For many, it will not be like a mid-autumn without a few traditional mooncakes on the table and lanterns in the garden. The tradition and culture has been deep-rooted in chinese family, not only in China but here in Malaysia as well because of the beauty of diversity in our beautiful country.
For some, celebrating mid-autumn festival is a luxury, both literally and figuratively.
In Malaysia, many people came to Kuala Lumpur to work from all other different states and other countries, especially you can see a huge influx of chinese from mainland China. Whenever mid-autumn festival is around the corner, many of them are homesick because in chinese tradition, celebrating mid-autumn festival has some implication on reunion or in chinese we call “团圆”(Tuan2 Yuan2). Having able to eat mooncake here makes them feel like home.
Although that the price of mooncakes has been increasingly staggering over the years, no thanks to the marketing of the mooncake manufacturer, quality of mooncake has gone the other way. Despite the tradition, many of the younger generation does not enjoy the taste of mooncake these days because they(mooncakes) do not taste as good as last time and they are too sweet for their liking. Traditional mooncake is being replaced by the more popular Snow Skin mooncake and the French-style mooncake, which you probably never even heard before.
If you want to know some simple ways to make traditional mooncake, here is a simple clip made by us. We also has made a short video on how to make snow skin mooncake where you can refer here.
How to Make Traditional Mooncake
Ingredients:
- Traditional Mooncake Mix – 1 packet 传统月饼皮混合粉 （一包）
- Alkaline water – 1/2 tablespoon 枧水 （半汤匙）
- Golden Syrup – 300gm 糖浆（300gm）
- Peanut oil – 90gm 花生油（90gm）
- Melon seed 瓜子
- Lotus Paste (You can choose whatever flavours you like) 莲蓉馅
Steps:
- Mix well alkaline water, golden syrup and peanut oil and set aside for 30 minutes. 把枧水，糖浆和花生油搅拌均匀，休息30分钟。
- Add in traditional mooncake mix to form a smooth dough. 加入传统月饼皮混合粉搅拌成团，再休息30分钟。
- Divide the dough into 40gm each, flatten the dough and wrap in the lotus paste. Press into the mould and knock out. 将粉团分割成每粒40克，然后将粉团压扁，包入馅料，压入模型中，敲出。
- Bake at 180°C for 10 minutes. Leave cool. Egg wash and bake at 180°C for another 10 minutes. 以180°C烘10分钟。待冷。擦上蛋液，再烘10分钟。