How to Make Salted Egg Yolk Lava Custard Mooncakes 流心奶黃月餅:

This year, October 4th marks the Chinese Mid-Autumn Festival!  Are you ready to celebrate?  Traditionally, family and friends would gather and enjoy the evening together.  After dinner, it’s the time to head outside the back yard (or the roof of a high-rise building when we were living in Hong Kong) and enjoy desserts, fruit, hot tea, and some mooncakes together!  Of course, and we enjoy each other’s company as well.



I meant to share this post and recipe with you sooner.  But it took me quite a while to fine tune this recipe.   I just wanted to make sure that you’ll be successful in making these in your own kitchen as well.  This way, I do all the leg work in testing recipes so that you don’t have to.  Or, maybe secretly, I’m a perfectionist!



Did you know that some bakeries in Asia had long lines for this particular flavor of mooncake? They are called the infamous Salted Egg Yolk Lava Custard Mooncakes 流心奶黃月餅!  Quite often, customers went empty handed after the long wait because the mooncakes were all sold out by the time the customers got to the counter!  No need to get upset!  Be like me and make your own at home!  Not only there’s no line to wait, you know exactly what ingredients go into your mooncake.  This week’s motto:  Keep Calm, and Bake Your Own Mooncakes!



Oh, but you do have to wait a day after baking these mooncakes before you can enjoy them though.  As do all mooncakes recipes, you need to wait for a day for the mooncake skin to soften and to allow the flavors to get aquatint with each other.  It’s call “回油” in Chinese mooncake baking term.  Afterwards, the skin of the mooncakes will becomes soft, slightly darker in color, and more shiny.  It’s totally worth the wait as the fragrant will be more complex as well!



There are mainly 3 components to this moon cake, the outer layer is the mooncake skin, the second layer is the traditional custard filling, and finally the center, which is the star of this mooncake:  a salted egg yolk lava filling!  It’s so yummy when the lava filling is still warm and it oozes out as you bit into one.  Since you need to wait a day to enjoy them, you’ll need to slightly reheat your mooncake for 10 to 15 seconds in the microwave before serving if you want the floating lava!



This mooncake sounds decadent, but the salty egg yolk balanced well with the sweetness of the custard.  Therefore, this mooncake is not overly sweet, unlike most traditional mooncake fillings.  I hope you enjoy today’s recipe and tutorial!  Thank you so much for stopping by and stay tuned for some Halloween fun recipes in the next few weeks!





Ingredients and Tools Used:
Mooncake Mold (Click here for more information)Mini Silicone Sphere Mold (Click here for more information)
Custard Powder (Click here for more information)
Dry Milk Powder (Click here for more information)
Kitchen Scale (Click here for more information)
Strainers Set (Click here for more information)
Organic Coconut Milk (Click here for more information)
Large Measuring Cup (Click here for more information)
Measuring Spoons Set (Click here for more information)



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Black Sesame Dumplings with Ginger Syrup 薑茶芝麻湯丸

This year, the Chinese Mid-Autumn Festival (中秋節) falls on September 27.  I know it’s still more than a month away.  But there are several traditional treats and desserts that I wanted to share with you.  So, I guess I better get started early!  To read more about this festival and the traditional Moon Cake, you can click here to read my previous post.   Besides the traditional Moon Cake that we eat to celebrate, this dumplings dessert (湯丸) is another must have for this festival.  It’s because the round shape of these dumplings that represent the whole of the family.  After all, it’s a festival to celebrate family and love.




In this recipe, I used the most popular fillings for this dumpling, black sesame.  Well, at least that’s the most popular filling among my family.  Some people like to fill these dumplings with read bean paste, peanut butter, brown sugar pieces, etc.  Well, that would be for another post.  I took a short cut and use black sesame powder for the fillings.  But you can also grind your own from whole toasted sesame seeds if you like. I also paired these dumplings with the traditional ginger syrup (薑茶).  The ginger syrup is only slightly sweeten and packed with fresh ginger aroma.  I also added a little bit of osmanthus 桂花 to enhance the flavor.  It adds a touch of floral sweetness without additional sugar.  But that’s totally optional.  I’ll list the ingredients on the bottom of this post for your reference.




Ready to see how I made these?  Check out my video tutorial below.






I hope you enjoyed watching my video tutorial.  If you haven’t done so, please subscribe to my YouTube channel here.  You’ll be the first to know when I have new video tutorials published. 

If you’re interested, click here check out these Mid-Autumn Macarons that I shared last year.   Oh, and click here to check out those Snow Skin Mooncake as well.






Ingredients and props for this post:
Glutinous Rice Flour (click here for more information)
Black Sesame Powder (click here for more information)
Osmanthus 桂花 (click here for more information)
Cane Sugar 片糖 (click here for more information)
Curled Handle Ceramic Spoon (Click here to see product information)
Bamboo Placemats (Click here for more information)

Happy Mid-Autumn Festival with Festive Macarons (中秋節快樂 + 中秋馬卡龍!)

Today, September 8th, is the Mid-Autumn Festival!  The Mid-Autumn Festival is also known as the Moon Festival or 中秋節 in Chinese.   It’s a popular harvest festival celebrated by Chinese and Vietnamese, dating back over 3,000 years.  The Mid-Autumn Festival is held on the 15th day of the eighth month in the Chinese calendar, which is usually around mid to late September in the Gregorian calendar.   The moon is supposedly at its fullest and roundest. The traditional food of this festival is the mooncake, of which there are many different varieties.  Unfortunately, I’m not a big fan of the traditional Mooncake.



Fortunately, I’m a big fan of French Macarons, and love playing with my food!  So, I made these Mid-Autumn Macaron (中秋馬卡龍), to celebrate the occasion.  I decorated these Macarons with the traditional Mooncake decoration patters and wordings such as these and these, with a little melted dark chocolate.    



Thank you so much for stopping by and hope you like these Mid-Autumn Macarons.  I wish you all a Happy Mid-Autumn Festival, 中秋節快樂 and 人月兩團圓.  As this is the time to gather with the family and loved ones to enjoy the beautiful full moon and each other’s company.

Happy Mid-Autumn Festival!

Today, September 19th, is Mid-Autumn Festival (中秋節 in Chinese).  It’s a popular harvest festival celebrated by Chinese and Vietnamese, dating back over 3,000 years.  The Mid-Autumn Festival is held on the 15th day of the eighth month in the Chinese calendar, which is usually around late September or early October in the Gregorian calendar.   The moon is supposedly at its fullest and roundest.  When my Little Boy saw how bright and round the moon was a couple nights ago, he already requested to have dessert out in the back yard area after dinner on the day of Mid-Autumn Festival.  That’s what we did in the past few years as well.   

 

Since I didn’t make a new moon cake recipe this year for Mid-Autumn Festival, I just wanted to share with you what we had in the past few years.  Such as these traditional moon cakes from the picture above.  Click here to see similar product.



Or these Ice-Skin Mooncakes that I made a couple years ago.   They were made with Matcha (Green Tea) Powder and pomegranate juice, so the colors are all natural.  Click here for the recipe.  If you’re feeling adventurous and want to make your own moon cakes, check out these moon cake molds here.




Or, try these Dark Chocolate Panna Cotta that I made from last year.  I know, they are not quite the traditional type of Mid-Autumn Festival food but a scrumptious one.  Click here for the recipe.




But very likely, I’m going to make my family’s favorite Asian dessert/snacks:  Black Sesame Seed Mochi!  Please click here for the recipe.  I know my kids will have fun help rolling the dough and wrapping these mochi with me. 

Last but not least, I want to wish you all a wonderful Mid-Autumn Festival, 中秋節快樂 and 人月兩團圓.  Until next time, take care.