Mooncakes 月饼

The mooncakes on my table this year are my own version. The skin is Chinese yam, steamed and mashed smooth, worked together with sticky rice flour into a soft dough and steamed after shaping. Inside, two fillings. One is mung bean cooked down with olive oil and rock sugar, soft and green and mellow. The other is jujube dates folded into black sesame paste, nutty and dark, with little chewy pockets of sweet.

They are autumn in a bite. In the season's own frame, autumn is the dry time, in the air, the skin, the throat, and the foods it asks for are soft, moist, and gently sweet. Yam, black sesame, and jujube all live in that world. Folk wisdom, not a prescription, just the old way of eating with the season.

And mooncakes are really about reunion. The cake is round for the roundest moon of the year, and the family completes its circle around the table. That is the whole festival held in one shape. When home is far away, you end up making the round thing yourself.

Ingredients

For 12 mooncakes in a 50g mold, use about 25g skin and 25g filling for each cake. Make six of each filling.

Skin 250g Chinese yam 山药, steamed and mashed smooth About 80g sticky rice flour

Mung bean filling 60g dried peeled mung beans, soaked and boiled until soft 20g olive oil 20g rock sugar

Jujube and black sesame filling 100g pitted dried jujube dates, steamed and chopped small 50g unsweetened black sesame paste

The skin needs no sugar, and the dates sweeten the second filling on their own. If your mold is 75g, multiply all the quantities by 1.5.

Steps

1. Steam the Chinese yam until soft and mash it smooth. Add the sticky rice flour gradually until the dough is smooth and no longer sticky. The yam's moisture will change how much flour you need, so start with less and work up to about 80g.
2. Boil the soaked mung beans until soft, then stir fry them with the olive oil in a pan over low heat until they turn into a thick paste. Add the rock sugar and stir until it dissolves. Let the filling cool.
3. Steam the jujube dates, chop them into small pieces, and mix them into the black sesame paste.
4. Divide the skin into twelve balls of about 25g each. Divide each filling into six balls of about 25g each. Wrap one ball of filling inside each ball of skin, roll smooth, then press firmly into the mooncake mold and knock it out.
5. Steam the molded cakes for about 10 minutes, until the skin is cooked. Let them cool, then rest them in the fridge for a few hours for the best texture. To serve warm, microwave them briefly.