan, this will allow the mochi to steam and get tender. Leave lid on for 2 minutes. Remove lid and allow any remaining water to evaporate. Fry the mochi for additional 2 – 3 minutes until mochi cakes are golden and crispy.
• Optional: add a pumpkin seed or pistachio for the 'stem' of the pumpkin mochi.

The post Crispy Pumpkin Mochi Cakes (3-Ingredients) appeared first on Constellation Inspiration.

Tomorrow is Mid-Autumn Festival! Happy early Mid-Autumn! I’m done all my mooncake making for this year (I made close to 10 batches!) and I did a little recap over on Instagram last night. Besides making mooncakes leading up to Mid-Autumn and having a family dinner the night of, I don’t do too much for Mid-Autumn. When I was younger, my family would join my friends’ families for a lantern walk around the neighbourhood but unfortunately that was a tradition we grew out of as we grew up. This year, however, I tried my hardest to add more Mid-Autumn festivities — tonight I’m going to a show at the planetarium (!!) where they’ll be projecting Mid-Autumn folklore onto the Star Theatre (!!!!!!) and tomorrow I’ll visit the Chinese Garden to enjoy all the lanterns and artwork. Apparently there will also be a mooncake tasting at the gardens, so I will finally be able to eat mooncakes made by someone else other than me. I always enjoy other people’s baking more than my own.

I feel like every Mid-Autumn I develop some new mooncake obsession. Three years ago, I was trying to perfect the traditional baked mooncake, while snow skin mooncakes were all I could think about the last two years. This year’s mooncake obsession is sablé. I know what you’re thinking… “Really Amy, sablé in mooncakes? That’s not traditional.” Traditional mooncakes have a softer, oil-based dough and I love that. I made several batches of mooncakes with a more traditional dough recipe but my favourite mooncakes that I made this year has to be the ones with a crisp, buttery sablé dough. The golden butter cookie crust gives such nice contrast to the creamy and jammy centres whether its bean paste, lotus paste, or pineapple.

This recipe combines a traditional white lotus filling with my new found love of sablé as mooncake pastry. You could make your own white lotus paste but I love going to the local Chinese bakery to ask if they sell their housemade lotus paste. Most Chinese grocery stores sell sweetened lotus paste too.

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White Lotus Mooncakes with Sablé Crust

This recipe combines a traditional white lotus filling with my new found love of sablé as mooncake pastry. The crisp, butter cookie crust provides wonderful contrast to the creamy lotus paste. You could make your own white lotus paste but I love going to the local Chinese bakery to ask if they sell their housemade lotus paste.

Servings 16 mooncakes

Author Amy

Ingredients

Sablé Dough

• 113 g (1/2 cup) unsalted butter room temperature
• 30 g (1/4 cup) icing sugar
• 1 egg yolk
• 165 g (1 cup + 6 tbsps) all-purpose flour
• 1/4 tsp salt

Filling

• 480 g sweetened white lotus paste store bought or homemade (sweetened bean paste will work too)

Egg Wash

• 1 egg yolk
• 1 tbsp water

Instructions

Sablé Dough

• In a bowl of a stand mixer with a paddle attachment, beat butter and icing sugar on medium speed until smooth, about 1 minute. Add egg yolk and mix until smooth.
• Add flour and salt to the bowl and mix on low speed until combine, about 1 minute.
• Divide the dough into 16 equal (20-grams) portions, using a scale if possible. Set aside

Assembly

• Preheat the oven to 350°F and line a large rimmed baking sheet with parchment paper.
• Divide the white lotus filling into 16 equal pieces (use a digital scale if you have one) and roll each portion of filling into a ball.
• Working with one piece at a time, roll the sablé dough into a smooth ball. Place the dough ball on a lightly floured work surface, gently flatten with the palm of your hand, and roll out to a 3-inch round with a rolling pin.
• Place a portion of the filling onto the rolled out dough, pull up the edges, and pinch together to seal. If the dough is too sticky, flour your hands when assembly.
• Place the filled cake inside the mooncake mold, seam side down, and gently press down with the plunger until it evenly fills the mold. Remove the plunger and transfer the mooncake onto the prepared baking sheet. Repeat with the remaining pastry and lotus filling.
• Brush the tops of each cake with egg wash.
• Bake mooncakes until golden, about 20 – 25 minutes. Allow the cakes to cool on the sheet for 5 minutes before transferring them to a wire rack to cool completely.

中秋節快樂!

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If you’re not familiar with Taiwanese pineapple cake (鳳梨酥), which is drastically different than pineapple upside down cake or any pineapple cake outside of Asia, it’s a bite-sized pastry of a jammy pineapple filling with a tender short crust. Taiwanese pineapple cakes fall somewhere between a filled cookie and a small pie, and is not what we commonly think of as ‘cake.’ Traditionally, the outer pastry of a traditional pineapple cake is made of lard, and the filling is mostly made of pineapple mixed with winter melon, but it’s more common now to have a pure pineapple filling. They’re often baked in square molds but you might also find some shaped with more decorative molds.

I grew up eating taiwanese pineapple cake — these square-shaped pastries were often my after school snack or my mom would include two of them in my lunch box. The ones I ate came in a see-through plastic sleeve but in recent years I’ve branched out and tried other versions of Taiwanese pineapple cake. My favourite version of pineapple cake now is a pineapple mooncake! Specifically a pineapple mooncake with the traditional salted egg yolk centre. My family always buy these salted egg yolk pineapple mooncakes for Mid-Autumn Festival and they’re always the one I go for first (sorry lotus paste!!!). After eating them for years, I decided it’s finally time I create my version of the pineapple mooncake.

I’ve shared Kristina’s pineapple cake recipe on the blog before in celebration of the release of her amazing cookbook, Mooncakes and Milk Bread, and the recipe makes a more traditional pineapple cake. This recipe I’m sharing combines everything I love about the pineapple mooncake with salted egg yolk and my love of a buttery, sandy cookie. It has a classic jammy pineapple filling studded with a salted egg yolk and it’s all encased in a rich sablé-ish cookie crust. The pineapple cakes can be baked in a traditional pineapple cake square mold but I recently bought these pineapple-shaped mooncake molds (!!) which were perfect for this recipe. These pineapple cakes are can be made any time of the year but I’m making extra batches this time of year to gift them to friends for Mid-Autumn Festival.

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Salted Egg Yolk Pineapple Cakes

These salted egg yolk pineapple cakes combines everything I love about a traditional Taiwanese pineapple cake and Mid-Autumn mooncakes! These cakes have a classic jammy pineapple filling studded with a salted egg yolk and it's all encased in a rich sablé-ish cookie crust. The pineapple cakes can be baked in a traditional pineapple cake square mold but I recently bought these pineapple-shaped mooncake molds which were perfect for this recipe.

Servings 16 cakes

Author Amy

Ingredients

Pineapple Filling

• 2 cans (2 x 398ml cans) crushed pineapple drained
• 134 g (2/3 cup) granulated sugar
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 8 cooked salted egg yolks halved

Sablé Crust

• 113 g (1/2 cup) unsalted butter room temperature
• 30 g (1/4 cup) icing sugar
• 1 egg yolk
• 165 g (1 cup + 6 tbsps) all-purpose flour
• 1/4 tsp salt

Egg Wash

• 1 egg yolk
• 1 tbsp water

Instructions

Pineapple Filling

• In a medium saucepan, combine the pineapple, granulated sugar, and salt. Cook over medium heat, stirring frequently, until thick and caramelized, 20 to 30 minutes. Transfer the filling to a heat-proof container or small sheet pan and allow to cool completely.

Sablé Crust

• While the pineapple filling is cooling, making the crust.
• In a bowl of a stand mixer with a paddle attachment, beat butter and icing sugar on medium speed until smooth, about 1 minute. Add egg yolk and mix until smooth.
• Add flour and salt to the bowl and mix on low speed until combine, about 1 minute.
• Transfer the dough to a sheet of plastic wrap, pat into a 1-inch-thick disc, and tightly wrap. Refrigerate the dough until pineapple filling is cool and ready for assembly.

Assembly

• Preheat the oven to 350°F and line a large rimmed baking sheet with parchment paper.
• Divide the chilled pineapple filling into 16 equal pieces (use a digital scale if you have one) and roll each portion of filling into a ball.
• Take a ball of filling and using your knuckle or the back of a small spoon, create an indent in the centre. Place a halved salted egg yolk in the middle and cover it with the pineapple filling. Repeat until all the filling has been used.
• Use a bench scraper to divide the dough into 16 equal-size pieces. Working with one piece at a time, roll the dough into a smooth ball. Place the dough ball on a lightly floured work surface, gently flatten with the palm of your hand, and roll out to a 3-inch round with a rolling pin.
• Place a portion of the filling onto the rolled out dough, pull up the edges, and pinch together to seal. If the dough is too sticky, flour your hands when assembly.
• Place the filled cake inside the pineapple cake mold, seam side down, and gently press down with the plunger until it evenly fills the mold. Remove the plunger and transfer the pineapple cake onto the prepared baking sheet. Repeat with the remaining pastry and pineapple filling.
• Brush the tops of each cake with egg wash.
• Bake pineapple cakes until golden, about 20 – 25 minutes. Allow the cakes to cool on the sheet for 5 minutes before transferring them to a wire rack to cool completely.

The post Salted Egg Yolk Pineapple Cakes appeared first on Constellation Inspiration.

I feel like I’m stuck in this weird phase in between two major themed baking holidays — Halloween and Christmas. Is it too late to still share pumpkin recipes? Are we still into fall baking while slowly listening to more Christmas music everyday? Or is it okay as long as I do it before December 1? I’m going to leave you with the recipe for these kabocha cheesecake cream puffs and you can take what you need.

Kabocha squash is one of my favourite things to eat, whether it’s in a sweet or savoury preparation. I had a phase in my life where I would eat the squash everyday and part of almost every meal — it was a wild time. I don’t eat it nearly as much now but still really enjoy a kabocha filled chewy rice cake from one of my go-to bakeries in Chinatown, in the form a pumpkin croquette at Japanese restaurants, and my mom’s kabocha cream soup whenever I go home for dinner. I also love using kabocha in a few of my recipes including kabocha salted egg yolk mooncakes during Mid-Autumn Festival, taro coconut sago dessert soup (I add cubes of kabocha!), as well as subbing kabocha for yam in these dessert cups with grassy jelly. If you have a recipe you love making that features kabocha squash, please share it with me! In the meantime, I hope you love these pumpkin-shaped kabocha cheesecake cream puffs.

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Kabocha Cheesecake Cream Puff

Kabocha squash is one of my favourite things to eat, whether it's in a sweet or savoury preparation. These pumpkin-shaped cream puffs feature a light choux pastry with a crispy craquelin top filled with a subtly sweet whipped  kabocha cheesecake filling. I used some extra whipped cream for garnish to really make it look like a little pumpkin.

Servings 10 cream puffs

Author Amy

Ingredients

Craquelin

• 25 g (2 tbsp) unsalted butter softened
• 25 g (2 tbsp) brown sugar
• 25 g (4 tbsp) all-purpose flour
• A few drops of orange food colouring optional

Pâte à Choux

• 57 mL (1/4 cup) water
• 57 mL (1/4 cup) whole milk
• 1/2 teaspoon sugar
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 57 g (1/4 cup) unsalted butter
• 70 g 1/2 cup and 2 tbsp all-purpose flour
• 110 g (~2 1/2) large eggs lightly beaten

Kabocha Cheesecake Filling

• 210 g (1 cup) kabocha squash steamed and mashed
• 226 g (1 block) cream cheese room temperature
• 240 g (1 cup) heavy whipping cream
• 60 g (1/2 cup) confectioner's sugar

Instructions

Craquelin

• In a medium bowl, combine all ingredients and mix with rubber spatula until smooth.
• Roll out the craquelin dough to 1/8-inch in thickness. Use a cookie cutter and cut out 10 2-inch circles. Set aside.

Pâte à Choux

• Preheat oven to 350F.
• In a saucepan, combine the water, milk, sugar, salt, and butter. Bring to a light boil, remove from heat, and immediately add in all the flour. Quickly stir in the flour, using a rubber spatula, and return saucepan back over medium-high heat.
• Continue to stir the mixture, without stopping, until the paste is smooth, about 1-2 minutes. It will pull away from the sides of the pan and leave a thin coating of cooked paste on the bottom when ready. The texture should resemble dry mashed potatoes.
• Transfer the paste to a stand mixer bowl fitted with the paddle attachment. Mix on low for the choux to cool down.
• While the mixer is running on medium, gradually stream in the lightly beaten eggs. Mix until well combined.
• Transfer the pâte à choux to the prepared piping bag with a round tip. Pipe out 10 choux mounds onto the prepared baking sheet, leaving roughly 2 inches between each puff. If you are making choux with a craquelin top, this is when you want to add the craquelin to the choux mounds.
• Place the baking sheet in the oven and immediately bake choux puffs for 35 minutes. Rotate the baking sheet and turn down the oven to 325F, then bake for 10 minutes more until choux are deeply golden. Remove from oven and set on cooling rack to cool.

Kabocha Cheesecake Filling

• Steam kabocha squash until fork tender. Remove the skin before mashing with a fork. Allow mashed kabocha to cool completely before using for the filling.
• In a bowl of a standing mixer fitted with whisk attachment, whisk heavy whipping cream until medium peaks form, about 2-3 minutes. Transfer whipped cream to another bowl. (If decorating cream puffs to look like a pumpkin, reserve 3 tablespoons of whipped cream to use at garnish)
• In a bowl of a standing mixer fitted with a paddle attachment, beat cream cheese on medium-high speed until fluffy, about 2-3 minutes. Add confectioner's sugar and beat until combined.
• With a rubber spatula fold in whipped cream into cream cheese mixture.
• Fold in cooled and mashed kabocha with a spatula into fully incorporated.
• Transfer mixture to a piping bag fitting with an open star tip.

Assembly

• Cut off the top of the choux with a serrated knife.
• Pipe the choux cavity with kabocha cheesecake filling.
• Top cream puff with other choux half like a hat.
• Optional: pipe a few squiggles of green whipped cream for the vine.
• Serve immediately.

Notes

I used 1/2 cup of confectioner’s sugar for the filling but you can add more if you prefer the filling to be a bit sweeter. My kabocha squash was pretty sweet already so I found 1/2 cup to be perfect.

The post Kabocha Cheesecake Cream Puffs appeared first on Constellation Inspiration.

If you have been here before, you will most likely know that I live for gingerbread structures.

Exhibit A: Gingerbread greenhouse 2019
Exhibit B: Gingerbread greenhouse 2020 (and how we got there )
Exhibit C: Chocolate gingerbread workshop 2020

I’m extremely excited to add to this collection ahead of the holiday season this year with a gingerbread pumpkin farm stand for fall! I’ve never been much of a fall or Halloween baker but working on this was such a delight. Like with the previous gingerbread houses, the first thing you have to do is some math. I personally quite enjoy this part (lame, I know) and sketching out the dimensions and design on my notepad is kind of fun when you have a somewhat terrible fall-themed Hallmark movie playing in the background. The biggest decision I had to make was which part of the farm stand will have the ‘greenhouse’ elements because I wasn’t willing to give up using gelatin sheets to create a glass effect. Farm stands don’t normally have too many glass elements, but I decided that the main windows and roof panel will show off glass features. The door, which features an arch this year, will be left open. Compared to the past houses, this farm stand has significantly less windows and cut-outs, which makes this project much easier to execute compared to the holiday greenhouses from the previous years.

The technique remains pretty much the same:
• I used my favourite gingerbread recipe from Food52 (I halved the recipe)
• I sketched out my panels and measurements before cutting it out the shapes with the dough
• I decorated the panels before assembling because I want to have a flat surface for decorating
• I used gelatin sheets for the ‘glass’ elements (windows, roof panels, etc.)
• I allowed the assembled structure to dry overnight before moving it
• I remembered to not stress out too much because I’m suppose to be having fun with this project

Here is a sketch I made before starting the pumpkin farm stand:

In case you have trouble reading any of the handwriting, here are the measurements:
• FRONT PANEL: 9 x 6 inches
• FRONT PANEL WINDOW: 4.5 x 2.5 inches
• FRONT PANEL DOOR: 4 x 2 inches
• FRONT PANEL SMALL WINDOW: .75 x 2.5 inches
• FRONT PANEL WINDOW LEDGE: 4.5 x .25 inches
• FRONT PANEL STEPS (x2): 2 x .5 inches per step
• SIDE PANEL A (with awning): 6 x 6 inches
• SIDE PANEL A TAKEOUT WINDOW: 5.5 x 2.5 inches
• SIDE PANEL B (with two window panels): 6 x 6 inches
• SIDE PANEL B PANELS (x2): 1.5 x 5 inches per panel
• BACK PANEL: 9 x 6 inches
• BACK PANEL WINDOW: 7 x 2.5 inches
• BACK PANEL WINDOW LEDGE: 7 x .25 inches
• ROOF: 9 x 6 inches
• ROOF CUTOUTS (x4): 1.5 x 5 inches per panel
• SIGNAGE & PUMPKIN SHELVES: various sizes

For step-by-step instructions on how to construct intricate gingerbread houses and structures head over to my original post.

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Just two more days until Mid-Autumn Festival! In previous years, I would most likely be on my second or third box of store-bought mooncakes but because celebrations are smaller this year and my family hasn’t been visiting family friends and relatives, our stash of mooncakes (both gifted and bought for entertaining) in the house has been quite small. I don’t really mind though because this year compared to all the past ones, I’ve been making a lot more mooncakes. Originally I thought I was done mooncakes for this year since I’ve made so many batches, but the rainy weather this weekend called for lots of baking at home. I’ve played with snowskin dough and traditional baked dough… but this weekend I wanted to flavour the dough and what better flavour to use than my go-to flavour for all things sweet — matcha. This recipe is based on my original baked mooncake recipe with the additional of matcha to the dough and a chestnut filling. I put a yolk in half of the mooncakes so non-yolk-lovers (I don’t know why anyone would dislike a salted egg yolk centre!) could have mooncakes too. If I don’t post another last minute mooncake recipe in the next two days, I wish you and your loved ones a very happy Mid-Autumn Festival!

Thank you for all the mooncake love!
Cherry Bombe
The Bake Feed
NUVO Magazine (recipe)
Food.com (recipe)
Bake From Scratch
…and to everyone that has been making my mooncake recipe and tagging me!

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Matcha Mooncake with Chestnut and Salted Egg Yolk

A thin and delicate matcha dough encases a smooth chestnut filling. A salted egg yolk centre is optional but I highly recommend it! The amount of mooncakes the recipe makes will depend of the size of your mold.

Servings 12

Author Amy

Ingredients

Chestnut Filling

• 300 g store-bought roasted chestnuts (no shell)
• 100 g Japanese sweet potato cut into 1-inch cubes, steamed
• 3 tbsp granulated sugar more if chestnuts are not sweetened
• 3 tbsp evaporated milk
• 1 tbsp vegetable oil
• 1/4 tsp kosher salt

Salted Egg Yolk

• 6 cooked salted duck egg yolks can omit, and use more taro filling for mooncakes

Matcha Mooncake Dough

• 70 ml golden syrup okay to sub honey but mooncakes will be less golden
• 1/2 tsp lye water (kansui)
• 40 ml vegetable oil
• 200 g all-purpose flour
• 1 tsp matcha powder

Egg Wash

• 1 large egg yolk
• 1 tsp water

Instructions

Chestnut Filling

• Place Japanese sweet potato cubes into a steamer or steaming basket. Steam until tender to the fork, about 20 minutes. Transfer into a large bowl.
• Using a fork or potato ricer, mash the sweet potato and chestnuts into a smooth paste. Alternatively, transfer sweet potato and chestnuts to the bowl of a stand mixer and use paddle attachment to beat the mixture until smooth.
• Add sugar, evaporated milk, oil, and salt to the mixture. Mix until well combined and paste is smooth.
• Transfer filling to the fridge for 1 hour. Chilled filling is much easier to work with.

Matcha Mooncake Dough

• In a large measuring cup, whisk together golden syrup, vegetable oil, and alkaline water.
• Sift flour and matcha powder together into a large bowl.
• Add the mixture to flour mixture. Using a rubber spatula, fold and combine everything into a soft, smooth dough. Do not overwork the dough.
• Cover the dough and let it rest in the refrigerator for an hour.

Assembly

• Preheat oven to 325F.
• Weigh out 30 – 35g scoops of chestnut filling and gently shape each portion into balls. If using salted egg yolks, you want the chestnut filling and salted egg yolk to add up to 45g. [*I'm using a 60g mold]
• Weigh out the dough into 15g pieces. Keep any leftover dough to use for mending when dough cracks during shaping process.
• Take one of the chestnut balls and make a deep well in the middle. Insert one salted duck egg yolk into the well. Close the top and reshape into a ball, trying to make sure the egg yolk is as centred as possible. Repeat for the remaining portions of filling.
• Lightly dust mooncake wrapper dough balls with flour. Roll out dough ball between two pieces of parchment paper into a 4-inch round.
• Put one ball of the chestnut filling at the centre of the rolled out dough. Carefully use the parchment paper to fold the dough onto the filling so that it wraps around the filling. It is okay if your dough cracks — we can reshape it and patch any holes with the reserved dough.
• Turn the opening side up and slowly press together to close the opening, covering all surfaces of the filling. Keep the distribution of dough as even as possible.
• Using a brush, dust mooncake mold with flour. Place assembled dough ball into the mold. With the mold facing upwards, apply gentle pressure to shape the dough ball into the mold cavity. Flip the mold over and press the mooncake down with the top pressure bar. Gently guide the mooncake out of the mold.
• Place moon cakes onto a parchment-lined baking sheet.
• sing a spray bottle, gently mist the moon cakes with water. Alternatively you can very gently use a pastry brush to brush on a very thin layer of water onto the top of the moon cakes. This will prevent the moon cakes from cracking when baking.
• Immediately put the mooncakes in the oven and bake for 5 minutes.
• While the mooncakes are baking, prepare the egg wash by whisking together egg yolk and water.
• Once five minutes are up, take mooncakes out of the oven and place on a wire rack. Brush a thin layer of egg wash onto the mooncakes, making sure there are no large puddles of egg wash. Large wells of egg wash will make your moon cake design less defined.
• Bake for an additional 15 – 20 minutes until deep golden brown.
• Remove mooncakes from oven. The mooncakes will look dry at this point (vs. the glossy sheen of moon cakes from the store). Store the cooled mooncakes in an airtight container for a day and the skin will develop the glossy finish we associate with traditional mooncakes. You will start to see this sheen develop within the first couple of hours.

Notes

The number of mooncakes you get from the recipe will depend on several factors: the size on your mooncake mold, whether you place a salted egg yolk in the centre of each mooncake (you will use up the chestnut filling more quickly, meaning less mooncakes, if you don’t use an egg yolk), and how thick you make your crust. This recipes makes 6 mooncakes with salted egg yolks and 6 plain ones.

The post Matcha Mooncakes with Chestnut and Salted Egg Yolk appeared first on Constellation Inspiration.

It has been several years since I published my first mooncake recipe here on the blog. The first few times I made traditional baked mooncakes, they didn’t have the perfectly golden hue and the salted egg yolk almost peeked through the crust. A few years later with a many rounds of practice, I’m happy to share the better version of the first mooncake recipe — taro and salted egg yolk mooncakes. Here is what I wrote in that recipe a few years back:

Mid-Autumn Festival has always been one of my favourite holidays and this year it falls on September 24. Growing up, my mid-autumn festivals have always been filled with paper lanterns and mooncakes. I would always have family dinner on the night of mid-autumn and walk over to friends’ houses to play with paper lanterns. When I was younger, I would eat mooncakes just for the salted egg yolk centre. I did not develop an appreciation for the rich and intense lotus seed filling until I got a bit older. A mooncake is not what we normally associate with the word ‘cake.’ It is a puck-sized dessert of an intensely rich and earthy lotus seed paste baked inside a thin, soft crust. A salted duck egg yolk in the centre of the mooncake to represent the full moon on mid-autumn. The salted egg yolk is slightly sweetened by the lotus seed filling and is the perfect combination of sweet and savoury.

The biggest difference between these mooncakes today and the mooncakes several years back is from the additional of two key ingredients: golden syrup and lye water. These two ingredients work together to create the perfectly deep golden colour you see in store-bought mooncakes. A few years back, I made my own alkaline solution instead of buying lye water and used honey for golden syrup. The mooncakes still tasted great but the appearance left much to be desired; they were much paler in comparison.

Alkaline water (lye water) or kansui is a solution that regulates acidity in the process of dough making. Alkaline water may sound foreign but you probably have encountered it before — it is what make many types of Chinese egg noodles and Japanese ramen have a springy mouthfeel and take on it’s distinct bright yellow colour.

Traditionally mooncakes have a lotus seed paste filling. The lotus seed paste is sweet, rich, and earthy. Larger mooncakes will usually have a whole salted duck egg yolk, which represents the moon on mid-autumn. For me, the salted duck egg yolk is the best part of the mooncake, especially when it has been lightly sweetened by the lotus seed paste that surrounds it. Throughout the years, the options and variety for mooncake fillings have changed. Of course the traditional lotus seed filling is still a popular choice, but you can also find fruit and tea-flavoured mooncakes in stores. Another popular variation is the ‘snow skin mooncake,’ which is a non-baked mooncake wrapped in a glutinous rice wrapper, much like mochi.

For my mooncakes I opted for the more traditional baked variety — I love the sheen and the golden colour of the traditional mooncake. Instead of a lotus seed filling, these homemade mooncakes are filled with taro and of course, the salted duck egg yolk. Taro fillings are more common with snow skin mooncakes but they are just as good in the traditional baked crust. I added a purple yam to the taro mix to increase the intensity of the purple colour of the filling. Coconut milk is added to the taro filling to give body and flavour.

If you are making your own mooncakes and want to have a salted duck egg yolk in yours as well, you want to use cooked salted duck egg yolks in your mooncake. Sometimes raw and cooked salted egg yolks are hard to distinguish because the curing process has solidified the raw yolk. The easiest way is to buy a pack of cooked salted duck egg yolks for your mooncakes. If you can only find raw ones, simply place the yolks on a baking sheet and bake them at 250F for roughly 7 minutes to cook them. I tried buying whole, cooked salted eggs and removing the egg whites myself (this option is much cheaper!) but the yolks weren’t as vibrant and rich as the ones that come in the yolk-only packages. The mooncakes will be just as tasty though.

One last note about mooncakes before you start on your own mooncake journey — you can use whatever size or shape mooncake mold you like. Mooncake molds come in many forms, from traditional wooden paddles to more modern plastic plungers. They also come in several sizes; 50g molds and 100g molds are the most common. I used a 50g mold for mine but this recipe will work just as well for a larger mold. Whatever size mold you opt for, I like to keep a ratio of 35g filling to 15g crust (7:5 ratio) for a balanced mooncake. Having a scale really helps!

I’ve received quite a few messages about where to get mooncake molds. I bought mine from a variety of places but my go to is to look at local shops in Chinatown (support local whenever you can!). If your local Chinatown kitchen stores don’t have mooncake molds or if Chinatown isn’t accessible to you, mooncake molds can easily be found on Amazon or AliExpress. AliExpress has the most variety.

The post Taro and Salted Egg Yolk Mooncakes 2.0 appeared first on Constellation Inspiration.

I cannot believe we are already three days into September. The summer fair has wrapped up and the $1 ice cream cone special from you-know-where has ended. I still have an ice cream sandwich blog post (for these!) I want to share but it seems out of season now? Do we still care about three easy homemade ice cream sandwich hacks? Can I still make a cake that features a flamingo floatie on top? Those are the type of questions that have been floating in my head for the last few days. I. Am. Dreading. Fall.

I have stated in the past that my least favourite type of baking is fall baking. I am not that into all the warm spices and the lack of berries and stone fruits makes me a bit sad. Also, I do not want to add pumpkin purée in any of my baked goods. Occasionally I can find some joy in making a fall apple or pear pie (lattice top, of course) but if I had to choose a favourite type of fall treat to make it would be mooncakes to celebrate Mid-Autumn Festival. I started making mooncakes last year, both the traditional kind with a salted egg yolk centreand the ‘snowy skin’ variety with taro and coconut, and have become obsessed since. I love buying all the different patterns for my moon cake press. Since last year, I bought a new mooncake press! A smaller square one! My older press makes a mooncake with 100g of dough and filling while this new one makes 50g moon cakes. I actually prefer the smaller press because I really like mooncake dough, especially snowy skin mooncake dough because if the mochi-like consistency. I decided to make snowy skin mooncakes again this year because A) they do not require the use of lye water B) are so beautiful with all their different colours and C) are so tasty. My mooncakes this year are galaxy inspired, with different shades of blue and purple swirled throughout and topped with a good amount of edible gold leaf. The filling is made with one of my favourite things to eat, kabocha squash! And because it is not a mooncake without salted egg yolk, I folded salted egg yolk into the squash purée so you get a bit of it with every bite. Sago pearls are also folded into the filling for more texture and chew.

Mid-Autumn Festival falls quite early this year, on September 13th, but you still have almost two weeks to perfect your mooncakes! Brb, I am going to make more mooncakes now! (PS. I gave you measurements in grams because mooncake dough can be finicky if the ratios are off)

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Kabocha Salted Egg Yolk Mooncakes with Sago Pearls

Servings 8 mooncakes

Author Amy

Ingredients

Snowy Mooncake Wrapper

• 180 g unsweetened full-fat coconut milk (~200ml)
• 15 g vegetable oil (1 tablespoon)
• 50 g glutinous rice flour
• 35 g rice flour
• 20 g tapioca flour
• 45 g icing sugar

Kabocha Salted Egg Yolk Filling

• 160 g kabocha squash steamed and mashed
• 3 salted egg yolks cooked
• 25 – 40 g (3 – 5 tablespoons) powdered sugar
• 28 g (2 tablespoons) full-fat coconut milk
• 1/2 cup sago pearls, cooked (~1/3 cup uncooked)

Toasted Rice Flour (for dusting)

• 1/4 cup rice flour

Instructions

Snowy Mooncake Wrapper

• In a measuring cup, combine coconut milk and vegetable oil.
• In a separate bowl, whisk together glutinous rice flour, rice flour, tapioca flour, and icing sugar.
• Pour the wet mixture into the dry mixture and mix well using a whisk, making sure no clumps remain.
• Strain mixture through fine-meshed sieve to remove any clumps. Use the back of a spoon to press on any clumps to smooth it out.
• Over medium heat, steam the mixture in the bowl for 30 minutes, until it becomes slightly transparent.
• Remove the bowl from the pot and stir the mixture with chopsticks for several minutes until the mixture is glossy and smooth.
• Transfer the dough to a plate and cover with saran wrap. Knead  for several minutes until the surface becomes oily.
• Form the dough into a disc and refrigerate for at least three hours before assembling the mooncake. A warm dough is too sticky to handle.

Kabocha Salted Egg Yolk Filling

• Wash kabocha to remove any dirt that may be on the exterior. Cut kabocha in half and scoop out the seeds. Depending on the size on the squash you have, you may only need 1/3 or 1/2 of the squash.
• Place kabocha half into a steamer or steaming basket. Steam until tender to the fork, roughly 20 – 25 minutes.
• Remove squash from steamer. Using a fork or potato ricer, mash the kabocha into a smooth paste.
• In a separate bowl, separate the cooked salted egg yolks from the whites. Mash the the yolk with a fork until it becomes a coarse paste.
• Combine the egg yolk mixture and kabocha paste. Mix in powdered sugar. Add the coconut milk, a tablespoon at a time, until it forms a thick paste. You may need more or less coconut milk depending on how much moisture is inherently in your squash. At this point, I also like to taste the mixture to see if it needs more sugar. Salt levels of salted egg yolk can vary depending on brand.
• Lastly, fold in cooked sago pearls. Chill the mixture in the refrigerator until ready to use.

Toasted Rice Flour (for dusting)

• Toast rice flour in a dry frying pan over medium heat for about 3 – 5 minutes until rice brown turns a light golden colour.
• Set aside to cool.

Assembly

• For a small (50g) mooncake press, weigh out 35-gram scoops of squash filling and gently shape each portion into balls. Set aside.
• Divide and weigh the dough into 15-gram pieces. Roll out each piece of dough between to pieces of saran wrap until 1/8 inch in thickness.
• Place ball of filling in the centre of each piece of dough. Wrap the squash filling with rolled-out wrapper dough and seal completely. Shape into an oval shape, so it will easily slide into the mooncake mold. Dust the bottom of the mooncake ball with toasted rice flour.
• Dust the mooncake mold with toasted rice flour and insert dough ball into the press. Press on the mooncake mold to shape the mooncake. Carefully remove from the mold. If any sides of the mooncake is too tacky, brush on toasted rice flour.

Notes

Yields 8 – 10 mooncakes (*depends on size of mooncake press)

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Pink pearl apples might be the biggest highlight of the fall season for me. It wasn’t until two or three years ago when I found my first pink pearl apple but since then it is what I look forward to most every fall. I had to travel quite a distance to find last year’s pink pearl apples. When I did get my hands on them I bought many of them and made many treats with them, including:

– ricotta almond cake with pink pearl apples (recipe)

– pink pearl apple tart with almond frangipane, almond pâte sablée, and a rose apple glaze (I still have to share the recipe for this)

– and a few iterations of the above treats

This year I was able to find pink pearl apples at my local farmers market. They are a bit lighter in colour than the ones I found last year, but I love these ones just as much. I showed some self-control and only bought a few apples, just enough for what I wanted to make. There was no apple-hoarding behaviour. I wanted to use these pink pearl apples to make something simple, something that would let the apples shine. I remade the tart that many of you love on this blog. This pink pearl apple tart is a slightly updated version of that rose apple tart. I have made it many times since that first iteration, and each version is better than the previous one. So here is my latest and hopefully greatest version of my rose apple custard tart starring pink pearl apples, of course. If you don’t have pink apples readily available, I promise this tart will taste just as good when made with your favourite type of apple. If you are keen on having a pink apple tart, a little hack to creating your own pink pearls with normal apples is giving them a light hibiscus tea glaze or cooking them down in hibiscus tea.

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Pink Pearl Apple Custard Tart

Servings 1 nine-inch tart

Author Amy

Ingredients

Pâte Sablée

• 1/2 cup unsalted butter room temperature
• 1/3 cup powdered sugar
• 1 large egg yolk
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour

Vanilla Custard

• 1 cup milk
• 1 cup heavy cream
• 1 vanilla bean
• 4 egg yolks
• 1 tablespoon cornstarch
• 1/2 cup granulated sugar

Apple Roses

• 5 – 6 large apples
• 1/2 cup fresh orange juice
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 1/2 cup unsalted butter

Instructions

Pâte Sablée

• Beat the butter and powdered sugar in the bowl of a stand mixer until creamy.
• Beat in the egg yolk and mix until fully combined.
• With the mixer on low speed, beat in the salt and flour just until the dough comes together and there is no more visible flour. Careful not to over-mix.
• Remove dough from the bowl and press the dough into the tart pan, making sure it is evenly distributed.
• Using a fork, prick the bottom of the tart shell to prevent the bottom from puffing up when baking.
• Wrap the pan loosely in plastic and chill 30 minutes.
• Bake the tart shell at 350F or until the crust is a light golden brown (approximately 13 minutes).
• Remove carefully from oven and let rest on a wire rack.

Vanilla Custard

• Combine milk and cream in a small saucepan.
• Using a sharp knife, split vanilla bean in half lengthways and scrape out seeds. Add bean and seeds to milk mixture.
• Place mixture over medium heat. Cook, stirring constantly, for 5 minutes or until hot (do not allow to boil). Remove saucepan from heat. Remove vanilla beans from milk mixture.
• In a separate bowl, whisk together egg yolks, cornstarch, and sugar.
• Slowly stream the hot milk mixture over egg yolk mixture, whisking constantly.
• Return mixture to saucepan over low heat. Cook, stirring constantly, for 10 – 15 minutes or until custard thickens and coats the back of a spoon.

Apple Roses

• Over medium heat, combine orange juice, sugar, and butter in a medium-size pot. Remove from heat once mixture boils.
• Peel, core, then cut apples in half. Using a very sharp knife or mandolin, slice apples paper thin, roughly 1/8-inch in thickness.
• Place the sliced apples in the hot sugar, butter, and orange juice mixture. Leave apples to soak for 10 minutes, or until they are pliable.
• Remove the apple slices from the liquid and pat with paper towel if too wet. Lay the apple slices on a plate.
• Start with the smaller apple slices first (the centre of rose), roll apple slice so that both ends of the slice overlaps a little. Taking a slightly larger slice, build a second petal on the exterior of the first rolled slice. Continue until you have a fully “bloomed” apple rose.
• Arrange apple roses into the custard-filled tart. Serve at room temperature or slightly chilled.

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The debut of a pumpkin pie on this blog means I have committed to fall right? It means that I cannot go back to rhubarb and sweet summer berries until next summer? This could have easily been a pumpkin pie recipe. It could have been a full 10-inch pie with cute leaf-shaped cut-outs but I chose not to do that. I chose to make pumpkin pie bars because it sounds much less committal than an entire pie. Bars are easy. They are portable, they are a great snack, and they feel less like an ordeal than a whole pie. I will also feel less guilty finishing a few bars than an entire pie myself.

I never had pumpkin pie growing up. The first bite of pumpkin pie I had was when I was 16, working in a grocery store as a cashier. The grocery store’s employees’ lounge was always filled with day old baked goods. Day old apple strudels and Nanaimo bars always made an appearance. When fall came around, there were pies. Apple pies and pumpkin pies. I decided my first bite of pumpkin pie would be a day-old (but probably two-day old) grocery store pumpkin pie, retail price of around $4.99. I took a small sliver from the aluminum tray of “real butter” crust pumpkin pie. Hm. It was okay. I did not love it but I did not hate it. After that first bite of pumpkin pie I have had many more slices of pumpkin pie. Not necessarily of the $4.99 day-old variety but more of the worth-your-calories variety. I think the reason why I was never keen on pumpkin pie is because I never really liked the texture, or lack there of. So if I were to make pumpkin pie myself, it would be a texture bomb. A rich buttery shortbread crust, classic pumpkin pie filling, topped with the most textural pecan and hazelnut streusel. It is nutty, it is creamy, it is fall. These bars are extremely easy to make and you can whip up a batch real quick, just in time for your Thanksgiving dinner. Cut them up into squares or even triangles and serve à la mode.

Happy baking!

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Pumpkin Pecan Pie Bars

Servings 16 bars

Author Amy

Ingredients

Shortbread Base

• 1 cup unsalted butter melted
• 1/2 cup granulated sugar
• 2 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
• 2 cups all-purpose flour

Pumpkin Pie Filling

• 3/4 cup granulated sugar
• 1 (15 oz) can pure pumpkin purée
• 1 (12 oz) can evaporated milk
• 2 large eggs
• 2 teaspoon pumpkin pie spice

Pecan Hazelnut Topping

• 1/2 cup pecans chopped
• 1/4 cup hazelnuts chopped
• 1/4 cup brown sugar

Instructions

Shortbread Base

• Preheat oven to 300°F. Line the bottom and sides of 9×13-inch baking pan with parchment paper, leaving overhang on all sides.
• In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with a paddle attachment, combine butter, sugar, vanilla and salt. Add flour and mix on low speed until everything is combined. Press the mixture evenly into prepared baking pan. Bake for 15 minutes, until dry to the touch. Reserve for second baking with filling.
• Increase oven temperature to 350°F.

Pecan Hazelnut Topping

• In a medium bowl, combine nuts and brown sugar. Set side.

Pumpkin Pie Filling

• In a blender or food processor or large bowl, combine all filling ingredients and blend until smooth.
• Evenly pour filling over the baked shortbread base and smooth top with a spatula.
• Bake at 350ºF for 20 minutes. Sprinkle reserved pecan hazelnut topping an bake for additional 15 – 20 minutes, until pumpkin pie filling has set.
• Remove from the oven and cool for at least 1 hour at room temperature. Lift the parchment out of the pan using overhang, and transfer onto a cutting board. Cut into 12 to 16 bars or squares.

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