Suzhou-style Mixed Nuts Mooncake
Traditional Su-style assorted nut mooncakes, made using a flaky wrapped-filling pastry technique and packed with a rich variety of nuts and candied fruits.
Ingredients
Strong flour (dough skin) (medium-gluten flour, wet gluten 27%-30%)
22 kg
Maltose (dough skin) (helps with coloring)
2.5 kg
Lard (dough skin) (for making water-oil dough)
6.6 kg
Strong flour (pastry) (for making oil pastry)
12 kg
Lard (pastry) (for making oil pastry)
5.5 kg
Cooked flour (filling) (filling base)
11.5 kg
Lard (filling) (for mixing filling)
6.0 kg
Refined white sugar (filling) (sweetness source)
23 kg
Walnut kernels (filling) (use after roasting)
5 kg
Pine nuts (filling) (nuts)
1.5 kg
Melon seeds (filling) (nuts)
1 kg
Candied winter melon (filling) (candied fruit)
1.5 kg
Green dried apricots (filling) (candied fruit)
2 kg
Candied tangerine peel (filling) (candied fruit, chopped)
1 kg
Rose petals (filling) (flavoring)
0.5 kg
Instructions
1
Ingredient Preparation
Sort ingredients by formula and by variety, stack separately, and label them. Specifications and weight tolerance: +5% to -2%.
2
Mix Water-Oil Dough
Place cooked lard and maltose in a mixer and combine. Add hot water and stir evenly, then pour in the wheat flour and mix into a dough. The dough should be smooth, non-sticky to the hands, and have good extensibility and plasticity.
3
Mix Oil Pastry Dough
Place cooked lard and wheat flour in a mixer and stir until evenly combined. The softness and firmness of the oil pastry dough must match that of the water-oil dough.
4
Wrap and Roll Pastry
Wrap the oil pastry inside the water-oil dough, then roll it flat with steady, even force so the pastry layers are uniformly thin and the rolled strips are of consistent thickness. The ratio is 2 parts water-oil dough to 1 part oil pastry. Let it rest for 10-15 minutes.
5
Mix Filling
Put oil and sugar into the mixer. Once the oil and sugar are evenly combined, add the nuts, candied fruit, cooked flour, and an appropriate amount of water, and mix thoroughly. Mixing time should not be less than 10 minutes. The finished filling should hold its shape when squeezed by hand into a ball but crumble lightly when touched, with no lumps of sugar, no lumps of flour, and no impurities.
6
Measure and Shape Filling
Shape the filling into round balls of consistent size. For an 83.3 g finished mooncake, the filling weight is 50 g per piece; for a 50 g finished mooncake, the filling weight is 30 g per piece.
7
Wrap Filling
Fold the open ends of the pastry skin inward, press with the palm into a round thin sheet, place the filling in the center, then gradually close the opening from bottom to top so the pastry is evenly thick all around with a tight, complete seal. No exposed filling, no leaning to one side, and the seam is placed face down.
8
Shape and Stamp
Stick a piece of belly paper over the seam of the cake blank, place the blank face down, and press it into a drum shape. Stamp the variety mark onto the cake surface so the imprint is clear. For an 83.3 g finished mooncake, the raw blank weight is 90 g per piece.
9
Place on Tray and Bake
Place the cakes in the baking tray, face down, with 1-2 cm between them. Oven temperature: top heat 220 °C, bottom heat 180 °C; bake for 18 minutes. The center temperature of the cake must reach above 85 °C.
10
Cool and Package
After removing from the oven, place the cakes on a cooling rack and immediately measure the center temperature. Once the hot cakes have cooled completely, remove any defective pieces, then pack them into boxes for storage.
