Mooncake Recipe - Bánh Trung Thu (Bánh dẻo) | Helen's Recipes

Hi everyone, Mid-Autumn Festival Tết Trung Thu is coming in a few weeks and many of you have requested for a mooncake tutorial. So today I will make Snow Skin Mooncake or Bánh Dẻo. Mid-Autumn Festival is held on the full moon day of the 8th month in lunar calendar. In Vietnam, it's considered one of the most important holiday tradition, especially for the children. I love seeing the excitement and happiness on their smiling faces when participating in parades with lanterns called rước đèn, watching lion dances and eating mooncakes. This is also a special occasion for Thanksgiving in Vietnam and mooncakes are of course the most common presents that are given to show gratitude. And because my parents were teachers, my house was always full of mooncakes on this occasion and you know when you have too much of something, you will be sick of it. So I didn't really like mooncakes when I was a kid, but when I moved to live abroad during this time of the year, I really miss the controlled beats of the lion dances like what you're hearing right now, the lantern parades and believe it or not, the mooncakes. So I will try making it today. Let's begin! We're gonna firstly make a simple syrup. In a saucepan, combine 1 cup sugar and 1 cup water. Bring to a boil and occasionally swirl the saucepan to help the sugar dissolves. Do not stir, especially when the bubbles start coming up. Lower the heat and simmer for 2-3 minutes until the sugar is completely dissolved. Then add a tablespoon of lime juice to prevent the sugar from recrystallizing and let cool to room temperature. It would be better if you can make this one day before, but it's still okay to use right after it has cooled down. To make the fillings, rinse and soak the mung beans in water for 1 hour and then cook in a rice cooker until soft. Then combine with sugar, vegetable oil, salt and vanilla and put to process in a food processor into a fine paste. If you want to keep the cake for more than 2 days, you need to cook the mung bean paste in a non-stick pan with vegetable oil and a tablespoon of cooked glutinous rice flour. Keep stirring and mixing until it all comes together and becomes smooth. It would take about 15 minutes or more. The longer you do this step, the longer you can keep the cakes. Try to stop before it's getting too dry because we want the fillings to be soft and smooth. Then divide and shape into balls. For the dough, you will need cooked glutinous rice flour. It is sold at Asian stores in a package like this. Make sure you use the right flour for this recipe because it wouldn't work with other kinds. In a mixing bowl, combine the same amount of the flour and the simple syrup. Let's say you make half a cup each. Then add about 1 1⁄8 teaspoon of the pomelo aroma extract. It will give the cake its distinct aroma. Then mix with a spatula until well combined. Again, you need to use the cooked glutinous rice flour and not the normal type because it's edible like this and we're not gonna cook it under any forms. Sprinkle 1 tablespoon of the same flour onto the working surface. Also dust your hand with the flour to avoid sticking. When it all comes together, scrape it off the bowl and transfer to the floured working surface. Knead the dough by folding method until it's no longer sticks to your hands. This is the mooncake mold that I'm using. Basically, you want the hollow part facing inwards. Maybe you can find it at your local Asian store. If not, you can find many other similar kinds on eBay or Amazon. Dust your mooncake mold with the same flour. Put a piece of the snow skin into the mold and press down firmly. Place a ball of filling in the center. Cover with another piece of snow skin. Sprinkle some more flour on top to avoid sticking. Use a piece of aluminum foil to press down firmly until it forms a flat surface on the edges of that mooncake mold. Remove the mooncake from the mold and look how beautiful that is! How much fillings and how much snow skin to put in each mooncake, it depends on the size of the mold and also your personal preference. Normally, it will be 40% for the snow skin and 60% for the fillings. I've just did the same with the round mold and look at this! It's so pretty! The snow skin is soft, glutinous and sweet. It has a pleasant smell of the pomelo flower. It's so perfect to go with a cup of hot green tea. Sometimes people add a salted egg yolk inside but I'm not a fan of it so I just skip it. I hope you're gonna enjoy making this mooncake as much as I did. Thank you for watching! Bye bye!