How to make traditional and simple soft green bean mooncakes

What ingredients do you need to prepare to make soft moon cakes?

The crust :

250g cooked sticky rice flour
450ml moon cake syrup
15ml grapefruit flower water
15ml cooking oil

Cake filling :

1 tablespoon white wine
100g green beans
60g sugar (can be adjusted to taste)
10g glutinous rice flour
45g cooking oil

Thanh Thuy Pear Mooncake.png — Banh chung is a favorite dish during the Mid-Autumn Festival of many Vietnamese people. This cake also appears on the offering tray of the 15th day of the 8th lunar month in all 3 regions. Photo: Le Thanh Thuy

How to make traditional soft green bean mooncakes

Wash the mung beans, soak them for a few hours until they expand, then take them out and drain. Then, put the beans and a little water in a pot and boil for about 20 minutes until the beans are soft.

Use a blender to puree the mung beans with sugar, filter through a sieve until smooth. Pour the mixture into a non-stick pan, cook over medium heat until thick, then slowly add cooking oil and stir continuously to release steam.

Continue to simmer until the mixture is no longer sticky (about 30-40 minutes), then add the glutinous rice flour and mix well until the dough is cooked. If you want to shorten the time, you can buy pre-cooked mung bean paste at baking stores.

After cooking, divide the mung beans into 6 equal parts and roll them into balls to make the filling.

For the cake crust, sift 200g of cooked sticky rice flour until smooth, then pour into a large bowl, slowly add 450ml of sticky rice sugar water, 15ml of grapefruit flower water, 15ml of cooking oil and mix well.

At this point the dough mixture is a bit wet so let it rest for about 10 minutes to expand and then add the remaining 50g of sticky rice flour and continue kneading.

Sprinkle some flour on a flat surface, take out the dough and knead until you get a smooth, elastic mixture with no lumps.

The dough for the cake crust is also divided into 6 equal parts and then rolled into balls. Take each portion of the dough and press or flatten it, put the mung bean filling in the middle and roll it into a ball so that the crust completely covers the filling.

People will put the cake into the mold and use their hands to spread the cake evenly. Press the mold down for 15-18 seconds then push the cake out. Do this repeatedly until all is used up.

The mooncakes can be eaten immediately after making them and can be stored at room temperature for about 4-5 days. If you want to keep them longer, you should store them in the refrigerator.

After 1-2 days of making, the moon cake will turn clear and reach the ideal softness. Keep the cake in the refrigerator, take it out about 15-30 minutes before eating, it will be more delicious and less sweet. Photo: Kim Yen

Notes when making soft moon cakes

Normally, the mooncake crust and filling are made in a 2:1 ratio. The cake should be made larger than the mold so that when pressed, the cake will be fuller and tastier.

If you are new to making mooncakes, you should mix each cake crust at a time. To let the crust absorb the sugar water evenly and to avoid the case of the cake being gritty when eating (due to the remaining dry flour), you should add each spoonful of glutinous rice flour into the sugar water, stir well until it is completely dissolved, and continue until all the flour is used up.

Avoid adding sugar water when the dough is too sticky because the dough will expand further during the process.

Do not knead the dough for too long as it will become tough and difficult to form cakes.

If the dough is dry, add a little more sugar water and continue kneading.

After wrapping the filling, use flour to brush the mold to prevent sticking, and use a very thin layer of flour to surround the dough ball to make closing the cake easier.

Moon cake does not require cooking oil.

The cake can be eaten immediately after being molded, but if left until the next day, the cake will be clear and much more delicious.

To color the mooncakes, you can use natural colors from powder or vegetable juice such as carrot juice, red dragon fruit, pandan leaves, butterfly pea flowers, green tea powder (matcha), cocoa powder, gardenia powder, beetroot powder, pumpkin powder. If you add juice, reduce the amount of sugar water, if you add colored powder, reduce the amount of glutinous rice flour.

Source: https://vietnamnet.vn/cach-lam-banh-trung-thu-deo-nhan-dau-xanh-truyen-thong-don-gian-2446716.html