Chinese red bean moon cakes are usually served during the Mid-Autumn festival also known as the moon cake festival. These cakes have a nice soft brown skin and can be filled with a variety of fillings. This recipe fills them with a delicious sweet red bean paste. This paste is made with adzuki beans and can either be purchased canned in most Chinese grocery stores, or made by hand. Click here
to learn how to make red bean paste from scratch.

Keep in mind that these cakes need to be made about three days ahead of time. The dough needs to sit overnight and the finished cakes must sit for about 2 and a half days so that their golden brown skin has time to soften.

½ cup Lyle’s golden syrup
1/3 cup peanut oil
1 tsp lye water (potassium bicarbonate and sodium bicarbonate solution – found in most Chinese grocery stores)
1 ¾ cups All Purpose Flour + a little more for dusting
3 cups red bean paste
1 small egg

1. In a large bowl mix together the golden syrup, the peanut oil, and the lye water. Whisk until this is combined, about 3 minutes.


2. Then slowly add in the flour a little at a time while constantly stirring with the whisk.


3. Once this mixture becomes too thick for the whisk, take it out and fold in the remaining flour using a large spoon. Then using your hand, knead it for 30 seconds.


4. Then cover it and let it sit for at least 4 hours at room temperature. I usually let this sit overnight.


5. While the dough sits figure out how much dough and filling you need for your particular moon cake mold. Now this has to be done in weight (grams) instead of volume (cups) measurements because everything has to be even for the cakes to come out equal. So the ratio I use is 3 to 1, which means each cake will consist of 3 parts filling and 1 part skin dough. This determines how thin the skin will be on each cake. The skin on these cakes is pretty thin, but if you want it a little thicker you can use a higher ratio of dough to filling. Now the moon cake mold that I use holds 60 grams in total so that means each cake will have 45 grams of filling and 15 grams of dough (using the 3 to 1 ratio.) So if your mold holds say 75 grams then you would use 56.25 grams of filling and 18.75 grams of skin dough.


6. Once you figure out the numbers for your particular moon cake mold then just weigh out the dough and form it into balls. So for my mold I weighed out 15 gram balls and then set them aside on a plate.


7. Next weigh out the filling and form them into balls. Here I weighed out 45-gram balls of filling. Make sure the filling is cold (refrigerated) before weighing it because it makes it easier to form it into balls. Also, if you are using canned filling the texture may be a little softer depending on the brand so it may be more difficult to form the balls.


8. Next place the filling inside the ball of dough. Make sure these are both at room temperature before starting. Then press the dough ball flat and slightly stretch it to about 2 inches diameter. This dough is stretchy almost like pizza dough. Then place the red bean filling ball in the center and just gently press the filling in while stretching the dough up and around it. Keep in mind that the skin should be even around the filling. Then pinch it closed and roll it into a ball. Place this on a plate and continue doing this for the remaining dough and filling.


9. Next, lightly grease a baking sheet.


10. Then lightly flour the balls so they have just a light dusting of flour.


11. Then take one and place it in the mold seam side up and press firmly.


12. Once pressed, to remove it just tap the mold lightly on each side. The cake should pull away from the opposite side as it is tapped. Once all sides have pulled away from the mold, bang the mold upside down and the cake should pop out. Then place it on the prepared baking sheet and continue molding the remaining cakes.


13. Next preheat the oven to 325 F and make the egg wash. Beat one small egg with two teaspoons of water and set this aside.


14. When the oven preheats, place the cakes on the top rack and bake them for 5 minutes.


15. After 5 minutes, remove them and brush them lightly with the egg wash. Do this very gently so that the design stays in tact. Then place them back into the oven for 10 minutes.


16. After 10 minutes, lightly baste them with the egg wash again and cook them another 5 minutes.


17. After 5 minutes remove them from the oven and place them on a plate to cool.


18. Once cooled, cover them with plastic wrap and let them sit at room temperature for 2 and ½ days. Then they are ready to eat. This makes about 15 moon cakes depending on your mold size, enjoy!

To see a video on how to make these Chinese moon cakes, click here.