Golden Piggy Pastry

25/01/2013

Introducing the Golden Piggy Family!

The first attempt to learn to make these Chinese mooncake inspired pastry. The pastry skin is quite difficult to make. For this trial, instead of using home-made syrup (which I have already prepared few weeks ago. According to the recipe, the freshly made syrup must not be used until it is at least 2 weeks or more old), I read from some online resources, it is OK to substitute the home-made syrup with shop-bought golden syrup. And I also use ready-made sweet adzuki bean paste as the filling for my trial. When I have mastered the whole making process, I will do it properly again with all components home-made!

The recipe book I used for this experiment was a bilingual "Moonlit Mid-Autumn Festival" by Choong Su Yin. I bought the mooncake recipe book many years ago when I was in Malaysia visiting my family. I have read it MANY times, but not gutsy enough to try to make them in the kitchen! I am still trying to understand the original recipe from the book, which didn't tell me how long to bake these piggies in the oven. The temperature of 180'C stated in the book seems way too hot for this sweet pastry dough. Maybe I should not have substituted the home-made syrup with the golden syrup? Maybe the temperature of my oven is too hot? Maybe the ready-made filling is not cooked as per instructed as the recipe?

But I am quite happy with this first attempt. The flavour is not too bad, sweet scented pastry skin. (slightly too golden syrupy!) A few more attempts to learn the process I think. I am excited!

Note: 26.01.2013 - The pastry skin soften after 2 days which make it really close to those shop-bought mooncake's texture. Really quite tasty now!

Comments

Alvaro link

16/03/2013 19:03

They look gorgeous! The first time I thought it was porcelain, but after reading your post you left me completely amazed! Great skills, sure.

Loong link

31/03/2013 10:34

Hi Alvaro,
Thank you so much for your compliment. I really enjoyed learning to make these piggy pastries. These are celebration pastries for Chinese tradition..

The pastry skin should be smooth and without the cracks..So I am still a long way to master the making of it!

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About my cooking

I started cooking when I was about 10 years old. Even now, I vividly remember my grandmother showing me how to dry-fry black beans over the charcoal stove. As I stood beside her watching the beans hitting the wok, their sound changed from a dull rustling to a lively high "tinging" pitch. A light dry smell, like burnt coffee, filled the kitchen.

My aim is to cook appetising, yet humble, food that satisfies not only our taste buds and our stomachs, but also our eyes and imagination. I hope to use this blog to show how simple, affordable ingredients can be easily transformed into delicious and beautiful dishes for daily meals.