Yeah, yeah, I know. It's Dubai Chocolate again. Obssessed much, lol?! But, seriously, how could I resist? After successfully making homemade kadayif noodles, pistachio cream and then the gorgeous Dubai Chocolate Mousse Cake, we were pretty much over the moon with how well our efforts came out. And with our favorite festival, the Mid-Autumn Festival 中秋節, just around the corner, well, isn't Dubai Chocolate just the perfect match for a mooncake filling?!
Our Dubai Chocolate Mooncakes 杜拜朱克力月餅 are filled with nutty, crunchy pistachio kadayif cream at the heart of a chocolate flavored bean paste, all encased in delicate traditional patterned mooncake skins. So pretty and oh so delicious! My little girl ate all my first batch already, hehe!
I think there's a solid reason that Dubai Chocolate has kinda taken over the food-o-sphere, even with the exorbitant prices that are being charged. The flavor duo of pistachio and chocolate is a good one already, but with the added in totally awesome crunch of the kadayif noodles it's a match made in food heaven! It's just that good!
We start with the ingredient that brings it all together, the kadayif noodles (image left), used to make many Middle Eastern desserts. These delicate noodles stay super crunchy even when mixed in with wet ingredients. You can purchase these noodles at food specialty shops, online here, or you make homemade kadayif noodles like we did. It's easy, just needs a bit of time. When you're ready to make your Dubai Chocolate all you need to do is to crisp up the noodles with a bit of butter (image right).
The crisped up kadayif noodles get mixed with pistachio nut butter which is basically just pistachio nuts blitzed until they exude their oils and become a creamy luscious paste. Check out the details on how to make pistachio cream in our Pistachio Kadayif Cream Filling post. This cream is so good it's seriously hard to keep from eating all of the darn thing right then and there!
With the pistachio kadayif cream filling made, it's time to move onto the other components needed for our mooncake. Which means the chocolate filling of course. We start with a homemade white bean paste with butter beans and add cocoa powder to it to make a most nom, nom totally chocolate-y and smooth paste filling.
The final component for mooncakes is the mooncake skin. Mooncake skin is sweet, delicate and flavorful. The magic component is the lye water which ensures that the skin achieves that deep golden brown color that is the signature of mooncakes.
So now all of our mooncake components are made. Time to weigh out and roll into balls. For the pistachio kadayif cream balls we chill the balls in the freezer so that the shapes will hold when putting the filling together.
Do note that component weights listed in the recipe below are specifically for our mooncake molds. We are using the traditional wood small mooncake molds. If you use a different sized mooncake mold (there are so many kinds now!) you will need to adjust the weights so that, when wrapped, the mooncake will just fit inside your particular mooncake mold. It may take a bit of trial and error with the first couple of mooncakes. You want to get the wrapped mooncake to fill up the mold just so.
Now for the wrapping. Take one ball of each component. Roll the mooncake skin dough out. You want to roll it to be pretty thin so that the mooncake skin remains delicate when baked.
Next use a thumb to press the chocolate bean paste into a cup. Grab a chilled pistachio kadayif cream ball from the freezer and pop that into the chocolate cup. Close the chocolate paste over the pistachio and roll into a ball. Place on to the rolled out mooncake skin.
These two photos illustrate our 'cheat' for mooncake wrapping, the best and easiest way to achieve a thin skin all round. Wrap up the mooncake skin around the filling, letting the extra dough fold as the photo on the left shows. Use fingers to shape the folds to the filling. Then snip off the extra dough and pinch the edges together.
For more instruction on our mooncake wrapping 'cheat', check out our post How to Wrap a Mooncake.
With the extra dough snipped off gently roll the now wrapped mooncake until a smooth ball is formed. Don't stress if any holes appear, just use a piece of the snipped off dough and patch it up. Mooncake skin is super forgiving.
Now for my personl favorite part, the molding! I love using my wood molds! Do remember to dust with a thin coating of flour before adding the mooncake ball in. If you forget your mooncake's not going to come out! (Guess how I know that lol.)
Press the mooncake in, with the snipped off side facing up, until it fills the mold. See how, photo right, the mooncake ball fills out the mold perfectly? This is the result of proper weighing of all the components to fit our particular mooncake size.
Then to remove the molded mooncakes you will need to hold the mold at an angle and tap the ends sharply on your working surface. Your mooncakes are going to be coming out as you tap so 1) don't accidentally smoosh them (guess how I know lol) and 2) use your other hand to catch as they fall out. Sigh...so pretty...I so love these traditional molds...
Here are the mooncakes out of the mold and ready for the oven. The mooncakes are baked for a bit first, and then...
...taken out of the oven and brushed lightly with egg yolk wash. This egg yolk wash will boost the golden brown coloring and shine of the final mooncakes. Don't let the wash pool into the mooncake's pressed design. It will muddy the pattern.
The egg washed mooncakes are sent back to the oven for the final bake. Oh, baby, just watch those mooncakes take on that golden gleaming color!
Let the mooncakes cool and then, let 'em rest for at least a day or two. This phase is known as 上油, or absorb oil phase and allows the mooncake skin the time to absorb the moisture and flavors from the filling, becoming soft and luscious as a result. You're probably like me and will really want to just eat them darn mooncakes hot from the oven but, trust me, resist! It is so worth it!
Once the mooncake skins become soft, they're ready to eat! Soft and luscious delicate thin skin wrapped about chocolately filling with a crunchy nutty pistachio heart. Our Dubai Chocolate Mooncake 杜拜朱克力月餅 is really over the moon, dear readers, and I hope that you enjoy it! Happy Mid Autumn Festival!
Dubai Chocolate Mooncake
Tools:
杜拜朱克力月餅
(makes 24 small mooncakes)
Prep time: 20 mins Wrap time: 20 mins Bake time: 15 mins
Ingredients:
Pistachio Filling:
- 3/4 cup pistachio kadayif cream filling (click link for our recipe)
Chocolate Filling
- 15.5oz white bean paste, 440g (check out our homemade white bean paste recipe)
- 4 tbsp cocoa powder, 30g
Mooncake skin
- 2 cups all purpose flour, 250g
- 6oz golden syrup, 170g (see our recipe for homemade golden syrup, scroll to bottom)
- 3.5 tbsp lard (or peanut oil), 50g
- 1 tsp lye water 鹼水
- 1 egg yolk
- 1 tsp water
Directions:
Prepare the pistachio filling: Make the pistachio kadayif cream filling according to the recipe (click link), reducing that recipe amounts in half to suit this recipe.
Weigh out pistachio kadayif cream filling into 24 portions at 0.21oz/6g each and roll into balls. Set balls onto a tray and place in the freezer while making the chocolate filling and mooncake skin. You can do this a day ahead and store, covered, in the freezer.
Prepare the filling: Make the white bean paste according to the recipe here. Add the cocoa powder in and stir until evenly distributed. Weigh the chocolate flavored white bean paste into 24 portions at 0.67oz/19g each and roll into balls. Cover and chill in fridge while making the mooncake skin.
Prepare the mooncake skin: Add flour, golden syrup, lard and lye water into a mixing bowl and hand mix until an oily, smooth, non sticky dough is formed. If too dry add a bit more lard or oil. If too wet add more flour, one tbsp at a time. Weigh out the dough into 24 portions at 0.63oz/18g each and roll into balls.
Preheat: Preheat the oven to 375°F (190°C).
Wrap the mooncake: Take one chocolate filling ball and use a thumb to make it into a cup that will fit the pistachio balls. Place one pistachio kadayif cream ball in center. Wrap the chocolate filling up and around the pistachio filling until a ball is formed. Repeat for all balls.
Lightly flour a working surface. Take one mooncake skin dough ball and roll out to a 4 1/2 inch circle. Place one chocolate/pistachio filling ball on the skin. Gather the dough up and around the filling, creating folds where there is extra skin. Use scissors to cut off the extra skin. Pinch the cut edges closed. If there are bits of the filling not covered just use a bit of the cut off skin to patch. This dough patches really well.
For more details of this method please see our How to Wrap a Mooncake post for tips and cheats on the perfect mooncake wrapping method.
Place the now wrapped mooncake into your palm and very gently roll and squeeze until a smooth round ball shape is formed. Dust generously with flour.
Mold mooncake: Lightly flour the mold. (Use an old toothbrush.) Drop mooncake into the mold, with the side with more thickness of wrapper facing up. Press firmly but gently so that the mooncake completely fills the mold. Turn mold upside down and rap the end once or twice while holding a hand below to catch the mooncake as it falls out. Repeat for all the mooncakes.
Place molded mooncakes onto a parchment paper lined baking sheet with an inch in between cakes. Use a pastry brush to brush off any excess flour.
Bake mooncake: Bake in the middle oven rack for 10 mins. While baking prepare the egg wash by mixing the egg yolk with 1 tsp water. Remove mooncakes from oven at 10 min mark and lightly brush egg wash over the tops and sides. Check that the egg wash doesn't puddle in the pattern grooves. Return to the oven to bake another 5-10 mins (depends on mooncake size) or until the mooncakes are a golden yellow brown on top.
Rest the mooncake: Let cool completely before putting into an airtight container at room temperature for 2 days for a '上油 rest phase', that will soften the mooncake skin. After the resting phase your mooncakes are ready to eat. Enjoy and a gorgeous Mid-Autumn Festival to all!
Storage: Keep in a covered container in the fridge for up to a week.
Mooncake Madness at The Hong Kong Cookery:
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