For the Mid-Autumn Festival, I have to mention moon cakes. Moon cakes have actually existed since ancient times, but at the end of the Yuan Dynasty and the beginning of the Ming Dynasty, they were used as a representative food on behalf of the Mid-Autumn Festival.

During the Mid-Autumn Festival in the Northern Song Dynasty, moon cakes were also eaten, but they were only eaten as an ordinary pastry, and the most popular method of making moon cakes came from the palace, so at this time moon cakes were called palace cakes, and in the palace, they were called moon cakes.

Of course, at this time, there was no most popular Cantonese moon cake in later generations, and it was roughly divided into two kinds by the difference between north and south in terms of geography.

In the north represented by Kaifeng, moon cakes are made of soft dough, which is soft and delicious to eat, so it is no wonder that they are called moon cakes, not moon cakes.

After crossing the Yangtze River to the south of the Yangtze River, the production of moon cakes is more elaborate and the shape is more compact, the outside is wrapped puff pastry, and the inside is caramel sugar, bean paste or dried fruit, and the common people call it cake.

Yang Huairen remembered the Cantonese moon cakes he had eaten before, and somehow felt a little greedy, so he thought about it as if he made some by himself, in addition to eating them when his family enjoyed the moon on the night of the Mid-Autumn Festival, he could also use them to give away.

To make Cantonese mooncakes, you must first prepare invert syrup and molds. The wooden molds are well prepared, and there are some molds that are usually used to make snacks at home, but the size is not very suitable, so let the carpenter on the Zhuangzi make some according to the patterns drawn by Yang Huairen.

The production of invert sugar syrup is not difficult, prepare a pot, according to the weight ratio of 2 to 1, add frosting and water, and simmer over low heat.

When the soup is boiling, add the clear juice of the sour juice. In later generations, most of them were processed with lemon juice, and there was no such thing as lemon at present, so Yang Huairen replaced it with cereal juice with a similar taste.

The ratio of water to ceviche in the pot is about 4 to 1, and after adding it, start stirring the sugar juice, and wait until the sugar juice after simmering begins to change color, until the eye color turns golden and then you can get out of the pot.

After going abroad, the invert sugar syrup is placed in a large basin to cool and set aside, and then the filling of the mooncake and the crust of the pie begin to be prepared.

The filling is mainly to make red bean paste or mung bean paste, and then prepare some dried fruit, meat floss or boiled salted egg yolk.

When making leather, first add the prepared invert sugar syrup and cooking oil to the wooden basin, the ratio is roughly three to one, in addition, add a small spoon of alkaline water and a little salt, and then stir the branch evenly.

Then use a mesh sieve to sift in a little custard powder. Custard powder is a general food additive for making pastries in later generations, in fact, the main ingredient is egg powder made by drying and grinding.

After stirring well, the fine flour is sifted in, and the weight of the flour is about equal to the weight of the invert sugar syrup and cooking oil combined.

Stir to mix the flour and syrup thoroughly, then knead the mixture into an oily dough, which can not be used directly, but should be sealed and placed in a cool place for an hour or so, in order to let the dough relax naturally.

Once the dough has become soft and firm, divide the dough into smaller doughs of the same size by hand, depending on the size of the mold.

The small dough is kneaded by hand into an oil dough, and the filling of red bean paste or mung bean paste is wrapped in the middle with dried fruit or egg yolk, etc., and kneaded into a ball-shaped filling dough.

The dough is about twice the weight of the oil dough, put it in the middle of the dough, and then wrap the dough evenly around the filling and knead it into a spherical dough.

The wooden mold is first smeared with a layer of primer, then sprinkled with some glutinous rice flour, and the dough kneaded into a ball is also put into the glutinous rice flour to roll, so that the surface is evenly adhered to a layer of glutinous rice flour, and then put it into the wooden mold and press it into shape.

The oil dough is poured out of the wooden mold, and the cake blank of a Cantonese mooncake is ready.

Place the cake crust evenly and spray some water before putting it in the oven to prevent the cake crust from cracking due to too much heat.

After that, put it in the oven, bake it on medium heat for about five minutes, take it out again, wait for the cake blank to cool, and then brush the egg liquid on the cake blank with a brush, and then put it in the oven again and bake it for a quarter of an hour.

Take it out again, and the Cantonese mooncake is finished. However, at this time, the moon cake looks dry and dry, at least it is not beautiful, and it should be placed in a cool place to let it return to oil naturally.

When the oil slowly begins to spill out of the crust over time, the mooncake will look oily and have an appetizing sheen.

Yang Huairen was very satisfied with his work, took out the kitchen knife and slice a finished moon cake, and tasted it carefully, and the difference between the Cantonese moon cakes of later generations is not big, and it is very rare to be able to make such a taste of moon cakes under the existing conditions.

The mold is engraved with words, and a set is "Happy Mid-Autumn Festival".

Yang Huairen instructed the cooks at home to mobilize together and made a large number of moon cakes, which were delivered door-to-door in Zhuangzi, the craftsmen on the construction site, and the forbidden army camp in the middle of the valley, which was also a lot of benefits, which was a benefit given to them by Yang Huairen during the Mid-Autumn Festival.

Sending moon cakes during the Mid-Autumn Festival is just a festive blessing sent by Yang Huairen, but in the eyes of farmers and craftsmen, this is an extremely rare delicacy.

Although there are a lot of pastries and sugar foods in recent years, the price is still a little expensive, so ordinary people and farmers are not willing to spend money to buy pastries and other foods on weekdays.

To be able to eat these soft and sweet moon cakes sent by Yang Huairen, they are very grateful and even more happy.

Seeing others happy, Yang Huairen, as a maker of moon cakes, has an indescribable sense of satisfaction. Although he was a little tired, he felt that he had gained more than he had paid.

On the morning of the Mid-Autumn Festival, Yang Huairen wanted to sleep lazily, after all, he hadn't enjoyed sleeping until he woke up naturally for a long time, and he almost forgot what kind of enjoyment it was.

However, his body seemed to have formed a habit, and before dawn and the rooster did not crow in the morning, he naturally woke up.

Lying on the bed was also boring, and he didn't want to wake up Yun'er, who was still sleeping soundly, so Yang Huairen carefully climbed out of bed, changed his clothes, and planned to run around Zhuangzi.

Many things, if the body has formed a habit, if you don't go for a run, you will feel uncomfortable, as if something is missing from this day's events.

As soon as he ran out of the gate of the mansion, he found that there were already people jogging in the early morning light, and there were quite a few people, he couldn't recognize others, the two huge figures of Brother Hei Niu and Brother Tianba could be recognized at a glance.

Seeing Yang Huairen running out, the two of them also came over, and Brother Hei Niu said embarrassedly, "I didn't think anything of it before, but since I ran with the forbidden army for a month, I have unconsciously got used to it." ”

Tianba's younger brother chased after him and asked, "The moon cakes made by my brother are delicious, help me make some more ...... later."