LY's Kitchen Ventures: Homemade Five Kernel Mooncake Filling (五仁月饼馅)

My mom loves Five Kernel Mooncakes (五仁月饼) but I've never attempted making them myself. I saw Kwong Cheong Thye selling ready made five kernel filling but after seeing Kenneth's post on his five kernel filling (五仁馅), I decided to have my own Homemade Five Kernel Mooncake Filling (五仁月饼馅) this year.

According to Wikipedia,

“Five kernel (五仁, wǔ rén): A filling consisting of 5 types of nuts and seeds, coarsely chopped, is held together with maltose syrup. Recipes differ from region to region, but commonly used nuts and seeds include: walnuts, pumpkin seeds, watermelon seeds, peanuts, sesame seeds, or almonds. In addition, the mixture will usually contain candied winter melon, jinhua ham, or pieces of rock sugar as additional flavoring.”

I'm using Kenneth's recipe for the five kernel fillings but have added some diced barbecued meat for extra indulgence. The recipe for the fillings below makes 550g fillings.

Homemade Five Kernel Mooncake Filling (五仁月饼馅)

recipe adapted from Guai Shu Shu
(my notes and modification in red)
makes 550g filling

Ingredients:
50g walnut or pecans, toasted and chopped
50g almonds, toasted and chopped

50g sunflower seeds or watermelon seeds, toasted (I use 25g sunflower seeds and 25g melon seeds)

50g white and black sesame seeds, toasted
50g candied winter melon (糖冬瓜), diced small
20g candied tangerine (桔饼), diced small
3 pcs barbecued meat, diced small
5g rose water or rose cooking liquor (玫瑰露或玫瑰水)
80g icing sugar
25ml peanut oil or lard (I used canola oil)
100g gao fen or cooked glutinous rice flour (糕粉)
20g maltose (麦芽糖)
50g cold water

Method:

1. The nuts and seeds are toasted in the oven at 150C for 5-10 minutes. Keep an eye as nuts can burn easily. Chop nuts after toasting.

2. Put all the nuts, seeds, candied tangerine, candied winter melon, barbecued meat, cooked glutinous rice four (gao fen) and sugar in a large mixing bowl.