Bird’s Nest Mooncakes with Royal Crystal Bird's Nest

Cherish traditions by making mooncakes from scratch and save this recipe for the next Mid-Autumn season, or whenever your heart desires a delicious mooncake made with premium ingredients that benefit your health.

This recipe features the mooncakes in two flavours - Red Dates White Lotus Paste and Orange Peel (Chen Pi) White Lotus Paste. Both flavours have a generous filling of premium bird’s nest in the centre, talk about an elevated mooncake that provides nourishment and supports skin health! Other than improving skin quality, bird’s nests are well known to help alleviate asthma, and enhance the immune system¹. Find out other TCM Superfoods that are effective immune boosters here².

This recipe takes time and patience to work through but it’s worth the effort!

Ingredients used in recipe
Serving: 1

• 140 g Groundnut oil
• 320 g Dark golden syrup
• 20 g Alkaline water
• 480 g Bread flour
• 40 g Full cream milk powder
• 4 bottles Eu Yan Sang Royal Crystal Bird's Nest

Chen Pi Filling:

• 300 g Lotus seed (soaked overnight)
• 600 ml Water
• 150 g Powdered sugar
• 200 g Groundnut oil
• 20 g Eu Yan Sang Chen Pi (Mandarin peels)

Red date filling:

• 100 g Eu Yan Sang Seedless Red dates (sliced)
• 150 g Lotus seed (soaked overnight)
• 120 g Powdered sugar
• 90 g Groundnut oil
• 400 ml Water

 
Directions

1. Wash lotus seeds, remove green stalks and soak them overnight.
2. After lotus seeds are soaked, strain and add them into a pot of wate r. Bring to boil and simmer for about 45 minutes until lotus seeds are soft.
3. Strain and add into a blender. Add water, Eu Yan Sang Chen Pi and blend until smooth.
4. Add blended lotus seeds into a pan, and cook for about 15 minutes, mixing constantly until it's slightly dry.
5. Add powdered sugar and oil in 3 batches every 15 minutes mixing constantly and cooking until mixture is thick and malleable. This whole process should take about an hour.
6. For the red dates filling, follow the same steps from step 2-4.
7. Once done transfer to a wide plate and leave to cool completely.
8. For the Mooncake skin. Add Groundnut oil, dark golden syrup, alkaline water into a bowl and mix well.
9. In a large mixing bowl, add flour and full cream milk powder, mix well.
10. Add wet mixture into dry mixture and mix well until a dough forms.
11. Knead dough until smooth, cling wrap and refrigerate for at least 30 minutes.
12. Strain birds' nests filling and leave in the refrigerator to dry out.
13. Roll fillings into 60g balls, and dough into 50g balls.
14. Once done, flatten and roll dough balls in between 2 cling wraps. Remove the top layer.
15. Make an indentation in the center of filling balls and add 1 tsp full of bird's nest, wrap bird's nest in filling and roll back into a ball.
16. Lay filling on top of flattened dough and wrap filling with dough using the cling wrap. Twist the end of cling wrap to tighten and unwrap. Shape dough back into a ball.
17. Lay mooncake into a mooncake mold, press it in and release straight into a lined baking tray.
18. Spray water over dough and bake in a 200°C oven for 5 minutes.
19. Remove from the oven and lightly brush over egg yolk. Bake for another 5 minutes, turning the oven down to 160°C.
20. Remove from the oven and brush with egg yolk once more. Bake for another 10 minutes.
21. Once done, remove from the oven and leave to cool completely.

Tasting notes: The natural mellow sweetness from red dates and refreshing tanginess from dried mandarin peel meld perfectly with the iconic white lotus paste. The bird’s nest core nestled in each mooncake makes them extra indulgent and luxurious to bite into.

Recipe credits: Meatmen Channel https://themeatmen.sg/birds-nest-mooncakes/
References used in article: 
¹,² All Things Health. (2021, November 1). The Best Superfoods To Boost Your Immune System. Retrieved from All Things Health: https://www.allthingshealth.com/en-us/natural-products/healing-foods/superfoods-for-immune-system/