Normally mooncakes are eaten during the Mid-Autumn Festival in the fall, but I wanted to do a matcha version of them, and that wound up fitting the green theme of St. Patrick’s Day as well, so I am posting these during March, even though I technically made these during the fall! What I love about a mooncake is that it has this rich, dense, sweet dough that surrounds an equally rich and dense filling. In other words, you feel probably 2-3 pounds heavier from eating one. They are kind of like a Chinese hand pie, but way prettier to look at, and with very traditionally Chinese fillings, like lotus paste or red bean. I wanted to do a slightly lighter version of that filling, using Japanese shiroan(white bean paste) instead of the usual lotus paste. The end result of that is a filling that melts on the tongue, as opposed to sits in your stomach for a week and a half. I had ceremonial matcha powder lying around as well, so I wanted to use that in both the filling and the dough, to create this gorgeous green tint. Mooncakes can be really fun to make, and I actually use a paddle that my aunt gave me to mold mine(a mooncake press can work as well, but I love my mooncake paddles). To make this recipe accurately, I do recommend using a measuring scale, and the dough itself uses golden syrup and lye water, which may not be the easiest to find(outside of Amazon), so I included methods on how to make your own of both as well! The golden syrup sweetens the dough, but also gives it the right density it needs to be pressed and rolled, while the lye water helps the edges of the dough bake off with this rich, earthy-brown hue, so both are really necessary towards making a delicious mooncake!

Makes 8-10 mooncakes:
For the filling:
175g shiroan(white bean paste)
a pinch of salt
2g ceremonial matcha powder

In a pot, stir the shiroan and salt on low heat for 5 minutes, until the paste thickens substantially. Stir in the matcha powder, off heat, combined. Cool down the filling before attempting to use.

For the dough:
150g flour
85g golden syrup
1/2 tsp lye water
30g vegetable oil
2g ceremonial matcha powder
1 egg yolk

Mix together everything minus the egg yolk to form your dough. For the mooncakes, take 30g of your dough and flatten it the best you can. Take 15g of the filling and roll into a small ball. Wrap the dough around the filling. Generously oil mooncake paddles and press the mooncakes into the paddles to form their shapes. Remove and place onto a lined sheet tray. Brush with egg yolk and bake at 350 degrees F for 20 minutes to finish.

For the lye water, you can make it from scratch by boiling down 2 tbsp water with .1 grams of baking soda for 2 minutes. You don’t need a lot of lye water to make this recipe, but you can also purchase it at Asian supermarkets! You can also use lye water for things like pretzels!

For the golden syrup, you can make it by boiling down 3/4 cups of sugar with 1/2 cup water and a pinch of salt. Once the sugar is golden brown, take off heat and stir in 1 tsp lemon juice to finish. You can also sub out the syrup with honey!