A Recipe for Mooncakes

Mooncake is a Chinese snack traditionally served during the Mid-Autumn Festival.

Prep Time: 20 minutes

Cook Time: 20 minutes

Ingredients:

• 1 pound red beans for filling
• Crushed nuts (any combination of the following nuts: peanut, hazelnut, walnut, almond, cashew, chestnut, pine nut)
• flour
• lard or oil
• Sugar
• eggs

Soak red beans in water to cover overnight. Drain and discard the water. Cover with 8 cups fresh water and bring to a boil, then simmer over low heat until skins open. Strain the beans and squeeze out any excess water.

Place crushed nuts in a saucepan with the lard (or oil), add the strained red beans and sugar. Cook, stirring continuously, until almost all the moisture has evaporated. Let cool.

Divide this into small portions and shape into balls.

Mix flour, lard, sugar, and water for the dough until smooth. Divide the dough into equal portions.

Wrap one portion of red beans filling balls inside each portion of dough. Gather the edges to enclose the filling and pinch to seal. Place the filled packet in the mold, gently pressing to fit. Remove the mold.

Arrange mooncakes about 1 inch apart on baking sheet. Brush surface of mooncakes with egg/water glaze.

Bake for 20 minutes at 180 degrees until golden brown. Take them out once to brush surface with egg/water glaze again and put them back in oven.

Let cool before serving.