Shanghai Savory Mooncakes (Xian Rou Yue Bing)

I won’t bore you by getting too deep into the fairytale that surrounds the Mid-Autumn Festival. In short, it’s a forbidden love story between a girl living on the moon and a young man living on earth. They are only granted one meeting per year on the 15th day of the 8th month of the Lunar calendar.

Today, we celebrate the Mid-Autumn Festival in the name of family unity and for the hope that true loves can reunite.

If you’ve ever wondered why mooncakes are round, this is why.

(Update: a helpful reader pointed out to us that we got our lines tied up on the details of lovers meeting vs. not meeting; turns out that the young man mourned the loss of his love to the moon for the rest of his days, and people celebrate his sacrifice by worshipping the moon spirit with cakes and other offerings…alternatively, it may also be the case that the young man in this story turned into a tyrannical king and his former lover prevented him from becoming immortal on the day of the mid-autumn festival, so people celebrate that…Can you see now why we tried to glaze over this part? Also, for anyone who’s ever had a mother provide them with totally false only semi-accurate information, this one’s for you!) 

Besides Chinese New Year, the Mid-Autumn Festival is an important Chinese holiday, and every region has it’s own unique approach when it comes to making the all-important moon cake. This is a  savory mooncake recipe.

Savory mooncakes, or xian rou yue bing (鲜肉月饼), are filled with ground pork and prized by people in Jiangsu, Zhejiang, and Shanghai, the areas where I grew up. In fact, simply mentioning xian rou yue bing will make most Shanghainese people weak in the knees! Needless to say, I’m very excited to share this recipe with you guys.

If you’re thinking that there’s no point in making these from scratch, trust me, you will not find these in your neck of woods (unless you happen to live somewhere in China). These are definitely not your typical chewy, sweet moon cakes; the uniqueness of these Shanghai savory mooncakes is in the dough or the crust.

It is quite similar to pastry dough, with all that layered, flaky and crumbly goodness—plus, there’s a savory meat filling. Sound weird? Not really! The cooking from this region tends to be on the sweeter side, so the sweet/salty filling with the pastry-like crust is a perfect combo.

As the Mid-Autumn Festival approaches (this year it falls on September 27), people from my hometown of Shanghai are already lined up to secure some their favorite Xian Rou Yue Bing. To find out what all the hoopla is about, try this recipe, and let us know what you think.

And just a heads up: this is a long post with a lot of step-by-step pictures. We divided it into three segments. In this case, each segment is very quick to put together. And guess what? No fancy moon cake molds required for these savory mooncakes!

Some tips before we start!

Mix and combine everything for the meat filling: ground pork, sugar, honey, Shaoxing wine, salt, light soy sauce, ginger powder, garlic powder, and scallion.

There’s no need to stir too much or whip the mixture in any way, or the filling will turn rubbery. Cover and set aside in the fridge. 

Add the flour, sugar, and lard to a mixing bowl, and mix until thoroughly combined.

Then slowly add the water in 3-4 batches and knead the dough to form a smooth dough ball.

Set it aside and cover with a damp cloth. Make sure the dough is not too dry.

To test for quality, form a dough ball and press it flat. The edges should not crack.

Combine the flour and lard, and knead to form a dough ball. Cover with clear plastic wrap and let it sit in fridge for 20 minutes.

Divide both the soft dough and the pastry dough into 24 pieces each. You should have 48 bits of dough in total. Take the time to divide them equally and roll each into balls. We used a scale to help us out.

Cover all the dough pieces with a damp paper towel to prevent them from drying out as you work.

Follow the photos for each step:

Take one piece of soft dough and press into a small round disc. Put a piece of the pastry dough in the center of the soft dough, close to seal, and use your palms to flatten.

Then roll it out into a long oval shape. Then roll it into a more uniform cigar shape.

Roll the cigar out lengthwise into a longer rope, and then roll it into a tight, short bundle.

Stand the bundle up and press it flat.

With a rolling pin, roll the dough bundle out into a 3½-inch disc (it should be slightly thinner around the outer edges and thicker in the middle). Add about one tablespoon (about 20 grams) of meat filling to the center of the disc…

…and seal tightly. Be careful with the filling—you can’t overstuff these or they will burst open during the baking process.

Now lightly press the dough to shape it into a flat moon cake shape. Place it on a baking sheet, seam side down.

Now, repeat with the remaining pieces of dough and filling until you’ve used everything up. You will need two baking sheets for a total of 24 moon cakes.

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees, and position the baking rack in the middle of the oven.

Brush each cake with egg wash and sprinkle the top with sesame seeds.

Once the oven is preheated, bake each pan of moon cakes for 25 minutes until the cakes start to turn golden brown.

Enjoy this one and Happy Mid Autumn Festival!

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