中秋节 【zhōng qiū jié】 or Mid-Autumn Festival is held on the 15th day of the 8th month in the Chinese lunar calendar, which this year falls on September 8th.
This festival is celebrated in China and several other Asian countries, such as South Korea, North Korea, Vietnam and Japan. Autumn falls in the seventh, eight and ninth months of the lunar year. During this period the skies are clearer, making a perfect setting for the moon to shine its brightest. The 15th of the eighth month is the time when the moon appears the brightest, roundest and most beautiful, hence the timing of this festival.
These days, this holiday, which is also called Mooncake Festival, is all about gathering family and friends, giving thanks for the good harvest and praying for a good future, and of course, eating delicious mooncakes. But there is, of course, a traditional story behind the holiday as well, which dates back 1400 years, during the Tang dynasty. There are a couple versions of the story behind this day:
1) This story says that during the rise of the Tang Dynasty, Tang general PeiJi based the creation of the mooncake on the moon and used them as payment for the anti-Sui Dynasty rebels army. Since then, during the Tang Dynasty, mooncakes were given to court officials as a symbol of appreciation.
2) In Ancient China there was a hero named HouYi. He was an excellent hunter. He had a wife named 嫦娥 【cháng é】. There were ten suns which caused great suffering to the people. HouYi end up shooting nine suns and left one sun for light. An immortal admired him and gave him an elixir of immortality (that would make him go up to the skies). HouYi loved his wife and did not want to take the elixir and leave her, so he stored the elixir in a chest. However, one of his apprentices, Feng Meng, found out about this secret. On the fifteenth of the eighth month in the lunar year, HouYi went hunting and Feng Meng broke into his house. He forced Cháng é to give him the elixir. Cháng é refused to give it to him, instead she swallowed it and flew into the skies where she chose the moon as her new home. After HouYi found out what had happened, he would put out cakes and fruit in memory of his wife. Others learned about HouYi’s misfortune and started to participate in these sacrifices with HouYi.
In any case, one thing is certain: Mooncakes are a symbol of the full moon of the mid-autumn festival. They are filled with bean paste (lotus, sweet bean) and duck egg yolk. These days, some people also make ice-cream mooncakes, made with bean flavored ice-cream. Some people are even being more adventurous and making new variations of the mooncake that include non-traditional ingredients like sweet potato and chocolate.
You’ll also see a lot of lanterns as part of this holiday. One tradition involving lanterns is to write riddles on them. People then try to guess the answer to these “lantern riddles”灯谜 【dēng mí】.
If you can’t find mooncakes where you live, or if you are just interested in making your own, here is a traditional mooncake recipe. Feel free to vary it with a few adventurous ingredients of your own liking, but maybe only after you’ve given the traditional recipe a try. We’ve provided and English and Chinese version so that you can practice your Chinese while baking.
Ingredients:
Flour 100g
syrup 70g
lotus paste 300g
peanut oil 25g
egg 1
duck egg 5
water 1g
- First heat up the syrup, add the hot syrup into the water, then add peanut oil, stirring constantly until smooth and let cool for later use.
- Once the flour has been filtered, pour the syrup slowly.
- Mix with a rubber spatula into dough and leave it for 2 hours.
- Cut the dough into small 30g dough balls. Divide the lotus paste into small balls of 60 g each.
- On the yolks, spray a tablespoon of white wine (Chinese wine). Put into the steamer and steam for 15 minutes until cooked. Once done, take out and let it cool. Flatten the lotus paste and wrap it around the yolk and make into a small ball.
- Use the dough pieces and wrap it around the lotus paste (containing the yolk). Once again, make it into a ball
- Place it into the mold and press.
- Take it out of the mold, it is the raw mooncake
- Spray the mooncakes with a little bit of water and place them into a pre-heated oven (200 C. Bake for 10 minutes and take them out and let them cool.
- Mix and whisk egg yolk and egg white, ratio 2:1. Brush the mooncakes with the egg and place them again to the oven (at 180C) for another 5 minutes. Take them out and let them cool.
DONE!
You can use any paste you like. Lotus paste was used in this case.
Recipe from: http://www.haodou.com/recipe/247617
中文版
食材：
低粉 100g
花生油 25g
转化糖浆 70g
莲蓉馅 300g
吉士粉 5g
咸蛋黄 5颗
枧水 1g
鸡蛋 1只
1. 准备材料
2. 先将糖浆加热，热糖浆中加入枧水，再加入花生油不停搅拌至均匀，放凉备用
3. 过筛后的面粉，一点点倒入糖油浆
4. 用橡皮刮刀拌匀混合成团，室温下醒制2个小时
5. 醒好的油面团拿出，分成30克每个的小面团，莲蓉馅分成60克每个的圆子
6. 蛋黄上喷一大勺白酒，入蒸锅蒸15分钟至熟，拿出晾凉，莲蓉馅压扁包入蛋黄后滚圆
7. 取一块面团压扁包入莲蓉馅料，封口滚圆后
8. 放入模具中按压
9. 制成的月饼生胚
10. 将月饼表面喷适量水放入预热200度的烤箱中烘烤10分钟拿出，晾凉
11. 鸡蛋磕开，按照蛋黄和蛋白2:1的比例搅打均匀成蛋黄液，在月饼表面刷一层蛋黄液，继续放入烤箱，180度烘烤5分钟即可关火
食谱来源：http://www.haodou.com/recipe/247617
