A mooncake () is a Chinese baked item traditionally eaten during the Mid-Autumn Festival (中秋節). The festival is primarily about the harvest, while a legend connects it to moon watching, and mooncakes are regarded as a delicacy. Mooncakes are offered between friends or on family gatherings while celebrating the festival. The Mid-Autumn Festival is widely regarded as one of the four most important Chinese festivals.
There are a number of varieties of mooncakes consumed within China and outside of China in overseas Chinese communities. The Cantonese mooncake is the most famous variety. A traditional Cantonese mooncake is a round pastry, measuring about in diameter and thick, with a rich, thick filling usually made from lotus seed paste (other typical fillings include red bean paste or mixed nuts) surrounded by a thin, 2–3 mm (approximately 1/8 of an inch) crust and may contain yolks from salted duck eggs.
Mooncakes are usually eaten in small wedges, accompanied by tea. Today, it is customary for business people and families to present them to their clients or relatives as presents, encouraging the market for high-end mooncakes.
Just as the Mid-Autumn Festival is celebrated in various Asian localities due to the presence of Chinese communities throughout the region, mooncakes are enjoyed in other parts of Asia too. Mooncakes have also appeared in Western countries as a form of delicacy.
General description Most mooncakes consist of a thick, tender pastry skin enveloping a sweet, dense filling, which may contain one or several whole salted egg yolks in the center to symbolize the full moon. Depending on the custom, mooncakes may also be steamed, baked, or fried.
Traditional mooncakes have an imprint on top consisting of the Chinese characters for "longevity" or "harmony", as well as the name of the bakery and the filling inside. Imprints of the Moon, the Chinese goddess of the Moon (Chang'e), flowers, vines, or a rabbit (symbol of the Moon) may surround the characters for additional decoration.
History
Mid-Autumn Festival The festival is intricately linked to legends of Chang’e, the Moon Goddess of Immortality. According to the Liji, an ancient Chinese book recording customs and ceremonies, the Chinese Emperor should offer sacrifices to the Sun in spring and the Moon in autumn. The 15th day of the 8th Chinese month is the day called "Mid-Autumn". The night on the 15th of the 8th Chinese month is also called "Night of the Moon".
Because of its central role in the Mid-Autumn festival, mooncakes remained popular even in recent years. For a number of people, they form a central part of the Mid-Autumn festival experience such that it is now commonly known as 'Mooncake Festival'.
Ming Revolution There is a folk tale about the overthrow of the Yuan dynasty facilitated by messages smuggled in moon cakes.
Mooncakes were used by revolutionaries in their effort to overthrow the Mongol-led Yuan dynasty, eventually resulting in the establishment of the Ming dynasty. The idea is said to have been conceived by Zhu Yuanzhang and his advisor Liu Bowen, who circulated a rumor that a deadly plague was spreading and that the only way to prevent it was to eat special mooncakes, which would instantly revive and give special powers to the user. This prompted the quick distribution of mooncakes. The mooncakes contained a secret message: on the fifteenth day of the eighth lunar month, kill the rulers.
Another method of hiding a message was to print it on the surfaces of mooncakes (which came in packages of four), as a simple puzzle or mosaic. To read the message, each of the four mooncakes was cut into four parts. The resulting 16 pieces were pieced together to reveal the message. The pieces of mooncakes were then eaten to destroy the message.
Traditional styles Fillings
Many types of fillings can be found in traditional mooncakes: Lotus seed paste (蓮蓉, lían róng): Considered by some to be the original and most luxurious mooncake filling, lotus paste filling is found in multiple types of mooncakes.White lotus paste commands an even higher premium. Due to the high price of lotus paste, white kidney bean paste is sometimes used as a filler. Sweet bean paste (豆沙, dòu shā): A number of pastes are common fillings found in Chinese desserts. Although red bean paste, made from azuki beans, is the most common worldwide, there are regional and original preferences for bean paste made from mung beans, as well as black beans. Jujube paste (棗泥, zǎo ní): A sweet paste is made from the ripe fruits of the jujube (date) plant. The paste is dark red in color, a little fruity/smoky in flavor, and slightly sour in taste. Depending on the quality of the paste, jujube paste may be confused with red bean paste, which is sometimes used as a filler. Five kernels (五仁, wǔ rén) or mixed nuts: A filling consisting of five types of nuts and seeds, coarsely chopped, is held together with maltose syrup. Recipes differ from region to region, but commonly used nuts and seeds include walnuts, pumpkin seeds, watermelon seeds, peanuts, sesame seeds, and almonds. The mixture for the filling also contains candied winter melon, jinhua ham, or pieces of rock sugar as additional flavoring.
Crusts
Traditional mooncakes vary widely depending on the region where they are produced. Most regions produce them with multiple types of fillings, but with only one type of crust. Although vegetarian mooncakes may use vegetable oil, many mooncakes use lard in their recipes. Four types of mooncake crust are traditionally used in Chinese cuisine: Chewy: This crust has a reddish-brown tone and glossy sheen. It is the most common type of crust used on Cantonese-style mooncakes. It is also the most commonly seen type of mooncake in North America and a number of Western countries. Chewy mooncake crusts are made using a combination of thick sugar syrup, lye water (碱水, sodium carbonate (碱 [Na2CO3]), flour, and oil, thus giving this crust its rich taste and a chewy yet tender texture. Chewiness can be increased further by adding maltose syrup to the mixture. The dough is also baked into fish or piglet shapes () and sold at bakeries as a chewy snack. They often come individually packaged in small plastic baskets, to symbolize fish being caught or piglets being bound for sale. Flaky: Flaky crusts are most indicative of Suzhou- and Taiwan-style mooncakes. The dough is made by rolling together alternating layers of oily dough and flour that has been stir-fried in oil. This crust has a texture similar to puff pastry. Tender: Mooncakes from certain provinces of China are often made to be tender rather than flaky or chewy. The texture of this type of mooncake crust is similar to the shortcrust pastry used in Western pie crusts or tart shells. Tender crusts are made mainly of a homogenous mix of sugar, oil, flour, and water. This type of crust is also commonly used in other type of Chinese pastries, such as the egg tart. Crumbly: Yunnan-style mooncakes are made using a hot water crust pastry that combines different kinds of flour with oil, salt, and hot water to form a dense, crumbly pastry that's quite uncommon elsewhere.
Regional variations in China
There are a number of regional variants of the mooncake. Types of traditional mooncake include:
Beijing-style mooncake: This style has two variations. One, called di qiang, was influenced by the Suzhou-style mooncake. It has a light, foamy dough as opposed to a flaky one. The other variation, called "fan mao", has a flaky, white dough. The two most popular fillings are the mountain hawthorn and wisteria blossom flavors. Cantonese-style mooncake: Originating from Guangdong and Guangxi provinces, the Cantonese mooncake has multiple variations and is the most famous regional style of the mooncake. The ingredients used for the fillings are various: lotus seed paste, melon seed paste, nuts, ham, chicken, duck, roast pork, mushrooms, egg yolks, etc. More elaborate versions contain four egg yolks, representing the four phases of the moon. Recent contemporary forms (albeit non-traditional) sold in Hong Kong are even made from chocolate, ice cream or jelly.鳳凰衛視中文台, 12 September 2008 Shanghai-style mooncake: This style is made from shortcrust pastry which is rich, crumbly and buttery crust but not like pie dough. The most popular fillings are similar to those sweet Cantonese-style mooncake such as sweetened red bean paste, lotus seed paste and taro paste with egg yolks in the middle of the filling. Hong Kong-style mooncake: Hong Kong has gained its own style of mooncakes. While Hongkongers typically eat Cantonese-style mooncakes, local inventions such as snow skin mooncake have been appearing over the last few decades. Teochew-style mooncake: This is another flaky crust variety, but is larger in size than the Suzhou variety. It is close in diameter to the Cantonese style, but thinner. A variety of fillings are used, but the aroma of lard after roasting is stressed. The Teochew also have a fried lotus cake (or lotus pastry) (), eaten on the Mid-Autumn Festival. This moon cake is deep-fried, not baked. The yam filling and flaky pastry crust are what set Teochew mooncakes apart from other mooncakes. These old-school confections are known as "la bia" (朥饼) in the Chaoshan region in the east of Guangdong, where the Teochews came from. La means lard or pork oil in Teochew, which is mixed with flour to make the pastry. Ningbo-style mooncake: This style is also inspired by the Suzhou-style. It is prevalent in Zhejiang province, and has a compact covering. The fillings are either seaweed or ham; it is also known for its spicy and salty flavor. Suzhou-style mooncake: This style began more than a thousand years ago, and is known for its layers of flaky dough and generous allotment of sugar and lard. Within this regional type, there are more than a dozen variations. It is also smaller than most other regional varieties. Suzhou-style mooncakes feature both sweet and savory types, the latter served hot and usually filled with pork mince. Fillings made from salt and pepper (椒鹽, jiāoyán) are common in flaky Suzhou-style mooncakes. Meizhou-style mooncake Southern Min-style mooncake Wenzhou-style mooncake Yunnan-style mooncake: The distinctive feature is the combination of various flours for the dough, including rice flour, wheat flour, and buckwheat flour, and a filling that combines Xuanwei ham and sugar.
Contemporary styles
Over time, both the crusts and the composition of the fillings of mooncakes have diversified, in particular, due to a commercial need to drive up sales in the face of intense competition between producers and from other food types. As competition among producers intensifies, retailers tend to over-design mooncake packaging to create market buzz and attract consumers, which often leads to excessive packaging and low recycling rates. Mooncake packaging continues to rely on plastic and other environmentally unfriendly materials, and China’s annual production of packaging waste is increasing at an estimated rate of about 10%, while only around 10% of recyclable resources are recovered. Part of these trends are also to cater to changing taste preferences, and because people are more health-conscious. Therefore, most of these contemporary styles are especially prominent amongst the cosmopolitan and younger Chinese and amongst the overseas Chinese community. However, traditional mooncakes are often sold alongside contemporary ones to cater to individual preferences.