This recipe is for all of you out there who think you don’t like mooncakes or who want to try making them for the first time. The flavors are deliciously autumnal and familiar, and bonus: they’re easier to make than any of our other mooncake recipes! We partnered with the Georgia Pecan Growers Association to bring you this Pecan Pie Mooncake recipe. As always on The Woks of Life, all opinions are our own. Enjoy!
The Next Generation Develops a Mooncake Recipe
The Mid-Autumn Festival is the second biggest Chinese holiday of the year. We describe it almost like a Chinese version of Thanksgiving—a time to celebrate the harvest, reunite with family and friends, and—like many holidays—enjoy some good eats. It usually falls in the month of September. Read more about how to celebrate Mid-Autumn Festival here! If you’ve noticed mooncakes filling the shelves and end caps at your local Chinese grocery store, this holiday is why. Mooncakes are THE traditional Mid-Autumn Festival treat. This year, we’ve reached a huge milestone. It’s been ten years of my mom solely taking on the mooncake responsibility around here, developing these classic recipes:
Lotus Paste Mooncakes with Salted Duck Egg Yolks Classic Red Bean Mooncakes Ham & Nut Mooncakes Savory Pork Mooncakes (Xian Rou Yue Bing) Su-Style Sweet Red Bean Mooncakes Snow Skin Mooncakes
But this year, I developed this mooncake recipe and assembled them myself! Last year, my mom thought it was the right time for my sister and I to try our hand at mooncake making, without her supervision (another monumental milestone at the time). We made Classic Red Bean Mooncakes, and even recorded a video of our experience! But while we did assemble those mooncakes, most of the elements—the red bean paste, the salted duck egg yolks, golden syrup, etc. had been prepared by my mom. She pretty much dropped off a bag of ingredients at my apartment and told us to have at it. It was a super valuable experience, because it helped me gain confidence in the mooncake-making arena, and now I feel up to the task of not only making mooncakes every year for this special holiday, but also inventing some new recipes. That is the beauty of The Woks of Life—my sister and I are able to build on my parents’ knowledge and the past recipes we’ve already recorded. Exhibit A: I used my mom’s Ham & Nut Mooncake recipe as a starting point for developing these Pecan Pie Mooncakes!
Non-Traditional Mooncake Flavors
These days, as more fancy mooncakes hit the market, we’re seeing a lot more non-traditional flavors, from taro and ube to green tea and mocha. That said, while all mooncakes have become pretty expensive these days (they can run $60-$80 for a box of 4!), those specialty flavors are especially pricey. All the more reason to make your own! I thought Pecan Pie would be a great one to start with, for several reasons: In sum, these mooncakes are an East Meets West creation that both the elders and the kids can enjoy. I use toasted pecans, vanilla, butter, and a little bit of bourbon for depth of flavor in the filling. We used Georgia Pecans for this recipe—did you know that pecans are America’s native nut? They’re also packed with antioxidants, protein, fiber, and healthy fats. So basically…these mooncakes are kinda healthy. ;) The binder for the filling is glutinous rice flour, much like in a traditional Chinese nut mooncake. So you get the texture of a mooncake, with all the flavor of pecan pie. This is a great recipe to share with friends and family who are pecan pie lovers, or for those who aren’t normally fans of Chinese mooncake fillings like lotus or red bean paste.
Recipe Tips
If you’ve never made mooncakes, this recipe is a great place to start. You don’t have to make a complicated homemade paste or salt any duck eggs. The filling is super easy to make, as is the dough, and those are the only two elements! Then, it’s just a matter of assembly and baking. Here are a few tips to keep in mind during the process:
While we included US customary measurements in the recipe card, metric is preferred. A digital scale is important, not only for weighing out the ingredients for the filling and dough for best results, but also to ensure that your mooncakes are the same size. This is also key to ensuring that they fit into the molds. Chop your pecans so that no piece is larger than the size of a green-pea. You want a mixture of pieces and some crumbs, which help bind the filling together. You can find mooncake molds online. We like the versions with springs and interchangeable pattern plates. You’ll want molds that can accommodate 100g of filling for this recipe. Browse some options here. While this mooncake recipe has fewer specialty ingredients than most, you will still need 3 items you may not be able to find in regular grocery stores: golden syrup, Potassium Carbonate, and sweet rice flour (AKA glutinous rice flour). You can make golden syrup using our recipe with just sugar, water, and lemon juice. However, you can also buy Lyle’s Golden Syrup online! Potassium carbonate and glutinous rice flour can be found in Chinese grocery stores and online.
This recipe makes 10 mooncakes, but if you’d like to make more, just click on the number of servings in the recipe card to scale it up!
Let’s get to the recipe.
Pecan Pie Mooncakes Recipe Instructions
Step 1: Make the dough
Start with the mooncake dough. In a mixing bowl, combine the golden syrup, oil, and Potassium Carbonate solution together with a rubber spatula. (If using cups for measuring, make sure you get almost every last drop of syrup/oil from the measuring cups into the bowl!) Then add the flour to the mixture. While we have included US customary (cup) measures in the recipe card, weigh your ingredients using metric measurements and a digital scale for best results! Use the spatula to combine everything into a soft dough. Do not overwork it. This step should only take 1-2 minutes. Cover the dough in an airtight container. Let it rest in the refrigerator for at least 1 hour. (Or overnight, if you’d like to do this step in advance.) You should have about 470g of dough.
Step 2: Make the filling
While the dough is chilling, make the filling. In a clean, dry wok, toast the sweet rice flour for 15-20 minutes over medium low heat until it turns a light brown color. Stir often, and adjust the heat accordingly to prevent burning. Allow to cool. This step ensures you don’t have a raw flour taste in your mooncake filling. Toast the pecans in a preheated oven at 300°F for 10 minutes, until fragrant. Allow to cool, and chop them—no pecan piece should be larger than a pea. Add them to a large mixing bowl, along with the brown sugar and salt. Mix well. To the pecan mixture, stir in the melted butter, water, bourbon, oil, and vanilla. Then gradually add the toasted sweet rice flour to bind all the ingredients together. The filling should hold together in a ball when finished. Weigh and divide the mixture into 10 equal pieces (about 60g each). Form each piece into a ball, and set aside for assembling the mooncakes.
Step 3: Assemble the mooncakes
Once the dough has finished resting, divide and weigh the dough into ten equal (47g) pieces, rolling each piece between your hands into a ball. (Weighing them will ensure each mooncake is the same size and weight.) Store the dough balls in a covered container to chill in the fridge—you’ll work with a couple at a time. Ensure the pattern plate in your mooncake mold is locked in place, and dust the inside of the mold (the pattern plate and the sides) thoroughly with flour. Gently tap out any excess. You will repeat this process for each mooncake. Lightly dust a work surface and a dough ball with flour, and use a floured rolling pin to roll the dough into a 4-inch/10cm circle. Use a thin, flat spatula to lift up the dough, and place it on top of a ball of filling. Gently press out the air bubbles around the filling. Then turn the opening face-up, and carefully press the dough together to close any gaps, keeping the dough distribution as even as possible. The dough will crack easily, but it’s also easy to squish back together or patch with an extra scrap of dough (just use a scrap piece from an area that has too much dough). The chief goal here is to close the dough around the filling without capturing air inside. Roll between your hands to create a smooth ball. Lightly dust the assembled ball with additional flour. Place it on a lightly floured work surface, then press the mooncake mold onto the ball until the base of the mold makes contact with the work surface. Firmly press down on the spring until you feel resistance. Lift the mold and gently press the mooncake out of the mold.
Place the mooncakes on a baking sheet about 1 inch (2.5cm) apart as you make them. Repeat until you’ve assembled all the mooncakes. (Note that they will not change size during baking.)
Step 4: Bake the mooncakes
Preheat the oven to 325°F/160°C when you’re almost finished assembling the mooncakes. Right before baking, dip your fingers into a bowl of water, and fling the water on your fingers onto the mooncakes a few times. This gently misting prevents the dough from cracking. Immediately put the mooncakes in the 325°F/160°C oven and bake for 5 minutes. (Remember to set the timer!) Now prepare the egg wash by whisking the egg yolk and 3 tablespoons of water together. After the mooncakes have been baking for 5 minutes, take them out of the oven and immediately lower the oven temperature to 300°F/150°C. Very lightly brush each mooncake with egg wash (preferably using a natural bristle pastry brush), being careful not to allow any egg wash pool in the nooks and crannies of the mooncakes. Put them back in the oven, and bake for another 15-17 mins, until the mooncakes are a light golden brown. When the mooncakes first come out of the oven, the dough will look a bit dry, and not oily like what you are used to when opening packaged mooncakes. This is normal. Cool completely, and then store the cooled mooncakes in an airtight container for 1-2 days, and the outside will get that nice shiny sheen you recognize! Store your mooncakes in an airtight container in the refrigerator for up to 10 days, and enjoy! We hope you enjoyed this pecan pie mooncake recipe, sponsored by Georgia Pecans! It might be my favorite mooncake recipe yet. :)
