Sunday, September 28, 2008

Mooncakes Part II

Sorry it has taken me this long to post! I have lots and lots of things to post about, but I felt like I owed it to you guys to finish up one project before starting another, so without further ado, I present to you Mooncakes part II

Using a bench scraper or something else of the like, divide your dough into rough 1 1/2 to 2 T increments. (using a half recipe, I got about 8)



Flatten your piece of dough into a rough circle-esque shape. It's okay if it's oblong.


Place about 1 Tablespoon of your preferred filling of choice on the flattened dough. (I used a homemade pineapple as well as adzuki bean filling) Roll into a ball to get....



.......Ta Da! Dough balls!



Flour your molds!



Dust with dough/filling balls with flour before pressing into floured molds. Here's the fun part! Ready, set, BANG!


Twice on the side.....
......aaand once on the top.



Brush any excess flour off the tops of your mooncakes with a pastry or silicon brush.



And voila! They are (almost!) ready to bake. "But wait!" you say. "I have no specialty wooden molds from Asia!" Not to worry friends.....


.....Behold! I give you the cookie cutter. It may be a bit of a hassle finding a set of cookie cutters that are congruent in size though (since you do have to bake these in their molds). If you really don't want to buy that many cookie cutters, then I'm sure you could just press them in shape before freezing (to retain shape) and baking.

Anyways, place a dough ball inside your cookie cutter.
Press! (make sure you fill all the corners if using square ones)



Brush the non cookie cutter ones with soymilk(preferably sweetened) for a better sheen.

THIS IS A CRUCIAL STEP!!!
REFRIGERATE THESE WHILE YOUR OVEN IS PREHEATING!!! I really can't overstress this, because no refrigeration causes the mooncakes to deform while baking.

SO, preheat your oven to 375 degrees and REFRIGERATE YOUR MOONCAKES!

When your oven has preheated, bake for 10 minutes, remove from oven and flip the cookie cutter ones over and bake for another 3 or so minutes until nice and golden.



Remove to a rack and let them cool.


....and in true Asian fashion, package them up nicely to give away! (or if you're like me, pick the ugliest one and eat it!)

I challenge YOU to make these! Go on, my Asian food loving friends!

16 comments:

alaina said...

those are the cutest little cakes i've ever seen!

haha i thought i was the only one who enjoyed taking the SAT!! i've taken it once before but didn't get my scores because my phone alarm went off... lame.

Anonymous said...

I love those little cakes, they are so cute! They look delish too =)

ChocolateCoveredVegan said...

They are gorgeous! I wanna make some! Actually, my lazy self doesn't want to make them, but I REALLY want to EAT some!

River (Wing-It Vegan) said...

I love them, they are beautiful! The step by step pictures are so helpful, and the tip about using cookie cutters is great! Thank you for sharing this awesomeness! :)

Em said...

these are so cute! not to mention yummy sounding! it's so inspiring how young you were when you went vegan. you go girl! i will definitely be checking out your blog regularly, keep the posts comin'!

Nicole said...

These are so adorable!

Anonymous said...

this is fascinating!

Virginia said...

I don't have the patience to make those, but they do look interesting!!...I am a chocolate freak so my filling would have to be chocolaty, if that would work.

Anonymous said...

They look so cute and gorgeous. I never heard of them before.: mooncakes. It is a lovely name for a cake.

Kiki said...

Wow, these look so yummy!! And their ah-dorable!!

Virginia said...

I do have a recipe for the cinnamon rolls. http://vegweb.com/index.php?topic=13982.0 They are so so good!

Anonymous said...

Those are so cute! They look delish to. :)

Anonymous said...

This is so cool! Now I just need to find some mooncake molds...

Unknown said...

those look sooo amazing! haha i wish i had time to do all that, i'm sure it's WELL worth it!

Veggie Wedgie said...

they look great!I might give them a try one day!

Bethany said...

The first time I heard about mooncakes was when my friend made me go to a store after lunch and she bought them. Hers were far from vegan (salty preserved eggs inside). She personally hates mooncakes, but feels compelled to buy them.

Now that you posted this vegan version, I will have to try them and share w/ her. She always brings me the vegan chinese green onion bread/pancakes that her parents make.