Mooncake: features and recipes

2024 Author: Isabella Gilson | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 03:14

National dishes from different countries allow not only to enjoy exotic cuisine, but also to better understand the traditions of other people. Everyday dishes, delicacies are all part of the modern life of the country's inhabitants. But the best way to tell about the history of the people is not modern dishes, but what came from the distant past.

Yuebin gingerbread

Yuebin mooncake is a national Chinese delicacy stuffed with nuts. This dessert has its own history and tradition. Initially, such gingerbread was intended as a gift to the Moon for a good harvest, and in modern China they are given to relatives, friends and relatives as a sign of respect and respect with the wishes of he alth and well-being. The name of the filling means perfection, ideal, harmony. The filling traditionally consists of almonds, peanuts and walnuts, as well as sunflower and sesame seeds. Mooncakes serve as a table decoration.

How Yuebing is prepared

China celebrates the National Mid-Autumn Festival every year. Its second name is the Moon Gingerbread Festival, since it is on these days that it is made and presented in very large quantities. To prepare a national delicacy, a special mold for moon gingerbread is needed. It consists of different nozzles with Chinese patterns.

Traditional gingerbread has a round shape, which symbolizes the moon. It is decorated with intricate patterns or hieroglyphs. Prepared from flour, fat, sugar and molasses. The classic filling consists of dates, honey, bean puree, or nuts. In the middle is a s alty duck yolk, meaning the full moon. Over time, other fruits, cocoa, ham, lard, candied fruits, m altose and butter were added to the traditional fillings.

There is very little dough in the gingerbread, it is soft, slightly creamy in taste and can be wheat or rice. The main thing is to remember that the filling should be sweet and not hard, and also combine both sweet and s alty tastes. Ornaments also depend on the composition of the filling. China and its provinces produce round and square gingerbread, as well as various types of mooncakes with a wide variety of fillings, which are spicy, sweet, spicy and s alty.

Let's consider one of the options for a traditional Chinese delicacy - this is a recipe for mooncake stuffed with nuts.

Shanghai gingerbread with nuts

For the test you will need:

• Flour - two glasses.
• Butter - fifty grams.
• Sesame oil - one teaspoon.
• Brown sugar - two tablespoons.
• Egg is one piece.
• Water - 0.5 cups.

For stuffing:

• Butter - one tablespoon.
• Peanut - one tablespoon.
• Walnuts - one tablespoon.
• Dried fruits - two tablespoons.
• Pine nuts - one canteenspoon.
• Brown sugar - one tablespoon.
• Dried apricots - two tablespoons.
• Sesame - one tablespoon.
• Almonds - one tablespoon.
• Rice flour.

Preparing dough for gingerbread

First you need to knead the dough for the mooncake. To do this, mix flour, s alt and sugar. Cut the butter into small pieces and put into the flour. Next, you need to chop the flour and butter with a knife until crumbs form. Then gradually add water and knead the dough. Cover the finished dough with a towel and set aside to let it rise.

Making the filling

According to the recipe of Chinese mooncakes, all nuts must be fried a little. Put a dry frying pan without oil on the fire. When it warms up, put the peanuts in it first, fry for three to four minutes, then toast the sesame and the rest of the nuts.

Place roasted nuts in a blender and grind. Cut dried fruits into small pieces and also grind in a blender with nuts to a paste. Then roll the pasta into a tourniquet and cut into circles, from which to form balls.

Forming gingerbread

Roll out the dough and cut circles out of it. Place one ball of filling on each circle, wrap the filling in the dough and place in a special printing form. Carefully, so as not to damage the dough, remove the gingerbread from the mold and put it on a greased and lined baking sheet.paper baking sheet. Combine the egg with sesame oil in a separate small bowl, stir and grease all the gingerbread cookies. Place a baking sheet with gingerbread in a preheated oven at one hundred and eighty degrees and bake for about thirty-five minutes until golden brown.

Gingerbread yuebing with beans and eggs

Yuebin gingerbread is a traditional Chinese treat. If you want to try making it yourself at home, but are not sure if you can do it, then you need to follow the Chinese Moon Gingerbread recipe exactly. The result will exceed your expectations. Cooking gingerbread is not as difficult as it might seem.

What products do we need for the test:

• Flour - five hundred grams.
• Maple syrup - ½ cup
• Peanut butter - twenty milliliters.
• Powdered milk - five grams.
• Liquid caramel - one teaspoon.
• Sugar syrup - thirty-five grams.
• Sugar - one teaspoon.
• S alt - half a teaspoon.
• Soda - a pinch.
• One yolk for brushing.

Filling:

• Walnuts - ½ cup.
• Red adzuki beans - two hundred grams.
• Glared lard - four tablespoons.
• Vanillin - one sachet.
• Quail eggs - fifteen pieces.
• Brown sugar - one cup.
• Powdered sugar.
• Maple syrup.

Step cooking

In a bowl combine maple syrup, peanut butter,one tablespoon of water, soda, sugar, s alt, liquid caramel and mix all the ingredients well. Pour in enough flour to make the dough elastic and soft enough, and put it in a cold place for two to two and a half hours.

In this mooncake recipe, it is necessary to prepare the ingredients for the filling long before the dough itself, as cooking takes a long time. You need to start with red beans, they must be soaked in water for thirteen to fifteen hours. Be sure to change the water several times during this time. Then pour red beans with water and put on fire. After boiling, simmer for about two hours until fully cooked.

Finely chop the nuts with a knife and pour them with maple syrup for thirteen hours. Hard-boil the quail eggs and carefully separate the yolks from the protein. Pour the yolks with s alt water and cool. Place cooled boiled red beans in a blender, pour a little broth and grind until puree.

It's time to rub through a sieve and put on a frying pan greased with butter, add sugar, vanillin and fry until the mass is reduced. Place syrup and nuts in a pan, mix and cool.

Divide chilled dough into equal parts and roll into balls. From the filling also make balls the size of a plum. Make a well in the center of the filling and place the yolk in it.

Roll out a ball of dough thinly, place the filling in the center and wrap. Place the yuebing in an oiled special mooncake mold, press down, andthen carefully remove from the mold. Put all the gingerbread cookies formed in this way on a baking sheet greased and lined with foil for baking. Place the baking sheet in an oven preheated to two hundred and twenty degrees. Bake until golden brown, ten to twenty minutes. After baking, sprinkle with powder, cool and refrigerate. The traditional Chinese mooncake dessert is ready, perfect with a cup of unsweetened tea or other drink.

Prunes and raisin mooncake

Chinese mooncakes have a long history. In our time, the composition of both the dough and the filling has undergone quite a lot of changes. But, as before, gingerbread remains a traditional Chinese delicacy. There are many ways to make mooncakes. You must strictly adhere to a certain recipe and believe in yourself.

For the test you need:

• Flour - three cups.
• Butter - seventy-five grams.
• Vanillin - three packets.
• Sugar - three tablespoons.
• Honey - two tablespoons.
• Grated ginger - one teaspoon.
• Water - one hundred and fifty milliliters.
• S alt - half a teaspoon.

For stuffing:

• Raisins - one hundred and fifty grams.
• Coconut flakes - one hundred and fifty grams.
• Prunes - two hundred grams.
• Ground nuts - seventy-five grams.
• Poppy - seventy-five grams.

For frosting:

• Sesame oil - twotablespoons.
• Eggs - two pieces.

Cooking process

Sift flour into a bowl, add ginger, sugar, s alt, vanillin and mix. Put butter in flour and grind until crumbs form. Then gradually pour in honey and water. Knead for half an hour a soft elastic dough. Cover with a towel and set aside.

Now you can start preparing the filling for the mooncakes. We send dried fruits to a food processor. Grind them to a paste consistency. Add raisins, coconut flakes, nuts and poppy seeds one by one. Using a food processor, grind and mix all the ingredients. The paste should end up sticky.

The prepared filling must be divided into nine identical parts and formed into balls. Next, you need to knead the previously prepared dough again. Also divide it into nine equal parts and make balls out of them. Now you can proceed directly to the formation of the moon cake.

Roll out a ball of dough into a circle no more than three millimeters thick. Then take a ball from the filling and put it in the center of the circle. Carefully roll the filling into the dough and pinch. Form all other balls. After that, each ball must be placed in a special form for mooncakes and pressed down.

Carefully, so as not to damage the dough, push the gingerbread out of the mold. Put the gingerbread cookies made in this way on a baking sheet greased with baking paper and covered with baking paper. In a separate bowl, beat the sesame oil with the egg andanoint all the gingerbread. Preheat the oven to two hundred degrees and place a baking sheet with gingerbread for thirty to forty minutes until a golden crust forms. A traditional Chinese delicacy called yuebing, or mooncake, is ready. It's the perfect accompaniment to a cup of freshly brewed Chinese tea.