Come On Let's Do a Jelly Mooncake Twist!

Mooncake aka Mid Autumn Festival is around the corner again.  It falls on the 15th day of the 8th month according to the lunar calendar and that translates to Sept 27 this year.  Commercially, mooncakes show their faces somewhere towards the end of the 6th month which gives one ample time to eat and eat and eat...if one has the money that is since they are getting more expensive by the day.

Jelly mooncakes are a cheaper version but they don't satisfy cravings for the traditional ones.  Different altogether but they make good desserts, look pretty and fit for the festival since they use similar looking moulds.

I have been making jelly mooncakes for quite a few years already and have tried out quite a variety of flavors. Cracking my head to make a different flavor for this year when this idea struck me.  I have come across this Milo Oreo jelly recipe some time back where the cookie was broken into smaller pieces and scattered between the Milo and milk layer.   Instead of breaking it, i dump the whole piece in the center mimicking the filling in a mooncake.   Typically, the filling for jelly mooncakes is made of jelly too but a different flavor from the outer layer i.e. the skin.  

I like the outcome.  The flavors combined pretty well and the cookie was still crunchy giving it a different texture from typical jelly mooncakes.  And the best part is this is even easier than making typical mooncakes.

Sandwich in a sandwich!

Recipe

Reference: Home Kreation-Kitchen Corner

Ingredients

• 6g Agar-Agar Powder
• 400ml Water
• 70g Sugar
• 220ml Evaporated Milk
• 1/3 cup Milo Powder + 1 tsp Instant Coffee Powder
• 6 pieces of Oreo Cookies 

Method

1. Place agar-agar powder and water in a pot & cook until agar-agar dissolves.
2. Add in sugar & cook until sugar dissolves.
3. Add in milk, stir well and turn off flame once milk starts to boil.
4. Separate 1 1/4 cup of the mixture into another pot & add in Milo powder mixture.
5. Stir well until Milo dissolves. Strain the mixture to ensure Milo completely dissolves.

Assemble  

1. Pour in some milo agar agar mixture into mooncake mould.
2. In the meantime, if the plain mixture starts to set, put it over a small flame to prevent it from setting.
3. When the mixture in the mould is almost set (i.e. film has formed and strong enough to hold cookie), place a piece of oreo cookie in the center of each mooncake.
4. Slowly pour in plain mixture on top of cookie to cover it.
5. Let jelly come to room temperature then chill in the fridge until set before serving cold.

Note: 

1. I have twigged the recipe a little to suit mooncake moulds and it yields 6 pieces if you have equivalent size moulds.
2. If you are not making it using mooncake moulds, i would suggest that you follow the steps from the source recipe.

This post is linked to Little Thumbs Up September (Milo) hosted by

Bake for Happy Kids and my little favourite DIY 

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Jelly Mooncakes, Just One More

My apologies if I am boring you with jelly mooncakes, i promise this will be the last one for this year!  I needed to put this on record for my future reference.  I made traditional ones too, my son was complaining already, in his words, he said he wanted to have 'real' mooncakes! So the mummy obliged for her son, for her loved ones and for tradition sake, after all what is mooncake festival without 'real' mooncakes :)  Post will be up next.

I am quite happy with the results after some twigging of the original recipe.  If you are looking for a nice dessert to make for the festival dinner, why not consider this one, it's pretty, it fits the occasion well enough and to top it all, it's red, the ever loved chinese color!  The nutty taste from the black sesame filling compliments the dragon fruit skin well.    

Recipe 
Source :Adapted from Mooncake Selections by Khoo See Yew

Ingredients for Filling 

• 30g black sesame seed (toasted, then blended until fine)
• 30 gm. caster sugar
• 1 3/4 tsp agar-agar powder
• 150 ml water
• 100ml fresh milk
• 50 ml coconut milk (20ml coconut milk mixed with 30ml water)
• 1 blade of pandan leave

1. Boil sugar, agar-agar powder, and water with pandan leave in a pot until agar agar and sugar dissolves. 
2. Mix in grounded black sesame and stir to make it smooth.  Let the mixture simmer for 2 minutes.
3. Lower flame and mix in fresh milk.
4. Mix in coconut milk.  Turn off flame once mixture start to boil.
5. Pour in small bowls and let it set.
6. Remove from bowl, use a fork to scratch surface (top and bottom). This is to make sure the filling and skin will stick to one another. 

Ingredients for Skin

• 100 gm. sugar
• 4 tsp. agar-agar powder
• 500 ml water
• 100 ml coconut milk (50ml coconut milk mix with 50ml water)
• 150 gm red dragon fruit (mashed with fork so that seeds remain visible)
• 2 blades of pandan leave 
• 1 tsp lemon juice
• 3 tbsp honey

1. Boil sugar, agar-agar powder and water with pandan leaves in a pot until agar agar and sugar dissolves.
2. Lower flame and mix in blended dragon fruit.
3. Add in lemon juice and honey.
4. Mix in coconut milk.  Turn off flame once mixture start to boil.

Assemble 

1. Pour in some skin agar agar into mooncake mould (If a see-through effect is preferred (i.e. can see the filling), lessen the amount put in).
2. When it is half set, put in the filling then pour the balance skin mixture into the mould until full. Let it set.
3. Chill in the fridge before serving.

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Jelly Mooncakes Again

Mid-Autumn/Mooncake festival has a special place in our family, dad was born on that day according to the lunar calendar  and grandpa named him after it.  My son is envious that my Dad gets to celebrate his birthday twice each year! It's going to be extra special this year as it falls on the same day as my son's birthday according to the gregorian calendar :)

Making mooncakes is now an annual event ever since my first attempt in 2010.  Once you get into it, it's not too difficult and it does not help that prices of commercial ones are rising steeply each year.  I have tried making quite a few variations including the baked ones, snow skins and jellies too.   One that i think i am pretty good at by now is the jelly mooncake.  May sound a little unabashed, but hey 3 years of practice coming to 4 now, must surely do some good :))  It is also among the most popular post on my blog. 

Jelly mooncakes are completely different from the traditional ones taste or texture wise, it only bear resemblance appearance wise.   They make good desserts; refreshing, cooling and most of the time come in bright striking colours.

Every year i attempt new flavors so that those on the receiving end (including my customers, as i do get some orders from them :)) will not find them boring due to repetitive flavors :)

And here's one of the new flavors for this year, Green Tea with Luo Han Guo.  It's healthy appeal made me choose this flavor.  The recipe is courtesy of Amy Beh of Kuali.com.

I love the color contrast in this combo.  I find the green tea fragrance and taste quite strong (but then this could differ with the type of green tea powder used), i am making a self note to reduce it by 20% the next time around.   This is also to prevent it from covering the taste of the luo han guo filling which on its own tasted very nice with flavors coming from fresh winter melon, longan and red dates.  

This one here is a slight variation from the Cendol Red Bean flavor that has been made over the years and with recipe posted here.  Instead of just cendol for the skin, i played around and made another layer with gula melaka.  Hence, named it ABC Jelly Mooncake to make sure its Malaysian shows :)  

An all time favorite, Nespresso Peach.  You will love it if you are a coffee lover, if you are not you will be one after tasting this :))

Recipe - Green Tea Luo Han Guo Jelly Mooncake

Source : Kuali.com by Amy Beh

Ingredients for Filling

• 1/2 piece luo han guo
• 75g palm sugar
• 5 red dates
• 700ml water
• 50g winter melon (finely grated and chopped)
• 5g dried longan flesh (finely chopped)
• 3 tsp agar-agar powder 

Method

1. Bring palm sugar, luo han guo, dates and water to a boil.
2. Once it comes to a boil, reduce flame and let it simmer for 15-20 minutes.  Strain drink to remove impurities.
3. Squeeze out excess water from grated winter melon.  Add into drink.  Add chopped longan flesh.  Bring to a boil then let it simmer for 15-20 minutes again.
4. Leave 500ml of the drink in pot (You can use all of it but 500ml will be enough for around 6 pieces, i wanted to have the extra to drink!)
5. Add in agar-agar powder.  Stir well making sure agar-agar dissolve.
6. Lower flame and turn off once it comes to a boil.
7. Pour in small bowls and let it set.
8. Remove from bowl, use a fork to scratch surface (top and bottom). This is to make sure the filling and skin will stick to one another. 

Ingredients for Skin

• 4 tsp agar-agar powder
• 130g castor sugar
• 650ml water
• 2 tbsp milk
• 1 tsbp green tea powder

Method

1. Put sugar, agar-agar powder and water in a pot and boil until agar agar and sugar dissolves.
2. Turn off flame.  
3. Add in green tea powder, mix and stir until even and dissolve.
4. Add in milk.
5. Strain the mixture.

Assemble

1. Pour in some skin agar agar into mooncake mould.
2. When it is half set, put in the filling then pour the balance skin mixture into the mould until full. Let it set.
3. Chill in the fridge before serving.

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The Dragon and the Fish

In comes the dragon and the fish. These jelly mooncake moulds come in many shapes and designs and the dragon and the fish being auspicious animals for the Chinese, are not left out. The dragon symbolizes prosperity and longevity while the fish with a pronunciation similar to the Chinese character for abundance symbolizes wishes for everything in abundance (wealth, health etc, etc).

Dragon and fish in another flavour of jelly mooncakes, you will be reading at least 4 of this kind. I need 4 to fit prettily in a gift box :) This is the second one after the red dragon fruit. Sweet corn with pandan. Colourful, in shapes of auspicious symbols and different flavours, these make wonderful gifts for the festival. It's more difficult to create the color impact with baked ones, might be achievable with snow skin though. I now have red and green in the box, 2 more colors to go, a jade like one and gold brown perhaps for more prosperity :)

This is also a new recipe that i tried this year. Last year I had a green one coming from green tea and soy milk. This one has sweet corn for the filling and the skin is pandan infused coconut milk. Oh, with some ice-cream added to it too! Maybe green tea should stay as the choice for elders :)

Recipe

Source :Adapted from Mooncake Selections by Khoo See Yew

Makes : Approximately 5 pieces (with similar moulds)

Ingredients for Filling

• 15g gm. caster sugar
• 1 tsp agar-agar powder
• 60 thin coconut milk
• 75g sweet corn (cream style)
• 60ml thick coconut milk
• 25g sweet corn ice cream

1. Boil sugar, agar-agar powder and thin coconut milk in a pot until agar agar and sugar dissolves.
   
2. Lower flame and mix in sweet corn (cream and ice-cream) and thick coconut milk. Stir until ice-cream dissolves.
3. Pour in small bowls and let it set.
4. Remove from bowl, use a fork to scratch surface (top and bottom). This is to make sure the filling and skin will stick to one another.
   

Ingredients for Skin

• 50g sugar
• 3 tsp agar-agar powder
• 350ml thin coconut milk (See Note)
• 100ml thick coconut milk
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 40g sweet corn ice-cream

Note to get 350ml thin coconut milk

Blend 6 pieces of pandan leaves with 300ml water, sieve through and add 50ml coconut cream to form 350ml thin coconut milk (Add water if insufficient)

1. Boil sugar, agar-agar powder and thin coconut milk in a pot until agar agar and sugar dissolves.
2. Lower flame and mix in sweet corn ice-cream, salt and thick coconut milk.

Assemble

1. Pour in some skin agar agar into mooncake mould.
2. When it is half set, put in the filling then pour the balance skin mixture into the mould until full. Let it set.
3. Chill in the fridge before serving.

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Red Dragon Fruit Jelly Mooncakes

A third type of mooncakes, more of a lookalike than the real thing. Totally different ingredients and as a result, different texture and taste all together. Made from jelly, both skin and fillings, so basically, it tastes jelly. Not sure how and when it came about, some say it's the healthier version of the mooncake. True in some way, but we only eat mooncakes once a year, why refrain and eat lookalikes?? I say, indulge in both, real and lookalikes!

This one had red dragon fruit for the skin, which is actually one of the flavour that I make quite often for jellies. I like the refreshing taste and the bright color. The only difference is to make it a mooncake lookalike, it has another layer of jelly within. Most of the time, a flavour that is able to complement the skin both in terms of taste and color will be the chosen candidate for the filling, feels like playing matchmaking :) Last year, my dragon fruit jelly mooncakes had black sesame fillings, this time, I thought why not give him a new companion? I went without the black sesame seeds and used milk instead of coconut milk. The change was made mainly because I wanted to see if the red & white color combination is prettier than red & black.

Taste wise I think black sesame is more distinctive. Color wise, i think they are equally pretty.

Recipe
Source :Adapted from Mooncake Selections by Khoo See Yew

Ingredients for Filling

• 25 gm. caster sugar
• 1 1/2 tsp agar-agar powder
• 125 ml water
• 70 ml fresh milk
• 55 ml evaporated milk

1. Boil sugar, agar-agar powder and water in a pot until agar agar and sugar dissolves.
   
2. Lower flame and mix in milk.
3. Pour in small bowls and let it set.
4. Remove from bowl, use a fork to scratch surface (top and bottom). This is to make sure the filling and skin will stick to one another.
   

Ingredients for Skin

• 100 gm. sugar
• 4 tsp. agar-agar powder
• 600 ml water
• 150 gm red dragon fruit (blended)
• Few pieces pandan leaves
  

1. Boil sugar, agar-agar powder and water with pandan leaves in a pot until agar agar and sugar dissolves.
2. Lower flame and mix in blended dragon fruit.

Assemble

1. Pour in some skin agar agar into mooncake mould (If a see-through effect is preferred (i.e. can see the filling), lessen the amount put in).
2. When it is half set, put in the filling then pour the balance skin mixture into the mould until full. Let it set.
3. Chill in the fridge before serving.

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Gemstone Jelly

Doesn't it look pretty? It's jelly but gemstones came to my mind when I was removing it from the mould. It's like a combination of gemstones! Rubies, amber and diamonds, all in one! Imagine having gemstones as big as these, nice... Unfortunately, my photo may not do it justice. A little overboard maybe, but it won't hurt to let one's imagination go wild, at least once in awhile. Well, don't they say nothing happens without a dream??

Normally i would just make dragon fruit jelly but these had a combination of 3 types of fruits. The top layer got its red (the "Ruby") from the dragon fruit, orangy hue ( the "Amber") at the bottom came from orange juice while the lychees hidden inside were like sparkling Diamonds!

Now, let's talk about the taste, honestly, i am not too sure about it. Another case of don't be deceived by its look? The orange flavour was so dominant that it overpowered the other two. Of course, one will not forget the presence of the dragon fruit with the crunching of the little black seeds but there was not much rescue for the lychee, it was kinda like there but not there, because the taste and scent of lychee was missing.

I am not sure if I am gonna make this again. Yes would be the most likely answer but I will omit lychee, might try longans (I have tried longan and dragon fruit and it was a good combination). Longans instead of lychees for diamonds, after all Diamonds are Girls' Best Friends, how can we live without them :))

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Earth Hour 2011 Makan Makan in the Dark

Earth Hour? Hype? Maybe... I guess we can all do more than just turning off the lights for one hour but it's great that many people do their part during that hour, at least it is a good start especially if you have kids, be it to create awareness or just symbolic. It is so important to teach them to do their part for Mother Earth. It is unfortunate that we have witnessed so many catastrophes around the world. I believe as parents, we share the same worries on what is in store for our kids? No one knows but let's try our best not to aggravate the situation at least for the sake of our young ones...

This year, just like what we did last year, we had a family candlelight dinner alfresco (in our car porch, the only space that I have to put a table outside the house) :) Being typical Malaysians, any excuse is an excuse for a makan event. This time around everything was home-cooked. We purposely waited until it was that hour, switched off our lights and started digging in.

A full course dinner (must have enough to last an hour :)). The photos were take prior to the darkness, with my limited skills, those taken in the dark are just not blog-worthy :)

Starter ~ Strawberry Cream Cheese Orange Salad (inspired by Table for 2)
A refreshing salad with olive oil and orange juice as the main dressing. Some cubed cream cheese if you like the creamy effect which I think is optional otherwise. I threw in some strawberries, pieces of orange flesh, romaine lettuce and pieces of cubed toasted crunchy garlic bread (basically, it's what you have plus a little creativity to have a balance in taste and colour effect). You can add some freshly grounded black pepper to spice it up a little.

Main ~ Lemon and Herb Roast Chicken and Spaghetti Oglio Olio

This combination was inspired by what we had at an Italian restaurant in LA. Though we were hurrying to catch our flight back home, the spaghetti that BIL ordered left a lasting impression and cravings too (maybe because I took only a little from BIL to try it)! It looked so simple and yet tasted so good. At that time I didn't know it was called Oglio Olio. Only upon doing some research on the Net, I learned it's name and got to know that it's just olive oil and garlic. Actually, I am not convinced, I have tried it twice but nowhere is it near what I tasted. Something is missing, I just don't know what it is...tell me please if you do

I used Herb de Provence plus some lemon zest to marinate the chicken.


As for the spaghetti, it was basically olive oil, chopped garlic, sea salt and black pepper with some fresh mushrooms. I added some chili to spice it and garnished it with parsley and a little grated cheese. That's all!


Dessert ~ Pineapple Jelly



Some good family time we had :)

Here's to a better earth for our future!

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Happy Food

Little one was down with a throat infection over the last few days. He was so upset because it had to happen during school holidays! There goes his plans for all the fun and whatever mischief he had up his sleeves :)

His appetite was also poor during that period. He hardly ate. I made this jelly for him in order to get him to eat something easy but nutritious and to cheer him up.

This is really easy but is a very nice, cooling and tasty dessert. Something fun but nutritious as it's main ingredient is soya milk.

It is quite commonly available in dim sum restaurants and even the night markets. They usually make them in small microwavable cups. I used the jelly moulds that were meant for mooncake jelly. I find the size quite right for individual servings albeit a little on the generous side :)

I used fresh unsweetened soya milk that I bought from the wet market. The recipe used is actually courtesy of the soya milk seller plus a little research for confirmation.

Recipe
(yields 12 pieces plus 3 17*12*5cm microwavable boxes )

Note : This is a very soft jelly (as soft as beancurd) and meant to be eaten with a spoon.

• 1.5 liter water (with sugar syrup from soya milk seller and some syrup from longan to make up volume)
• 13g Agar-agar powder
• 150g castor sugar or to taste
• 2 pieces of pandan leaves - knotted (optional)
• 1 liter unsweetened soya bean milk
• 400ml canned evaporated milk
• A tin of canned longan

1. Mix water, agar-agar powder, sugar and pandan leaves (if available) into a pot and bring to a boil.
2. Add in soya bean milk and evaporated milk and stir. Lower fire and switch off when near boiling stage. Do not allow it to boil.
3. Put longan into moulds.
4. Pour jelly mixture.
5. Cool to set in refrigerator.

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Nien Nien You Yi

More Chinese New Year stuff since the celebration can continue until the 15th day! Something simple but symbolic of the chinese auspicious greeting Nien Nien You Yi. The greeting literally means Every Year in Abundance meaning we wish that the party being greeted has everything that he needs in abundance! Sounds a bit greedy doesn't it? But how wonderful it would be if we have everything in abundance!

The fish is symbolic of this greeting simply because the words "You Yi" sounds like "Have Fish". So, I made some jelly in the form of the fish with some moulds that i bought from a bakery product shop nearby. The moulds look very cute to me, in 2 sizes enough to create an entire fish family!

This one I made for my MIL as her prayer offerings. She was very happy indeed :) So was better half when he saw his mum's response! Yeay! The joy at the receiving end made the effort worthwhile. Cubed canned peaches gave the orange colour, wolfberries the red, raisins as the eyes and pandan with coconut milk made up the green pond.


This is the 2nd set of fish jelly. This one was made to serve guest who came visiting to my mum's home. The green from this one came from cendol. Instead of just serving cookies alone, we offered them a fish jelly. Happy to say that they were well received. Something different, lite and cooling, apart from being auspicious! Besides, someone commented that they looked like pieces of jade!

Worth considering if you are expecting guest at home or if you need to bring something for a potluck. Can almost be assured that your guest will be impressed :)

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