2014 Mooncakes @ Lavender Bakery, MidValley Megamall, KL

Mid-Autumn Festival is one of my favorite Chinese celebrations and this year, it falls on September 8. Mooncakes are sold since beginning of July, and while we were at the mall last weekend, we simply couldn't resist and got a couple of traditional baked mooncakes from Lavender Bakery to enjoy at home.

Traditional Baked Mooncakes from Lavender Bakery

We chose two different flavours - the white lotus paste and golden jade paste (ie pandan), with single/double yolks. The fillings were nice, smooth and not overly sweet, with bits of melon seeds for texture and the salted egg yolks were moist. Overall, we enjoyed these mooncakes a lot.

Golden jade paste single yolk (RM15.50)

White lotus paste double yolk (RM16.50)

Great with some hot green tea

Our family having an early mooncake gathering :)

And then some gummy bears from Germany after ;)

Halal.

Price: Individually priced, total bill RM32 for 2 mooncakes.

Location: Lavender Bakery, LG-043A, LG Floor, Mid Valley Megamall, Mid Valley City, Lingkaran Syed Putra, 59200 Kuala Lumpur.

Tel: 03-2287 0866


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Recipe: Homemade Snowskin Mooncakes with Pandan Mung Bean Paste

Firstly, Happy Mid-Autumn Festival to all my dear readers! Have a wonderful celebration with your family.

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I have a confession to make.

Despite being a massive mooncake lover, I have NEVER made any mooncakes in my kitchen before.

But I decided to change that this year and finally made my first snowskin mooncakes at home. I think we're lucky because in Malaysia, we can get ready-made mooncake paste from baking shops easily and they even have snowskin pre-mixes ready in packets. Thanks to some of the hotel's mooncake workshops I attended last year, I have a vague idea how to make snowskin mooncakes. Let's put them into practice! :)

Homemade Snowskin Mooncakes with Pandan Mung Bean Paste

I chose pandan mung bean flavour, since my family is a big fan of pandan flavored mooncakes. For the skin, I used my homemade pandan extract to flavour and colour it. If you do not have pandan extract, you can use green coloring to colour the skin. You can also colour your snowskin mooncake skin with other natural colouring such as blue pea flower (blue), roselle (pink/red) or cocoa powder (brown). I feel the light pastel green tinge from the pandan extract matches very well with the darker shade from the filling.

Once you've decided the colour of your snowskin mooncakes, mix the pre-mix (cooked glutinous rice flour + icing sugar), shortening and water to form a dough. Form both filling and skin into balls, then place in mould, and voila! Snowskin mooncakes - lookwise it is not quite perfect yet, but it sure tastes good. I let the kids help with putting the mooncakes in the mould, which they really enjoyed doing, and Baby C asked if she could bring a couple in for her school teacher and classmates. We also shared some of them with our neighbours.

Baby C was the biggest fan of my homemade snowskin mooncakes, and it was really nice to see her enjoying them with her green tea. The look of satisfaction on her face was just priceless. Everyone agreed that this was really nice and we ended up having early mooncake parties two nights in a row. I really enjoyed making the mooncakes, and this will definitely be something I will be doing yearly from now on. Nice to know my family can enjoy homemade mooncakes, not to mention it is a lot more cost-effective too.

Mooncake Partay!

Homemade Snowskin Mooncakes with Pandan Mung Bean Paste
Recipe by Baby Sumo
Preparation time: 50-60 minutes
Makes 16


Ingredients
1 pack (300g) Crystal Mooncake Pre-Mix
1 pack (35g) shortening
130g cold water
10g homemade pandan extract
1-2 drops green colouring (optional)
Pandan mung bean paste (for the filling)
2 tbsp canola/corn oil

You will need:
63g mooncake mould


1.  Mix the water with pandan essence and colouring. Place the pre-mix in a large bowl, then rub in shortening and then add water and mix to form a dough.

2. Cover the dough with cling film and let it rest for about 20 minutes.

3. In the meantime, prepare the filling. Weigh into 36g each and roll into a ball. Repeat for a total of 16 mooncakes. Set aside.

4. Using your hands, roll the dough into a long cylindrical shape. Cut into small portion, each weighing 27g. Flatten, then wrap the dough around the filling.

Wrap the dough around the filling

5.  Lightly grease the mould with some oil. Roll into a cylindrical shape, then press the dough balls into the 63g mooncake mould. Press firmly, then dislodge from the mould. Keep chilled, up to 5 days in the fridge.

Note: I started off with 21g skin dough, 42g filling, but found this really hard to work with. Best ratio for 63g mould for me is 27g dough, 36g filling.

Tip: I use a straw to remove drops of pandan essence from the bottle. I used about 10g of essence but you can use more for a darker colour.

Not bad for a first attempt, huh? ;)

*I am submitting this to the Little Thumbs Up "Pandan" event organized by Bake for Happy Kids, my little favourite DIY and hosted by Joceline of Butter, Flour & Me. You can link your pandan recipes here.


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2013 Mooncakes @ Five Sen5es, The Westin KL

In the days leading up to Mid-Autumn Festival, mooncakes are an integral part of our evening yum cha session. We recently tried out The Westin KL's selection of mooncakes. Nowadays, there are many modern mooncake types such as snow skin, jelly or chocolate, however The Westin KL has decided to stick with the traditional baked mooncake and offers 8 different flavours with a distinctive Westin twist. The mooncakes are priced at RM88+ for 4 pieces, or RM138+ for 6 pieces. 

My favorite one is the Red Dates Longan Single Egg Yolk. I find the flavour very unique, the red dates paste wasn't too sweet and went well with the saltiness of the egg yolk. You also get bits of longan as you savour this. This was the kids favorite too. 

Another unusual flavour was the Secret Method Red tea and Coffee paste with Black Raisin - the prevailing flavour is definitely coffee in this one. The classic white lotus paste with double yolk is very good, love the smooth paste and who wouldn't love double yolks in their mooncakes? I certainly do! A plus point is that the HK white lotus paste is low sugar too. My mum loves the Five Sen5es Phoenix Assorted Fruit Nuts - nutty in every bite.

Red Dates Longan Single Egg Yolk

Five Sen5es Phoenix Assorted Fruit Nuts

Hong Kong low sugar white lotus paste with double yolk

Secret Method Red tea and Coffee paste with Black Raisin 

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2013 Mooncakes & Dim Sum @ Tai Zi Heen, Prince Hotel KL

Mid-Autumn Festival 中秋節 is celebrated by Chinese and Vietnamese people on the 15th day of the eighth month in the Chinese calendar. It is an occasion for reunion and gathering of friends and families to eat mooncakes, lighting lanterns and gazing the full moon. The round shape of the mooncake symbolises completeness and unity of families. 

Last year, one of the best mooncakes we had were from Tai Zi Heen at Prince Hotel KL. Hence, we were delighted to be invited back again this year to sample their mooncake creations as well as indulging in some delectable dim sums.

Purple spinach dumplings topped with Mexican clams

We sampled a total of 8 dim sum items, 5 of which are new additions to the menu. Dim Sum Chef Chong Lim Fong has come up with some creative dim sum dishes which combines old techniques with Western ingredients. From the premium steamed dim sum selections, we tried the purple spinach dumplings topped with Mexican clams (RM13), prawn dumplings with crab meat and dried scallops (RM18), and crystal yam dumplings with chicken and mushrooms. I love the thin, translucent skins of the dim sums as well as the fresh, bouncy prawns encased within the first two mentioned. The crystal yam dumpling is very pretty, just like a flower, and the filling reminds me of eating a wu kok (deep fried yam puff) albeit in a steamed form. 

Steamed purple spinach dumplings topped with Mexican clams 

 Steamed prawn dumplings with crab meat and dried scallops

Steamed crystal yam dumplings with chicken and mushrooms

From the premium deep fried dim sum selections, we also tried 2 new items - the beef patties with leeks, mayo and teriyaki sauce and crispy salmon and cheese roulade. Chef Chong tells us that he draws inspiration from the Japanese hambagu and put his own twist to it. The beef patties were flavorful and moist, topped with mayo, teriyaki sauce and bonito flakes. Very delicious, declared by Hubby as his favorite of the afternoon. The crispy salmon and cheese roulade's batter reminded us of pisang goreng (not a bad thing, since we all love those fried banana fritters) and the filling consists of salmon and a mix of cheddar-fresh milk.

Beef patties with leeks, mayo and teriyaki sauce

So juicy and flavorful

Crispy salmon and cheese roulade

Doesn't the melted cheese resemble pisang goreng too? ;)

We were also served individual portions of Shanghai dumplings filled with generous amounts of crab meat and broth (RM14) as well the pan fried crispy bean curd with prawn and cheese (RM14), whereby Chef Chong has once again used Cheddar in this creation. The oozy cheese pairs well with the crispy bean curd for texture. Finally the popular dim sum item wu kok has been given a twist, and filled with beef bacon and chives instead of pork/chicken and mushrooms.

Shanghai dumplings with crab meat and broth

Pan fried crispy bean curd with prawn and cheese 

Yam puffs filled with beef bacon and chives (RM10)

Mini food blogger in action :)

And her reward... chilled mango puree with vanilla ice cream, sago and pomelo (RM15). One of my favorite Chinese desserts, a refreshing end to the meal.

Baby C savouring her mango dessert

This year, Tai Zi Heen have 6 traditional baked and 4 snowskin mooncakes for sale. Lucky us got to try all 10 flavours! The flavours available here are five variety nuts, rum and raisin (RM25), white lotus paste with single yolk (RM24), low sugar white lotus paste with sunflower seed (RM23), pandan paste with melon seed (RM23), red bean paste (RM21), mini snow skin chocolate and whisky (RM18), mini snow skin with red bean paste (RM15), mini snow skin with passion fruit cheese cake (RM19) and mini snow skin with pandan lotus paste and mung bean paste (RM16).

As I said last year, the baked mooncakes here have very thin skin and the filling is very smooth. They are handmade with no preservatives or coloring. My favorite baked one is the white lotus paste with single yolk, which is the one of the bestsellers along with the five variety nuts. My mum who is a big fan of the five variety nuts mooncake gives this her seal of approval, stating it is not too sweet with a nice balance of filling.  This is the first time I have tried a baked durian mooncake (usually they are encased in snow skin), Chef Chong explains he uses D24 durian. There is no offensive durian smell, however once you take a bite, there is no question that you are eating a durian mooncake.

The mini snow skin with passion fruit cheese cake is a new creation and this is my favorite one of all the mooncakes. Passion fruit is naturally sour and sweet, so this makes the mooncake refreshingly appetizing. I also like the mini snow skin chocolate and whisky, which uses dark chocolate and Scotch whisky with addition of walnuts. Baby C went straight for the mini snow skin with red bean paste cos it's pink... LOL.

Dim Sum Chef Chong Lim Fong with his snow skin creations

Mooncake styling and photoshoot back at home...

White lotus paste and single egg yolk

Pandan paste and melon seed

Five variety nuts, rum and raisin

Pork-free.

Opening times: Lunch; 12.00 pm - 2.30pm, Dinner; 6.30pm-10.30pm. There is also a mooncake booth at the lobby, which is open from 12 noon to 9.30pm.

Location: Tai Zi Heen, Level 2, Prince Hotel & Residence Kuala Lumpur, 4 Jalan Conlay, 50450 Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.

Tel: 03-2170 8888

Website: http://www.princehotelkl.com

GPS Coordinates: 3.150179, 101.714516