Brown Sugar (Red Sugar) Mooncakes

Prepare all the ingredients in advance.

Pour the inverted syrup into a bowl.

Add the lye water.

Add the peanut oil.

Stir well to combine.

Place a flour sifter on top and add the all-purpose flour.

Add the whole milk powder.

Sift together.

Mix until evenly combined.

Once it’s roughly even, switch to kneading by hand.

Knead into a smooth, even dough.

Cover with plastic wrap and let rest.

Let the dough rest for about 2 hours. When it’s almost ready, portion the filling.

In the video we’re making 75 g mooncakes with a ratio between 3:7 and 4:6. So portion the filling at about 51–52 g and the skin at about 25–26 g. If you want salted egg yolk mooncakes, weigh the filling together with the egg yolk; the total should be about 51–52 g, then wrap the yolk inside the filling. If you really don’t get it, check my other salted egg yolk mooncake tutorial: http://www.xiachufang.com/recipe/103406389/

After all the filling balls are portioned, cover them with plastic wrap to prevent them from drying out.

If you want to make 50 g, 100 g, or other sizes, scroll to the very bottom for reference. The method is the same; only the skin-to-filling weights differ.

Here’s what the rested dough looks like when broken open. Mooncake dough is not elastic; it breaks easily but also comes back together easily.

Divide the rested dough into pieces of about 25–26 g each.

Take one dough piece into your hand.

Gently knead it several times. The more you knead, the softer the skin becomes, which reduces the risk of cracking later. But don’t knead too long or the dough will develop gluten. After kneading, roll it into a smooth ball.

Flatten the dough ball in your palm.

Pinch the edges thinner.

Place it again in the palm of your left hand.

Place one portion of filling on top.

Hold skin and filling at the base of your left thumb and start closing the seam. If you’re not good at wrapping, see my other tutorial that focuses specifically on mooncake wrapping techniques: http://www.xiachufang.com/recipe/103400145/

Close it up slowly, trying to move only the skin and not squeeze the filling upward. Also close the skin evenly; don’t push everything from the bottom to the top, or the seam area will end up with very thick skin.

After sealing, roll it back into a ball.

Coat the ball lightly with flour.

Roll it in your hands so the flour spreads evenly.

Keep rolling until you can no longer see any dry flour. This is very important for brown sugar mooncakes: the flour must be distributed evenly and completely absorbed, otherwise you’ll get floury spots on the finished mooncakes, which look bad. The properly coated ball has a matte surface, which prevents sticking to the mold. If it still looks shiny after rolling, you didn’t use enough flour and the mooncake may stick to the mold; just dust with a bit more flour and roll again.

Shape the ball into an oval to prevent the mold from scraping the edges.

Place the dough oval into the mold.

Press firmly all the way down, and apply pressure evenly so one side doesn’t end up higher than the other.

Release from the mold.

Wrap and mold all the mooncakes in turn. When you’re almost done, preheat the oven to about 180°C top and bottom heat. Beginners should preheat for at least 15 minutes. Every oven is different, and the temperature can vary. The temperature given here is for reference only; make sure you understand your own oven’s actual temperature.

After molding, spray a little water on the surface of the mooncakes.

Place them in the preheated oven, middle rack.

Bake for about 15 minutes to set the shape. While baking, prepare the egg wash for the surface.

Crack an egg and separate the white.

Use only half of the yolk.

Beat well and set aside. If you’re not afraid of extra work, it’s best to strain the egg wash once.

When the mooncakes are set, remove them from the oven.

Dip a wool pastry brush into the egg wash. Make sure to use a wool brush; I don’t recommend a silicone brush unless you’re extremely, super confident in your brushing skills.

After dipping, scrape the brush along the side of the bowl until almost no egg wash drips off. We’d rather brush thinly and do multiple coats than brush a thick coat at once. If the egg wash flows into the grooves, the pattern will be unclear and the color will be unattractive.

Gently brush a thin layer of egg wash on the patterned surface. You can go back and forth several times because there’s very, very little egg on the brush.

Only brush the raised patterned surface. Do not brush the flat sides or the grooves—absolutely don’t.

After brushing, put the mooncakes back into the oven.

Bake for another 5 minutes or so. Brown sugar mooncakes don’t need to be as evenly or deeply colored as regular Cantonese mooncakes; even if the color is uneven, it’s not very noticeable.

Once baked, remove from the oven. The actual color is not as dull gray as it may look in the photo; it’s a bit brighter. ❤️Freshly baked mooncakes may look a bit ugly. ❤️Once cooled, they’ll be firm; after resting a few days to return oil, they’ll soften, and the color will become much prettier.

Here’s a reference for other mooncake sizes.

These mooncakes after they have fully returned oil. Brown (red) sugar mooncakes return oil more slowly than regular mooncakes—about 3–4 days.

One more thing: see that egg yolk at the back? That one was just cut open and has a chalky white core. Anyone who bakes hates this kind of yolk, right? Haha. But there’s not much we can do; good yolks are hard to find. Still, it doesn’t affect eating. Or, leave it overnight and you’ll see a “miracle.” 😂

After sitting overnight, the hard core is gone—g-o-n-e, haha…

So delicious it’s unbelievable. 😍ོ

🤓🤓🤓

Once they’ve completely returned oil, they taste wonderful.~

These are brown sugar mooncakes with egg wash brushed on the surface.

These are brown sugar mooncakes without egg wash on top. Personally, I still think they look nicer with egg wash—but that’s up to you, haha~