Mini Baked Custard Mooncakes

Phew ! JIT ... just in time to share my Custard Mooncakes linking to the events Best Recipes for Everyone Event theme Mooncake and Little Thumbs Up theme Flour ! :D  So happy !

Actually I've planned to try baking some custard mooncakes next weekend to celebrate the mid Autumn Festival. I don't intend to bake mooncakes or cakes over the weekends as I've 'reserved' the time whenever my hubby makes a trip home to spend time with the family. He usually prefers to 'indulge' some of his favourite hawker food like prata, mee pok, 福建炒(Malaysia KL style) etc. etc. Meaning ... we will be eating out mostly. As he has arranged to have dinner with his brother and family, so I thought why not bake some mooncakes for them to try. Afterall, I've got all the ingredients ... except the nice mooncake mould. Well, I either have to make round shape (like the Walnut moontarts) or use a star shape jelly mould to make a batch of mini custard mooncakes. So I quickly make the pastry dough and steamed custard in the morning. Wrapped with cling wrap and off they go ... chilling in the fridge and baked these yummy custard mooncakes after back from our lunch.

Packed some and bring over for his brother's family to try.

Thanks to Zoe for sharing this wonderful recipe with us.
Recipe adaped from Zoe of Bake for Happy Kids with slight modification made in blue :

Some prepared ingredients

Smooth and Milky Custard Filling
Makes about 300g
25g butter, soften
60g caster sugar
3 egg yolks (from 3 large eggs, each 80g), roughly beaten
1 tbsp condensed milk
40ml cream
60ml regular coconut milk (I used Ayam brand light)
20g all purpose flour
15g custard powder
10g tapioca flour

In a small bowl, combine flour, custard powder and tapioca flour.

1) Using a wooden spoon, beat butter and sugar until light and combined. While beating, add egg yolks one at a time and beat until combined. Beat in condensed milk, cream and coconut milk. Sift flour mixture into the egg yolk mixture and mix until combined.

2) Pour the mixture into a heat resistance container and steam over medium heat for 25 mins with stirring in every 5 mins. Set aside for mixture to cool.

3) Knead mixture until smooth. Wrap custard in cling wrap and chill it in refrigerator until required. Mixture can be kept in the fridge up to a week before baking.

Buttery Mooncake Pastry
Recipe adapted from Zoe of Bake for Happy Kids
Makes about 24 mini mooncakes
100g butter, softened at room temperature
30g shortening, preferably Crisco (I replaced with Canola oil 20ml)
90g icing sugar
1 small egg, 60g, roughly beaten
220g all purpose flour
35g custard powder
1/4 tsp baking powder

Egg wash:
1 egg yolk
1 tbsp milk

1) Using an electric mixer, cream butter, shortening and sugar until light and fluffy. While beating, add beaten egg gradually and beat until well combined.

2) Sift flour, custard powder and baking powder into the butter mixture and mix until incorporated. Using your hand, mix mixture together and combine them to form a dough.

3) Wrap dough with cling wrap and let it rest in the fridge for at least 1 hr.

Divide the custard filling into 15g each and pastry dough into 20g each.
Shape each into balls. Set aside.

For my batch of mooncakes to suit the jelly mould - yields about 14 pcs :
Custard filling 20g each. 
Pastry dough 30g each. 
Shape each into balls. Set aside. 

4) Using a lightly floured hand, flatten a portion of pastry dough into a flat and round circle. Place a custard ball in the middle of the flatten dough. Enclose the custard filling inside the pastry and roll them into smooth balls.

5) Place each ball into a lightly floured mooncake mould and press it gently until all the edges of the mould are well-filled with the pastry. To release the mooncake from the mould, keep knocking the mould on tabletop at the sides of the mould to loosen the mooncakes from the mould and allow the mooncake to release off onto the lightly floured surface.

The star shape somehow looked like flower shape.

6) Preheat the oven to 175°C or 160°C fan forced. Line a baking tray with baking paper. Place the shaped mooncakes on the prepared tray. I placed the tray of shaped mooncakes in freezer for about 3 - 4 minutes before egg wash.
Brush with a thin layer of egg wash and bake for 25 mins. Allow the mooncakes to cool slightly on the tray for 10 mins and transfer them to a wire rack to cool completely.

Lovely bright yellow custard filling ... Can't wait to try it !

7) Allow the mooncakes to rest in room temperature before serving. The mooncakes can cookie-like when they are freshly baked and will develop into moist and tender pastry after subsequent days.

Note:
To minimize cracking, you can either
1) choose either not to add baking powder in the pastry but you will get a flat pastry with no flaky texture, or
2) chill the shaped mooncake before baking as it helps to retain the shape better.

My hubby tasted the custard mooncake (the ones for photo shoot). He said nice, not bad ... first time that he tasted custard filling mooncake. I told him to checkout more on custard mooncakes when he goes to Hong Kong ... what's their secret recipe ha haa! LOL!

When I ate the mouthful of mooncake ... instantly in love with the milky smooth coconut custard fragrant. And the flaky pastry crust somehow resemblance the Walnut moontarts I've baked previously ...yum yum ! Okay, next year I need to get some nice mooncake moulds to make nice mooncakes as gifts for relatives ^-^!

I'm submitting this post to Best Recipes for Everyone August 2014 Event Theme: Mooncake hosted by Fion of XuanHom's Mom.

And

This post is linked to the event, Little Thumbs Up : August 2014 - Flour organised by Bake for Happy Kids and My Little Favourite DIY, and hosted by Diana from the Domestic Goddess Wannabe

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