Mooncakes (月饼) – With Lotus Paste and Salted Egg Yolk

In China, mooncakes belong to the Mid-Autumn Festival on the 15th day of the eighth lunar month. The Cantonese style has a thin, glossy crust of syrup dough with a pressed pattern. Inside is sweet lotus paste, and in the middle a salted duck egg yolk. The yolk adds salt and a crumbly texture to the dense filling.

By Laura Chen · November 4, 2026

1 Std 55 Mintotal

8servings

400kcal

ChineseCuisine ›

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For the dough you need golden syrup and kansui, an alkaline solution. The syrup keeps the crust soft, and the kansui turns it dark brown in the oven. Fresh from the oven, the crust is dry and hard. Let the cakes rest for 2 days in a closed tin, and oil moves from the filling into the dough and the surface gets shiny. With a mooncake mold, you press the pattern in one step. Without a mold, roll balls, press them flat and score a grid with the back of a knife.

Bake smaller filled pastries following the recipes for Hong Dou Sha Bing with red bean paste and Feng Li Su, the pineapple cakes from Taiwan. Lü Dou Gao, the pressed mung bean cake, needs no oven.

Image: AI-generated.

Mooncakes (月饼) – With Lotus Paste and Salted Egg Yolk

Name: Mooncakes (月饼) – With Lotus Paste and Salted Egg Yolk
Prep time: 1 h 30 min
Cook time: 25 min
Total time: 1 h 55 min
Yield: 8
Cuisine: Chinese
Ingredients: 130 g all-purpose flour (Type 405); 95 g golden syrup (invert sugar syrup); 35 g neutral oil; 1/2 tsp kansui (alkaline solution, 2 g); 480 g lotus paste (lotus seed paste); 8 salted duck eggs, yolks only; 1 tbsp rice liquor or vodka; 1 tbsp flour for dusting; 1 egg yolk; 1 tbsp egg white

Laura Chen

Servings

Prep time

90 minutes

Cook time

25 minutes

Calories

400

Cuisine

Chinese

Ingredients

For the dough:

130 g all-purpose flour (Type 405)
95 g golden syrup (invert sugar syrup)
35 g neutral oil
1/2 tsp kansui (alkaline solution, 2 g)

For the filling:

480 g lotus paste (lotus seed paste)
8 salted duck eggs, yolks only
1 tbsp rice liquor or vodka

For shaping and glazing:

1 tbsp flour for dusting
1 egg yolk
1 tbsp egg white

Instructions

Stir the syrup, oil and kansui smooth in a bowl. Sift in the flour and knead everything into a soft dough. Wrap it in plastic and let it rest for 60 minutes.
Preheat the oven to 180 °C (350 °F) top and bottom heat. Separate the salted eggs, rinse the yolks and set them on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper. Spray them with rice liquor and bake for 8 minutes.
Divide the lotus paste into 8 portions of 60 g. Press each portion flat, set a yolk in the middle and close the paste into a ball.
Divide the dough into 8 pieces of 30 g. Roll each piece between sheets of parchment paper into a circle of 10 cm. Place a filling ball on it and push the dough upward with your palms until it encloses the ball.
Dust the ball and the mold thinly with flour. Press the ball into the mold on the baking sheet and lift the mold off. Without a mold, press the ball flat to 3 cm high and score a grid with the back of a knife.
Spray the cakes with water and bake them for 5 minutes. Let them cool for 10 minutes.
Whisk the egg yolk and egg white and brush the patterns thinly. Bake the cakes for another 12 minutes until golden brown.
Let the mooncakes cool on a rack. Pack them in an airtight tin and let them rest for 2 days at room temperature before you cut them.

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Mooncakes (月饼) – With Lotus Paste and Salted Egg Yolk

Ingredients

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For the filling:

For shaping and glazing:

Instructions

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Mooncakes (月饼) – With Lotus Paste and Salted Egg Yolk

Ingredients

For the dough:

For the filling:

For shaping and glazing:

Instructions

Reviews

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