Bye Bye 2007! Welcome 2008!

Well it is the last day of 2007 today and I know, I should be out there with some friends celebrating or in some way anticipating 2008! However, I choose to the opposite, nothing beats hiding at home as the day gets super hot and it just feels like a hot oven where ever you go out there! Well another reason is that there is a family dinner tonight and I will be making a salad for that later on in the evening, hence I think I will just fill out my time by catching up with a couple of recipes that I should have posted a few days or weeks back... lol

This time around I would like to publish my moon cake recipe that I used back in Sydney and also another occasion when I made them again for Dong Zhi's (Winter Solstice) party. Yes, you heard right, God knows why I made them that day, but I just did! Haha... You can pretty much check out what is this Winter Solstice all about through a couple of my food mania's blogs that are linked to me, I reckon I could not do any better in explaining what is it all about, so never mind, I will just do my own thing. Anyway check it out...


Ok, this time around I tried to use a wooden mould to shape the mooncakes, but I think something just went wrong, they just seem to go round and loose their shape and form in the resting and cooling process. Hence I decided to use my hands instead at last, nothing beats your own pair of hands!

Adding that final touch to the pig's face, its eyes. Haha. I wonder why I just like to make pigs... lol

Here's the recipe for the pastry:
500g Flour
400g Golden Syrup
1 tsp Bicarbonate
1 1/2 tsp Lye water
100 ml Peanut oil
1 tbsp Wine
Pinch of Salt

Sieve all the flour and mix all the ingredients together. Leave to rest for about 4-5 hours prior to using them. I used prepacked red bean paste, feel free to make your own filling if you want to. I am just slack! Haha... Use about 50g pastry and about 35g red bean paste for a pig's head. For a normal size mooncake, use about 80-100g of pastry with a filling of about 75. Bake in preheated oven for about 5 minutes, lower fire at 150 degrees Celcius. Remove from oven, glaze with beaten egg yolk. Bake again for 8 minutes, upper fire at 150 degree Celcius. Remove from oven, glaze again and bake again at 200 degree Celcius for 15-20 minutes or until the pastry turns golden brown. Leave to cool for at least an hour before serving...

The cutest pig I have ever made, too bad this is before it goes into the oven...Is there any cutest pastry pig competition around? Haha
My signature fishes again this time... just could not help not making them...

I tried making a penguin this time, with a big fat belly that is...this time it was slightly overburnt, thanks to old oven toaster that I used to bake at my aunt's place, hard to control!

Some of the other piglets from piggyhood got burnt as well, luckily it was a minor burn...

I used red bean paste as well for the eyes this time, next time I would try something else like black bean or something, I think the final result would be better...nevertheless, this was a really good and fun experience! Cheers!

Tags: Mooncake, Pig, Pastry, Red Bean, Mid Autumn