Elevate your Mid-Autumn Festival with these ultra-buttery Shanghai Mooncakes featuring a savory Cheese Pastry crust! Unlike traditional mooncakes, Shanghai mooncakes are known for their crumbly, melt-in-your-mouth shortcrust pastry. Adding cheese elevates the flavor profile with a perfect balance of sweet and savory!
In this step-by-step baking tutorial, you’ll learn how to get that signature crumbly texture, how to wrap the fillings smoothly without cracking, and the secret to a perfect golden egg-wash glaze.
To make this yummy mooncake, click on the video tutorial and print out the recipe below.
YouTube Link:
Buttery Shanghai Mooncakes with Cheese Pastry Recipe
Ingredients
DOUGH
- 250 g plain flour all purpose flour
- 125 g unsalted butter
- 20 g caster sugar
- 12 g custard powder
- 25 g milk powder
- ¼ teaspoon salt optional
- 3 Tablespoon finely grated Parmesan Cheese
- 1 whole egg + 1 egg yolk beaten
- 2 Tablespoon milk
FILLING
- 550 g lotus red bean or yam paste
- 60 g melon seeds
- 10 – 12 salted egg yolks steamed or baked
FIRST EGG WASH
- 1 egg yolk
- 1 Tablespoon water
SECOND EGG WASH
- Remaining 1st egg wash
- 1 Tablespoon milk
- 5 g butter
Instructions
DOUGH
- Into a mixing bowl, add plain flour, milk powder, salt and custard powder.and mix all the dry ingredients well.
- Add and rub unsalted butter into the flour until it resembles bread crumbs.
- Add caster sugar and finely grated parmesan cheese and mix thoroughly.
- Add eggs, milk and mix with a spatula. Bring everything together and slowly knead until it forms a dough.
- Wrap dough in plastic and chill in the fridge.
ASSEMBLY
- Wash and steam or bake the salted egg yolks for about 5 minutes.
- Mix lotus, red bean or yam paste with lightly toasted melon seeds.
- Weigh portions of paste and roll into balls.
- Weigh portions of chilled dough and roll into balls.
PLEASE REFER TO NOTES BELOW
- Flatten a ball of paste and place a salted egg yolk in the centre and wrap it, rolling into a ball.
- Roll a piece of dough flat and place paste ball in the centre of the rolled dough, overturn it and wrap the filling, rolling into a ball.
- Lightly compress the sides all round to form an oval shape.
- Arrange mooncakes in a baking tray. Brush with egg wash and decorate with melon seeds.
- Bake at 175C for 10 minutes.
- Remove from oven and brush mooncakes with egg wash a second time.
- Bake again for another 10-15 minutes or until golden brown.
Notes
- If you make some mooncakes without egg yolk, use lesser dough. You could use half salted egg yolk instead of one whole egg yolk for each mooncake.
- Portions of dough could range from 35 g to 45 g depending on whether you add salted egg yolk. Paste portions could range from 38 g to 45 g. For example: Without salted egg yolk [Dough 35 g and Paste 45 g] With salted egg yolk [Dough 45 g and Paste 38 g plus Salted Egg Yolk] Choose a ratio of Dough to Filling that you are comfortable with or for the size of mooncake that you like.
- As recipe uses cheese, addition of salt is optional.
- You could use traditional mooncake mould for making this mooncake.If so, bake the mooncakes for 5 minutes and then apply egg wash so that the mooncake mould design stands out.
