Baked Chocolate Mooncake

Baked Chocolate Mooncakes.. these have been really popular among many bloggers and of course, my hands itched hearing how a delight they can be! I followed the recipe from Ann's blog and baked them... The dough is infused with cocoa powder, making it special and different from the usual traditional baked mooncakes. I made mine with good old white lotus paste. This dough is easy to work with and I had a lot of fun! I really ought to bake more.. but I've just been so tired that baking takes a second stage to sleeping XD 

Nevertheless, I'd rate this bake as a difficulty level 3 out of 5 and it'll take about 2.5 hours in all to bake a batch of these beauties.. depending on how fast or slow you are.. 

Here are the ingredients I used... 

Baked Chocolate Mooncake

This recipe yields 15 small (50g) mooncakes

113g plain flour

18g cocoa powder

85g golden syrup

25g peanut oil

1/2 tsp lye water

530g white lotus paste

some plain flour for dusting mould

Method 

Measure golden syrup

Add peanut oil and lye water

Mix well

Weigh plain flour

Add cocoa powder

Sift plain flour and cocoa powder

Create a well in the flour mixture 

Add in golden syrup mixture

Mix well using a spatula.. you'd get something like this after some mixing...

It'll soon get to this...

Cling wrap bowl and allow dough to rest for 30 mins

This is the mould I used.. I somehow love wooden moulds more.. they tend to be more intricate (: This mould I used fits a 50g ball well.. 

To test the amount needed for your dough, roll a ball of paste slightly smaller than the mould, press in and gauge.. I had a paste ball of 35g...  It should have sufficient space to fit your dough after which... 

My work station

The chocolate dough

Try a small amount of dough for the skin to get the best fit. Mine worked with 35g paste and 15g skin.. 

Roll the dough into a ball... place between 2 plastic sheets. I used a ziplock back with sides torn open...

Cover with the other sheet of plastic..

Using the back of the mooncake mould/any flat surfaces, flatten the skin

Peel off plastic... 

Lay the skin on your palm...

Place the paste in the middle... wrap the dough around the paste...

Have a small pastry brush ready with some flour to dust your mould.. Do not omit this step, even for plastic moulds.. Dust mould lightly with flour.. brush away all excess flour...

Place rolled mooncake into mould...

Flatten it with the base of your palm..

Like this! 

Gently knock the mooncake out of the mould.. it may have some flour traces on it.. gently brush it away or leave it alone.. I realised that it does 'go away' on its own when let in the open for a while...

Place mooncakes on a lined baking sheet. 

Bake in pre-heated oven of 170 degree Celsius (fan-mode) for 10 minutes...

Remove from oven and allow mooncakes to cool for 15 minutes outside the oven. 

Return to oven after 'resting' to bake for another 10-15 minutes. I baked mine for 12 mins. 

Remove from oven and allow to cool completely...

Love the prints of my wooden mould! Allow mooncakes to cool completely before storing in an air tight container..

Allow mooncakes to 'rest' for 3 days for the mooncake to 出油 so it'll be nice and shiny.. Alternatively, the mooncakes which are crispy at this stage can be eaten too (: 

For shaping of the mooncake, check out this video I did last year with NTUC... The shaping method is similar... (: Have fun baking! (: