What is playing moon cakes?
People in the north call making moon cakes "beating moon cakes" instead of baking or making moon cakes, probably because the traditional process of making moon cakes involves knocking on the mold when demoulding. To make moon cakes, you must have a moon cake mold, put the moon cake blank wrapped with stuffing into the moon cake mold for extrusion, and then take the moon cake out of the mold.
The traditional mooncake molds are all made of wood, and the shape of mooncakes is engraved on the thick wood, and then some words expressing beautiful patterns or praying for Naji are engraved. When demoulding, the moon cake mold is reversed and knocked, and the moon cakes that have been formed in the mold are knocked out.
When making moon cakes with traditional techniques in pastry shops, demoulding is a technical job, which is the work of the master Fu Gan. If it is not taken off well, the pattern on the moon cakes will be unclear and may be deformed, which will affect the sales.
What oil is good for beating moon cakes?
Speaking of moon cakes played by my hometown people, they are very different from those sold in the city. In the words of hometown people, people in the city are thin everywhere, people are fine-skinned and tender-skinned, and their lives are so meticulous that even the moon cakes they eat are soft-skinned and stuffed.
When my hometown made moon cakes, the flour used to make the dough was not rich flour, but the oil used was flax oil. I was reluctant to put more oil when making the dough. The baked moon cakes were a little hard, and the flax oil made by the rural oil mill always had a strong taste.
There is no change in the stuffing of moon cakes every year. Nuts such as sesame seeds, peanuts and walnuts are crushed and fried with slow fire, and the stuffing mixed with brown sugar and flour is added. I don't want to put more stuffing. When I bite open the moon cake, the middle is empty, and the stuffing is just a layer hanging inside the moon cake skin.
Every Mid-Autumn Festival, you can receive moon cakes from your hometown. What is delicious or not is always a thought, and the most memorable thing is the special taste of linseed oil.
Practice of Cantonese-style Egg Yolk Lotus Seed Mooncakes
1, making moon cake skin: firstly, mix the syrup with the water, then add peanut oil and mix well, then pour one third of the mixed flour into the mixed sugar slurry, mix well with a rubber scraper, then pour in the remaining mixed flour and mix well, seal it with plastic wrap and put it in the refrigerator for more than 1 hour.
2. Making stuffing: divide the white lotus seed paste stuffing into 12 portions, then round it and flatten it, put in salted egg yolk (salted egg yolk is a little fishy, so it is best to soak it in white wine for one hour in advance), and wrap it with stuffing. The salted egg yolk must not be exposed. If it is exposed, the oil of salted egg yolk will overflow seriously when baking moon cakes, which will affect the formation of moon cakes. The stuffing is wrapped and rubbed into a ball for use.
3. Making moon cake blank: Divide the baked dough into 12 portions, knead it into a round shape, then flatten it, put on the prepared stuffing, push the dough up by wrapping the dumplings, and close it and knead it into a ball shape.
4. Mooncake molding: put the moon cake blank into the mold, hold down the mold with one hand, press down the embossed sheet with the other hand twice, and then shake it up and down, so that the moon cake can come out, and brush the surface of the molded moon cake blank with water and egg liquid.
5. Baking: the oven is preheated to 200 degrees in advance, and the moon cake blank should be put into the oven immediately after it is finished. Bake it for 10 minutes, then take it out and brush the whole egg liquid once. Just brush the protruding patterns on the surface, not the concave dough, otherwise the baked patterns will not be obvious. Brush the egg mixture before baking in the oven 15 minutes.
6. Oil return: After baking, the sugar of the sugar-coated moon cake will become hard, and the skin will become soft after 2 to 3 days, which is called moon cake oil return. You can eat it after returning oil.
(：)