Piggy Mooncake (Baked)

I'm making a batch of these Baked Mooncake using cute piggy moulds especially for my girl. She has been eyeing the Chocolate Mooncakes I've made a few days back but as I've used coffee paste filling, I'm reluctant to let her eat them. So...to cheer her up, I'm putting my piglet mould into good use to make a batch of mooncakes for her and her friends for their upcoming Mid Autumn Festival celebration in school.

My piglet mooncake - makes a 30g mooncake

I've made a trip to Phoon Huat and Kwong Cheong Thye again to get more paste fillings. I especially like Kwong Cheong Thye as they have a wide array of varieties and flavours of lotus pastes to choose from, plus they even allow you to sample their pastes so that you can make better decisions. You will be so spoilt for choice!

I used 2 different recipes this time for these piglet mooncakes. The first was using my traditional mooncake recipe. For added surprise element for the kids, I wrapped in sesame lotus paste with macadamia nuts as fillings. 

The other recipe I used was from Aunty Young's post where lotus paste was mixed in together with the dough. I found this recipe very interesting and had bookmarked in my to-do list. For this recipe, I added in White Peach lotus paste bought from Kwong Cheong Thye.

I'll be sharing both recipes here. Both are equally nice, but if you are short for time, then the latter recipe may be worth a try as it's fuss free and you can eat the mooncakes the next day instead of waiting for 3 days to 回油.

First Recipe using my Traditional Mooncake recipe
Piggy Mooncake

makes 40 piglets (20g dough : 10g filling)

Ingredients:
For the Dough
(A - sieve together)
140g plain flour
140g hong kong flour

(B - mix together)

190g golden syrup (I used 'Tate Lyle')

1 tsp alkaline water

50g peanut oil (I used canola oil)

For the Filling

(C - mix well and divide the paste into the size required and shape into balls. Set aside.)

400g sesame lotus paste

50g macadamia nuts

For the Egg Wash

1 egg yolk

1 tbspn water or milk

Miscellaneous
Some water in a sprayer (to spray onto the mooncakes before baking in the oven. This is to prevent the crust from cracking.)

Method:

1. Mix (C) together and divide the paste into the requried size and shape into balls. Set aside.

2. Sieve (A) together and set aside.

3. Mix (B) together and pour into the sifted flour mixture.

4. Knead to form a soft dough.

5. Cover with cling wrap and rest the dough for 30 minutes.

6. Preheat oven to 200C.

7. Divide dough into required size, shaping each dough into a ball.

8. For each dough, flatten to form a small disc. Wrap the dough skin around the filling and shape into a ball.

9. Dust mooncake with plain flour. Press the wrapped dough into the mould.

10. Unmould and arrange on lined baking tray.

11. Spray some water onto the mooncake (this is to prevent cracking) and bake in preheated oven at 200C for 10 minutes.

12. Remove the mooncake from the oven and let it cool for about 10 - 15 minutes.

13. Lightly apply the egg wash onto the mooncake and continue to bake at 200C for another 10 minutes or until golden brown.

14. Leave the mooncake to cool down.

15. Store in air-tight container for 3 days to allow the mooncake to 回油.

Second Recipe using Aunty Young's recipe
Piggy Mooncake
my notes in red

makes 27 piglets (30g dough)

Ingredients:
For the Dough
350g plain flour, sifted (I used 150g plain flour and 200g hong kong flour)

230 golden syrup (I used 210g 'Tate Lyle' golden syrup)
100g peanut oil (I used 90g canola oil)
5g alkaline water (1 tsp)
150 lotus seed paste (I used 160g White Peach Lotus paste)

For the Egg Wash

1 egg yolk

1 tbspn water or milk

Miscellaneous
Some water in a sprayer (to spray onto the mooncakes before baking in the oven. This is to prevent the crust from cracking.)

Method:

1. In a large mixing bowl, add in syrup, oil, alkaline water and lotus paste. Stir and mix until well combined.

2. Add in sifted flour. Stir and knead to form a soft dough. Cover the with with a cloth and rest for 2-3 hours. (I cover with cling wrap. I was told you can let it rest outside for more than 3 hours so that the dough is easier to handle. I left it for about 6 hours. My dough was super easy to handle.)

3. Divide dough into required size, shaping each dough into a ball. (I divided my dough into 30g each)

4. For each dough, dust with some plain flour lightly and press into the mould.

5. Tap to unmould and arrange on lined baking tray.

6. Spray some water onto the mooncake (this is to prevent cracking) and bake in preheated oven at 160C for 10 minutes.

7. Remove the mooncake from the oven and let it cool for about 10 minutes.

8. Lightly apply the egg wash onto the mooncake and continue to bake at 160C for another 10 minutes.

9. Leave the mooncake to cool down.

Note:- Adding milk to the egg yolk makes it less concentrated so that it is easier to apply egg wash on the surface of the mooncake.

- Wait till the mooncakes to be cooled before applying egg wash to get a more even coloring.

- Should this mooncake be done correctly, it should be soft, won't stick to your teeth; and can be eateb the next day.

- After allowing the mooncake to cool on a wire rack, it can be kept in an air-tight container and can be kept for up to weeks if it is dry enough after baking.

I’m submitting this post to Best Recipes for Everyone August 2014 Event Theme: Mooncake hosted by Fion of XuanHom’s Mom

This post is also linked to the event, Little Thumbs Up organised by Bake for Happy Kids and My Little Favourite DIY, and hosted by Diana from the Domestic Goddess Wannabe

Do link back to LY's Kitchen Ventures if you have used any information published in this blog.