Source:
https://scmp.com/lifestyle/food-drink/article/2110299/hong-kong-master-chef-shows-how-make-mooncakes-traditional
Lifestyle/ Food & Drink

Hong Kong master chef shows how to make mooncakes with traditional white lotus paste filling

Top Cantonese chef Wong Kit-wing takes us through the process of making the salted egg delicacy enjoyed by many during the Mid-Autumn Festival

Bernice Chan
Bernice Chan

Updated: 5:21pm, 8 Sep, 2017

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Wong Kit-wing’s mooncakes. Photo: Bernice Chan

Wong Kit-wing, dim sum chef of the Golden Leaf restaurant at the Conrad Hong Kong hotel, shows us how to make traditional white lotus paste mooncakes with salted egg yolks.

First he prepares a syrup. He melts coarse and fine sugar in boiling water and adds pineapples, lemons and preserved plums for flavour, then simmers it for three hours.

Dim sum chef Wong Kit-wing of the Golden Leaf restaurant makes mooncakes. Photo: Bernice Chan
Dim sum chef Wong Kit-wing of the Golden Leaf restaurant makes mooncakes. Photo: Bernice Chan
Next, he mixes flour with the syrup to make the dough, which is left to rest for an hour.
Wrappers, lotus seed paste and salted egg yolks.
Wrappers, lotus seed paste and salted egg yolks.
To make the individual mooncake crusts, he breaks the dough into pieces, flattens each one with his hand and uses the flat side of his cleaver to make the skin even thinner.

Next he puts the salted egg yolk into the lotus seed paste, into the crust and shapes it into a ball.

A mooncake is pressed in a wooden mould.
A mooncake is pressed in a wooden mould.
The ball is put into the wooden mould and he knocks it against the table to get the mooncake out.

The mooncakes are baked at 300 degrees Celsius for about 12 minutes. Halfway through the bake he takes them out and brushes the tops with egg wash.

Wong’s freshly baked mooncakes.
Wong’s freshly baked mooncakes.
The mooncakes cannot be eaten right away. They must sit for about seven days for the baked crust to absorb the oils from the salted egg yolk and lotus seed paste for a better taste.