Weaved Rainbow Mooncake Pastry

Mooncakes are traditional Chinese sweet delicacies served in Chinese New Year. Traditional mooncakes are a work of art but a tad difficult to make because of their hard to find ingredients and tedious cooking procedures.

Because of my fondness for pastries, I tried to reinvent the traditional mooncake and give it my own touch with minimal ingredients. In my recipe, almond-Cream Cheese Filling is enclosed by an ultra-flaky laminated pastry crust with colorful rainbow colors which is both eye-catching and super delicious.

Here's how you can make the Weaved Rainbow Mooncake Pastry...

COOKING INGREDIENTS FOR RAINBOW MOONCAKES

FILLING

1. Almond Flour - 150 g or 1.56 cups
2. Powdered/ Icing Sugar - 100 g 0r 8 tbsps.
3. Cream Cheese (room temperature) - 4 tbsps. or 100 g
4. Rainbow Sprinkles - 4 tbsps.

WATER OIL DOUGH

1. All Purpose Flour - 150 g or 1.2 cup
2. Powdered/ Icing Sugar - 50 g or 6.4 tbsps.
3. Unsalted and Softened Butter - 50 g or 3.5 tbsp.
4. Water - 60 ml

PASTRY DOUGH

1. All Purpose Flour - 105 g or 0.7 cups
2. Unsalted and Softened Butter - 70 g or 5 tbsps.
3. 2 drop each of edible Violet/Purple, Blue, Green, Yellow, Orange and Red Food Gel Colors

UTENSILS AND EQUIPEMENTS REQUIRED

• Weighing Scale -1
• Knife -1
• Measuring cups - 2-3
• Small Bowls - 2-3
• Mixing Bowls - 2-3
• Mixing Spoon - 1
• Mixing Silicone Flat Spatula -1
• Chopping Board/Tray - 1
• Cling Film
• Rolling Board -1
• Rolling Pin -1
• Oven (OTG) -1
• Baking Tray -1
• Parchment paper - 1

Bake Time: 20 Min at 160 degree Celsius in preheated Oven

Makes 6-7 pastries

1. In a large mixing bowl, take 150 g or 1.56 cups of Almond Flour.
2. To it add, 100 g 0r 8 tbsps. of Powdered/ Icing Sugar. I've used demerara sugar here but you can use regular icing/powdered sugar.
3. Then add, 4 tbsps. of Rainbow Sprinkles to add a pop of color to the filling.
4. And finally add, 4 tbsps. of Cream Cheese. Cream Cheese must be at room temperature so that it mixes easily.
5. Take a silicone spatula or spoon and combine everything together till the mix looks even.

Note: The mix should be mushy and moldable. If it is too dry you can add milk or more cream cheese. And if it is too wet add more almond flour.

1. Take about 2 tbsps. of the mix and make roll it into a ball.
2. Repeat the above step and make around 6-7 balls.
3. Cover the balls with cling film and keep them in the refrigerator to cool and solidify.

1. Take around 150 g or 1.2 cups of All Purpose Flour in a mixing bowl.
2. To it add, 50 g or 6.4 tbsps. of Powdered/ Icing Sugar.
3. To that add, 50 g or 3.5 tbsp. of Unsalted and Softened Butter.
4. Then finally add around 60 ml of Water.
5. Combine the mix with a spatula, and then knead it into a dough.
6. Cover the dough with cling film and keep aside.

1. In a mixing bowl, take 105 g or 0.7 cups of All Purpose Flour.
2. To it add 70 g or 5 tbsps. of Unsalted and Softened Butter.
3. Combine the mix together with a spatula and knead it into a dough.

1. Keep the pastry dough in a flat surface.
2. Roll the pastry dough into a long rectangular shape with your hands. (Refer to the picture above for more clarity).
3. Use a dough scrapper or a very sharp knife and divide the pastry dough into 6 equal parts as shown.

1. Now add 1-2 drops each of Violet/Purple, Blue, Green, Yellow, Orange, and Red Colors to each part of the pastry dough parts as shown. I did not have violet and orange so had to mix one drop each of blue and red to make violet and one drop of each of yellow and red to make orange respectively.
2. Knead the dough parts one by one to mix the colors evenly into each dough part.
3. Form balls out of the dough parts.
4. Wrap each ball separately in cling film and keep aside.

Note: Wash hands after kneading each color. Otherwise, the colors may mix.

1. Unwrap the Water Oil Dough from Cling Film and lay it on a flat surface.
2. Roll the Water Oi Dough into a long cylindrical shape with your hands. (Refer to the picture above for more clarity).
3. Using a Dough Scrapper or a sharp knife, divide the Water Oil Dough into 6 equal parts as shown.

1. Take one part of the Water Oil Dough and lay it on a flat rolling board or a flat surface.
2. Using a rolling pin, roll out the dough part into a sort of rectangular shape as shown. It does not have to be a proper rectangle.
3. Then take any colored part of the Pastry Dough and press it slightly with your palms.
4. Form a sort of square shape out of it as shown.
5. Note: The area of the Colored Dough Rectangle must be 1/3rd of the area of the Water Oil Dough. Refer to the image above for more clarity.

1. Place the colored Pastry Dough in the center of the rolled out Water Oil Dough as shown.
2. Then flip both the sides of the Water Oil dough towards each other shown. Note: Both the ends must overlap as shown.
3. Then using your fingers, press and seal the openings together.

1. Roll out the previously used dough part length wise with a rolling pin. It must be thin as shown but don't stretch it too much.
2. Now fold both the ends towards each other as shown and press gently.
3. Once again, fold the ends towards each other as shown and press.
4. Now for the final time, overlap one end on top of the other end as shown and press gently.

1. Take the dough part and place it horizontally.
2. Using a rolling pin, roll it out length wise as much as you can. The dough part will become very thin.
3. Now take one end and fold it a little and press till the entire dough gets folded as shown.

Now that the dough lamination part is over, we need to cut out sections from the laminated dough.

For this,

1. Press with your palms and flatten out the laminated dough part. Try to make the laminated dough part in a rectangular shape.
2. Now take a sharp knife, and cut out thin (approx. 2 mm) sections out of the laminated dough from one end as shown. Roughly around 12 sections.

Note: Try to make the sections long. So try and cut through the length and not the breadth.

REPEAT STEP 8 TO STEP 12 FOR REST OF THE COLORS

1. Lay out the sections of different colors (6 colors) horizontally as shown.
2. Lift ends of any 3 alternate colors as shown. I have picked up blue, yellow and red. But you can also start from violet, green, and orange.
3. Place a colored section section on vertically top of the 3 non-lifted ends as shown. I went with violet.
4. Now bring back the lifted ends to overlap with violet section as shown.
5. Now go with another set of alternate colors. For me, it was violet, purple, orange. Lift their ends towards the left this time, because we will we weaving from left to right.
6. Place another section as shown. I went with blue.
7. Now bring back the lifted ends to overlap with blue section as shown.
8. Again, lift alternate colors. For me, it was blue, yellow and red.
9. Place another section as shown. I went with green.
10. Likewise, repeat the above steps till the mesh gets completed and there is no more space to insert another section vertically. Refer to the last picture in step 13 for more clarity.
11. Press the rainbow pattern gently with your fingers so that the mesh becomes intact.

1. Lift and Flip the entire rainbow pattern backside.
2. Place an almond-cream cheese ball in the middle of the weave pattern.
3. And wrap the ball with the weave pattern.
4. Repeat Step 14 for all the balls.

1. Place the Rainbow Mooncakes on a greased parchment paper tray.
2. Bake them for 20 min at 160 degree Celsius in a preheated oven.

You can make these mooncakes with a number of different fillings. For eg, Oreo cream cheese, Jello, red bean paste, brownies, chopped nuts, sweet potatoes, fresh fruits, Nutella, pumpkin, etc. Or you can even fill in meat and cheese.

Do try them yourself and let me know how they come out.

Thank me later ;)