Piggy moon cakes 小猪公仔餅

中秋节快乐！

Happy Mid Autumn Festival

Lately, I was caught up with dad’s house renovation and I didn’t realize that Moon cake festival was just around the corner, which would fall on Sunday, 27th September.

This was a very last minute project. Only yesterday, I found I still had some left over golden syrup which I made 2 years ago. The color of the syrup was getting darker and it might not be good for another year. Hence, I decided to clear it off to make a small batch of moon cakes.
(You can refer to my previous moon cake making posts here.)

However, with only limited quantity of the syrup and time left, I opted to make this simple piggy moon cake cookies ( 公仔餅). I came across this recipe via Baking Taitai’s blog  originated from Joceline’s blog。

This recipe is unique compared to the traditional recipe. As opposed to usual filling such as lotus paste wrapped inside the moon cakes, the filling is combined with other ingredients to form the dough instead.

After reading the recipe, in the same afternoon, I rushed to my nearby bakery store to shop for the necessary ingredients.  I was in luck to get this very last plastic piggy mold in their store. I also got a small pineapple mold which resembled a fish, just nice to be used for this moon cake cookies project.

These piglets are so adorable, aren’t they? My piggy mold used around 55g of dough.


The moon cake cookies with the shapes of “fish” ( 30g) and flower from the old moon cake mold I had previously.



Freshly out from the oven. It would be nicer if I had black beans to be used as their eyes.


I have yet to taste these cookies as they need to be left for at least a day for it to go thru the process of “oil return”( 回油）before it is good to consume. Traditional moon cake cookies may need to be left for at least 3 days to a week.
Fingers crossed, it will taste good by tomorrow.

2nd October Updates:

Just wish to update on the texture of the moon cakes. The texture was slightly harder than I expected when consumed on the next day.

However, after resting in tight container for a week, the mooncakes were coated with nice golden color and tasted so much softer. Hence, I would advice to follow the traditional "oil return" duration before consuming these moon cakes.

Piggy moon cakes Ingredients: (make 20 pieces of 30g to 58g dough each according to the mold I used) 350g sieved plain flour (I used 170g plain flour and 180g cookies flour) 230g golden syrup (I used only 198g, the remaining golden syrup I had) 100g peanut oil (I used canola oil) 5 g/1tsp alkaline water 150g lotus seed paste (I used bean paste, click here for homemade bean paste method) Egg wash: 1 egg + 1 tbsp milk, mix well and strained. (I used 1 egg yolk + 1 tbsp. milk) 1. In a mixing bowl, add in syrup, oil, alkaline water and lotus seed paste. Stir mix until well combined.   2. Add in sieved flour and knead to form dough. Cover the dough with cling wrap and let it rest for at least 2 - 3 hours.  ( For softer texture better leave the dough to rest longer than 3 hours to 6 hours.) 3. Divide the dough into portions that fit the mold that you are using. Roll each portion into a ball. Dust the moon cake mold with some flour. Press the dough into the mold. Tap to unmold. Arrange in a baking tray. (I omitted the dusting process as my dough was oily and could be easily detached from the mold after few knockings.) 4. Preheat oven at 160 degrees Celsius. Bake the moon cakes in the middle rack for 10 minutes. Remove from oven and leave to cool for 15 minutes before brushing the top with egg wash. Return to oven for another 15-20 minutes of baking or until golden brown. ( For smaller mold  (30g ), better adjust baking time to 10-15 minutes, to avoid over baked and texture of moon cakes turned harder) 5. After the moon cakes are completely cooled down , keep in airtight container and consume the next day. ( If after baking, moon cakes felt harder, I would advice to follow the traditional "oil return" duration, after 3-7 days only consume these moon cakes to have softer texture.) 小猪公仔餅 份量 ： 根据我用的模, 可做20个 , 25g – 58g 面团 材料： 面粉 350克（过筛备用） (我用170克中筋面粉和180克低筋面粉） 糖浆 230克 （我用198g糖浆） 花生油 100克 (我用菜籽油) 碱水 5克 原味纯莲蓉 150克  （我用豆蓉 ） 表层涂面：蛋黄1个  +  鲜奶 1汤匙或适量 ** 搅拌均匀后过滤 ** 做法： 1）把面粉过筛备用。 2）容器里加入糖浆、花生油、碱水和莲蓉一起搅拌均匀。 3）然后拌入面粉搅拌成均匀的面团。 4）把容器盖上。放置休息 2 - 3个小时至面团不粘手。 5）根据模具把面团分割成每份大约 25-58克，把面团搓圆，然后放入模里印出形状。 6）烤箱预热后，把烤盘放在中层。以160度烘烤大约10分钟。 然后把饼取出烤箱。待冷一会儿（大约15分钟后），才涂上一层的蛋液。 7）然后再送入烤箱继续烘烤大约15-20分钟至金黄色或熟即可。