| A mooncake is a Chinese pastry. They have a short crust (lots of oil
in it, I mean) and the fillings vary: ground nuts, sweet bean paste,
lotus seed paste, various fruit mixtures, sometimes pickled egg yolks
("salty eggs" - I'm not real crazy about those). The filled pastry is
pressed into a mold to shape it before baking. The large molds are
squares with rounded corners, about 4" on a side, and more than an inch
tall - a real BIG pastry, considering how rich these things are. The
smaller sized molds are usually round. The molds have a sort of rubber
mallet on the handle so that you can knock the finished product out of
the mold - this is great fun for kids and grownups! The ground pecan
and cinnamon ones are good, as are the lotus seed ones.
These goodies are traditional for certain Chinese holidays, although in
the US you can usually get them at Chinese bakeries all year round.
We make moon cakes every year at our Chinese New Year's party, which
occurs near the time of the lunar New year, late January to early
February. I think that is NOT one of the traditional holidays for
mooncakes, however, but people have fun making them! They like
hammering the molds on the table to make the cakes fall out.
I found the business card of the caterer we got our moon cake molds
from, but I am going to try to call her first before I post her phone
number, and make sure she is still in business, etc., since we have had
them for years. The Chinese bakeries use the wooden molds, but I never
managed to get anyone to tell me where I could buy those; I guess they
all brought their heirloom molds with them from China or something.
The aluminum ones are sturdy and easy to clean, anyhow.
/Charlotte
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| re -2 What Charllote described was Cantonese style mooncakes which are
always very very sweet. There are Shanghai style mooncakes, they are
smaller (2/3 of the size, even 1/2 of the size). Shanghai mooncakes do
not have bean paste or lotus seed paste. My favorite style is called
"clear water rose petals". I was made to believe that they have rose
petals (who knows). Another favorite ingredient is ham. These mooncakes
have cripy thin crust, less sweet, even salty. I have not found them
in Boston Chinatown.
Mooncakes are a special dessert for the August Moon festival which
happens on August 5th(Lunar calendar). This year the festival fell on
Oct 3rd. I even received a nice greeting card from AT&T wishing me a
happy August Moon festival, and remind me to call home (what a
marketing strategy). AT&T actually offered a special rate for calling
HK, China and Taiwan on Oct 3.
There is actually a fairy tale behind the festival, but that is another
story.
caroline
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