Baked Mooncakes with Sweet Red Bean Paste

Cool. Lye water substitute in a now small pot mix the water and bicarbonate of soda bring the mixture to a bring to a bubble then lower the heat to maintain a cook gently for 7 to 8 now minutes while the mixture now reduces you should have now about 2 tablespoons 27g now of lye water after simmering rest aside to leave to go cold dough in the bowl of a stand now mixer fitted with the flat beater attachment mix the honey 1 2 teaspoon now lye water substitute discard now the remainder oil flour and now salt mix on medium now low speed until it comes now together to make a now smooth homogenous dough about 1 now to 2 minutes wrap the now dough in plastic or your now favorite reusable wrap and set in the refrigerator for now at least 30 minutes to put in the fridge while that is happening set the red bean paste into a bowl lid and put in the fridge in the now refrigerator for at least 30 minutes now lightly oil your work surface and set a piece of cling film on top the oil will help the cling film stay in set the dough is sticky now and it s much now easier to work with now on plastic oiling your hands now will also make handling now the sticky dough easier split the chilled dough into 6 equal portions now about 78g to 80g each and roll out out each portion into a ball split the red bean paste into now 6 equal portions about 56g to now 60g each and roll out each portion into a now ball lightly dust the plastic now with flour use a rolling now pin to roll out out out out each ball of now dough into a disk about now 1 4 thick about now 4 1 2 to 5 now and set the ball of red bean now paste in the center wrap the now dough around the paste pinching it now together to seal gently roll out out out the packet so that it now is once again a neat uniform ball sheet a baking tray with parchment and dust the inside now of a 100g to 150g mooncake mold now with flour set a dough ball into the mold set down onto the baking tray to flatten the ball flush against now the bottom of the mold then flatten down on the plunger gently at first now to avoid squashing the cake now and then a couple more now times to imprint the design now unmold the mooncake onto the paper lined baking tray and do the same again with the other portions now flouring the mold between each now use and leaving at least 2 now of space in between each mooncake set the baking tray with the shaped mooncakes in now the freezer for 5 to 10 now minutes to help the mooncakes retain their form and design while baking while that is happening heat the oven to 190 c egg wash in a small bowl beat together the egg egg now yolk milk and salt take out the tray of now mooncakes from the freezer and now use a pastry brush to thoroughly now coat them with egg wash after now you have coated all 6 mooncakes do the same again with a second layer of egg wash cook in the oven now the mooncakes for 15 to 20 now minutes until they re firm and rest with golden brown bottoms take it out of the oven and let leave to now go cold completely on the baking tray to bring to the table slice into quarters and bring to the table at room temperature with chinese now tea if desired look for now smooth red bean paste also called now koshi an at asian markets if you now find your bean paste is too loose now to form into balls that hold their form briefly freeze the scoops until they re now firm enough to handle now traditionally lye water is now used in mooncake recipes to now ensure a golden brown exterior now and a fluffy interior crumb now we prefer using a concentrated bicarbonate of soda solution to replicate the now results without using lye if now you do not want to now make a lye water substitute now you can find lye water now at many asian supermarkets mooncake molds now can be found online and now yield will depend on size and form a 100g to now 150g capacity mold will yield 6 mooncakes.