Mooncake

Traditional baked mooncake

Mooncake muahahaha(simplified Chinese: 月饼; traditional Chinese: 月餅; pinyin: yuèbĭng) is a Chinese confection that is traditionally eaten during the Mid-Autumn Festival, although they can be eaten at other times of the year as well. Typical mooncakes are either round or rectangular puck-shaped pastries, measuring about 10 cm in diameter and 4-5 cm thick. They have a relatively thin crust (2-3 mm), which surrounds a thick pasty filling and may contain yolks from salted duck eggs. Mooncakes are typically rich, heavy, and dense compared with most Western cakes and pastries. It is usually eaten in small wedges accompanied by Chinese tea.

Traditional

Traditional mooncakes are typically baked and consists of a thin tender skin enveloping a sweet and slightly oily filling. The moon cake can also contain single or multiple whole salted egg yolks in its center to symbolize the full moon. The saltiness of the yolk balances well with the sweet filling in the mooncake. Although rarely so, mooncakes can also be steamed or fried.

Traditional mooncakes have an imprint on top consisting of the Chinese characters for "longevity" or "harmony" as well as the name of the bakery and filling in the moon cake. Imprints of a moon, a woman on the moon, flowers, vines, or a rabbit may surround the characters for additional decoration.

Mooncakes are expensive and are considered a delicacy. Making them and their fillings is also a labor-intensive process; as such, few people make them at home and choose instead to purchase them at Asian markets and bakeries.

Fillings

Many types of fillings can be found in traditional mooncakes according to the region culture:

• Lotus seed paste (蓮蓉, lían róng): Considered by some to be the original and most luxurious mooncake filling, lotus paste filling is found in all types of mooncakes. Due to the high price of lotus paste, white kidney bean paste is sometimes used as a filler.
• Red bean and other sweet bean pastes (豆沙, dòu shā): Bean pastes are some of the most common fillings found in Chinese desserts. Although red bean paste, made from azuki beans, is the most common worldwide, there are regional and original preferences for bean paste made from Mung bean as well as black bean known throughout history.
• Jujube paste (棗泥, zǎo ní): A sweet paste made from the ripe fruits of the jujube plant. The paste is dark red in colour, a little fruity/smoky in flavour and slightly sour in taste. Depending on the quality of the paste, jujube paste may be confused with red bean paste.
• Five kernel (五仁, wǔ rén): A filling consisting of 5 types of nuts and seeds, coarsely chopped and held together with maltose syrup. Commonly used nuts and seeds include: walnuts, pumpkin seeds, watermelon seeds, peanuts, sesame, or almonds. In addition, the mixture will usually contain candied winter melon, chinese dried ham, or pieces of rock sugar as additional flavouring.

Crusts

Traditional mooncake vary widely depending on the region where the mooncake is produced. While most regions produce traditional mooncakes with many types of fillings, they usually only make their mooncake from one type of crust or another. Although vegetarian mooncakes may use vegetable oil, many mooncakes use lard in their recipes for an optimum mouthfeel. There are three types of mooncake crust used in Chinese cuisine:

• Chewy: This crust has a reddish-brown tone and glossy sheen. It is the most common type of crust used on Cantonese-style mooncakes. It is also the most commonly seen type of mooncake in North America and many western countries. Chewy mooncake crusts are made using a combination of thick sugar syrup, lye water, flour, and oil, thus giving this crust its rich taste and a chewy yet tender texture. Chewiness can be increased further by adding maltose syrup to the mixture.
  • The dough is also baked into fish or piglet shapes (Cantonese: "Jue Zai Bang"; 豬仔餅; lit. "Piglet Biscuits") and sold at mooncake bakeries as a chewy snack. They often come individually packaged in small plastic baskets, to symbolize fish being caught or piglets being bound for sale.
• Flaky: Flaky crusts are most indicative of Suzhou-style mooncakes. The dough is made by rolling together alternating layers of oily dough and flour that has been stir-fried in oil. This crust has a very similar texture to the likes of puff pastry.
• Tender: Mooncakes from certain provinces of China and Taiwan are often made to be tender rather than flaky or chewy. The texture of this type of mooncake crust is similar to the likes of the shortcrust pastry used in Western pie crusts or tart shells. Tender crusts are made mainly of a homogenous mix of sugar, oil, flour, and water. This type of crust is also commonly used in other type of Chinese pastries, such as the egg tart.

Regional variations

There are many regional variants of the mooncake, which have likely evolved over time. Development of these variants were likely governed by the availability of resources, economics, and regional preferences. The most widely-known types of traditional mooncakes are:

• Suzhou-style Mooncake: This style began more than a thousand years ago, and is known for its layers of flaky dough and generous allotment of sugar and lard. Within this regional type, there are more than a dozen variations. However, the most popular variation is "ch'in-shui mei-kuei yueh-ping," which is hand-made and has a flaky cover with fruit and nut content.

• Peking-style Mooncake: This style has two variations. One is called "ti-chiang," which was influenced by the Soochow-style. It has a light foamy dough as opposed to a flaky one. The other variation is called "fan-mao" and has a flaky white dough. The two most popular fillings are the mountain hawthorn and wisteria blossom flavour. The Peking-style mooncake is often meticulously decorated.

• Ningpo-style Mooncake: This style is also inspired by the Suzhou-style. It is prevalent in Chekiang province and has a compact covering. The fillings are either seaweed or ham; it is also known for its spicy and salty flavor.

• Yunnan-style Mooncake: Also known as "t'o" to the residents, its distinctive feature is the combination of various flours for the dough and includes rice flour, wheat flour, buckwheat flour, and more. Most of the variations within this style are sweet.

• Cantonese-style Moon Cake: This style of mooncake has the greatest number of variations — up to 200. The ingredients used for the fillings are various: lotus seed paste, melon seed paste, ham, chicken, duck, roast pork, mushrooms, egg yolks, etc. More elaborate versions contain four egg yolks, representing the four phases of the moon.
• Taiwanese-style Moon Cake: Taiwanese mooncakes are typically larger and flatter than Cantonese style mooncakes. They have a tender crust similar to western pies and a regional preference for mung bean fillings.
• Teochiu-style Moon Cake

Modern

Jelly mooncake with yam-paste filling

Modern mooncakes differ mainly from traditional types most vividly in the type of fillings that are offered. For instance, mooncakes containing taro paste and pineapple, which were considered novelty items at their time of invention have in recent years become commonplace items. In addition, ingredients such as coffee, chocolate, nuts (walnuts, mixed nuts, etc), fruits (prunes, pineapples, melons, etc), vegetables (sweet potatoes, etc), ham, and even lychees have been added to give a modern twist to the traditional recipes.

Ice-skin mooncakes

Modern varieties of mooncakes are also different from their traditional counterparts in that they may have a glutinous rice skin, similar to that of a mochi. These moon cakes are know colloquially as "snow-skin mooncakes" or "ice-skin mooncakes" (冰皮 or 冰皮月餅).

Ice-skin mooncakes first appeared on the market in the early 1980's. These non-baked, chilled mooncakes were initially filled with traditional fillings such as lotus seed, red bean, or mung bean paste. However, the launch of a champagne truffle snow-skin mooncake in 1994 by Raffles Hotel in Singapore, triggered a wave of modern mooncakes. Häagen-Dazs quickly followed on from this innovation, and were one of the first to create an ice-cream mooncake, with a choice of either the "traditional," snow-skin, or Belgian white, milk, and dark chocolate crusts.

Following this bit of lateral thinking, it was obvious these non-baked mooncakes could be filled with pretty much anything that could be made into a paste. An explosion of new flavours appeared and spanned the range from:

• cream cheese
• ginseng
• bird’s nest
• chicken floss
• tiramisu
• green tea
• pandan
• durian
• ice cream (variety of flavours)
• chocolate
• coffee
• peanut

White kidney bean paste or plain ice-cream are usually used as a base of flavours such as green tea, coffee, or ginseng, which are not thick enough or cannot be usually in large enough quantities to be a filling on their own.

Healthy mooncakes

Pink jelly mooncake with red-bean paste filling

To adapt to today’s health-conscious and Westernized lifestyle, many bakeries offer miniature mooncakes and fat-free mooncakes. Some are made of yogurt, jelly, and fat-free ice-cream. Even high-fibre low-sugar mooncakes have made their appearance. To be competitive, bakers boast about how little sugar and oil they use in their mooncakes. Customers can pick and choose the size and filling that suits their taste and diet. For added hygiene, each cake is often wrapped in airtight plastic, accompanied by a tiny food preserver packet. The new version is well-accepted among young people in China.

Japan

In Japan, mooncakes are sold year-round, mainly in Japan's Chinatowns, pronounced in Japanese as "Geppei." Unlike the original Chinese mooncakes, mooncakes in Japan almost never contain an egg yolk in the center. In fact, most people in Japan do not know that mooncakes ever contained eggs in the first place.

Cultural role

The festival is intricately linked to the legends of Chang E, the mythical Moon Goddess of Immortality.

But despite its central role in the Mid-Autumn festival, the popularity of mooncakes has declined in recent years. Part of the reason is that people are becoming more health-conscious. Traditional mooncakes are made with lard, and a lot of sugar. Another reason for the decline in popularity is that the Moon Festival has become increasingly commercialized. People are focusing more on the exchange of gifts, and less on the traditional celebrations, such that its symbolism has eroded. Many mooncakes are bought by businessmen who give them to their clients as presents. [1]

Ming revolution

Mooncake were used as a medium by the Ming revolutionaries in their espionage effort to secretly distribute letters in order to overthrow the Mongolian rulers of China in the Yuan dynasty. The idea is said to be conceived by Zhu Yuanzhang (朱元璋) and his advisor Liu Bowen (劉伯溫), who circulated a rumor that a deadly plague was spreading and the only way to prevent it was to eat the special mooncakes. This prompted the quick distribution of the mooncakes, which were used to hide a secret message coordinating the Han Chinese revolt on 15th day of the eigth lunar month. [2]

Another method of hiding the message was printed in the surface of mooncakes as a simple puzzle or mozaic. In order to read the encrypted message, each of the 4 mooncakes packaged together must be cut into 4 parts each. The 16 pieces of mooncake, must then be piece together in such a fashion that the secret messages can be read. The pieces of mooncake are then eaten to destroy the message.[3][4]

See also

• Chinese cuisine
• Suncake

External links

• Mooncake with Egg Yolk and Lotus Seed Mash Recipes
• Festival Takes the (Moon) Cake
• Rainbow mooncake with mung paste
• Making Cantonese style mooncakes