Black Sesame Mooncake Filling

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This is one of my favorite mooncake fillings. Even though it requires a bit of planning and prep, a lot of the prep time is just down time, so it’s easier than it might look at first glance.

If you’re new to making mooncakes, I’d recommend starting with snow skin mooncakes before diving into traditional, but I also didn’t follow this advice when I first started making mooncakes. This filling recipe is flexible and works with whichever type you end up picking.

Special Ingredients

  • Black sesame seeds — These have become more popular in recent years and are easier to source from just about any Asian market, though you’ll get the best bang-for-your-buck at a Chinese or Indian market. They’re also not often found at Korean markets. If you don’t have any Asian markets near you, you can also get them online.
  • Peeled, split mung beans — This is one of my favorite Asian dessert ingredients (so much so that I actually did a whole video series on mung bean recipes). Make sure you buy the yellow ones and not green — yellow mung beans have been peeled and split, while green still have their shells. These can be found at Chinese, Korean, and Indian markets (where they’re called moong daal), but are less common at Japanese markets. I prefer buying mine at the Korean market when I can because the Korean brands typically avoid using yellow dye for coloring. This dye, which is found in far more Chinese brands, mostly washes off when you soak and rinse the beans, but if you can avoid it, then why not? You can also buy split, peeled mung beans here.
  • Coconut oil — Refined and unrefined both work in this recipe, so you’ll have to pick based on your tastes. Unrefined coconut oil retains a lot of coconut flavor, so when used in this recipe will lend a coconut backdrop to the black sesame, a combination which I personally love. If, however, you’re not too fond of coconut, go with refined, which will have very little detectable coconut flavor. If you REALLY hate coconut or are allergic, you can experiment with other fats, but you’ll want to make sure you go with something that’s solid at room temperature. Lard is most traditional.
  • Salted egg yolks (optional, for assembly of your mooncakes) — The salted egg yolks found in most moon cakes are salted duck egg yolks, though you can make salted egg yolks with chicken eggs, too. These are found in the refrigerated section of most Chinese markets. I opt for the kind that are prepared and vacuumed sealed without the shell. Salted duck eggs in the shell are also sold at Chinese markets, but they are much harder to deal with so I would recommend avoiding these for this application.

Black Sesame Mooncake Filling (For Traditional Mooncakes)

Prep Time: 12 hours
Cook Time: 1 hour
Servings: 10 servings
This is one of my favorite mooncake fillings. It's nutty, fragrant and has just the right amount of sweetness. It's best when paired with salted egg yolks, but that's just my preference 🙂
Print Recipe

Ingredients

  • 50 g split peeled mung bean see notes
  • 100 g toasted black sesame seeds
  • 100 g granulated sugar
  • 2 Tbsp glutinous rice flour
  • 30 g coconut oil see notes
  • pinch salt

Instructions

  • Rinse the mung beans in cool water, then cover with an ample amount of water (they can absorb 2-3x their volume in liquid) and let soak overnight. If you're in a time crunch you can speed up there process a bit by using hot water for soaking, and soaking for a couple of hours.
    50 g split peeled mung bean
  • The next day, drain the mung beans and line a steaming basket with baking parchment (it will extend up the sides and over the top of the steamer, but this isn't a problem). Pour the soaked mung beans onto the parchment and spread them out in an even layer. Steam over medium heat until very soft/mushy in texture — about 20-30 minutes. Remove from heat and let cool until warm or room temperature.
  • Place black sesame seeds, salt, and sugar in a food processor. Process until the sesame seeds are fairly fine in texture, no larger than medium sized pepper grounds.
    100 g toasted black sesame seeds, 100 g granulated sugar, pinch salt
  • Add the steamed mung beans, coconut oil, and glutinous rice flour. Pulse a few times to combine everything; the mixture will be very thick and ball up around the blade. With the processor running, slowly stream in a tablespoon of water at a time until the mixture is still thick, but flows freely around the blade as a paste. The goal is to add as little water as possible to achieve a thick paste texture.
    2 Tbsp glutinous rice flour, 30 g coconut oil
  • Transfer the smooth paste to a nonstick pan and heat over medium heat, constantly flipping and folding the mixture with a heatproof spatula. Once the mixture becomes very smooth and cohesive and can hold its shape like play doh, continue to cook for another 5 minutes to ensure you drive off as much moisture.
  • Transfer paste to a container, cover with a loose fitting lid or plastic wrap with a little gap to let some steam out, and let cool to room temperature.
  • This mixture can be used right away after cooling, or you can wrap it tightly in plastic and refrigerate it for up to a week. To wrap mooncakes, work small pieces of the dough in your hands to warm it up and make it pliable. Note that this paste does take on a shiny appearance and oily texture when you're working with it, but this is normal and necessary to ensure the proper texture once shaped into mooncakes. Use gloves when working with the mixture for easier handling and cleanup.

Notes

  • Split peeled mung beans can be found at most Chinese, Indian, and Korean markets, but are less common at Japanese grocers. Don't confuse them with their unpeeled cousins — the kind you're looking for should have a yellow hue, not green.
  • Feel free to use either refined or unrefined coconut oil for this recipe, but note that you'll get a different flavor profile depending on your choice. Unrefined coconut oil (my preference) lends a noticeable coconut flavor to the filling, so if you're not a fan of coconut, use refined, which will be almost flavorless.

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