Chinese Moon Cakes

Authentic Chinese moon cakes, which are traditionally made at Chinese New Year and during the harvest moon festival, should be filled with red bean paste. They are usually imprinted with a design and they even sell special Chinese moon cake molds. This Americanized version is definitely more kid-friendly and doesn’t require any special baking equipment. They also turned out to be pretty delicious! They taste like a cross between a biscuit and a cookie. You could use any kind of jam for the filling, or even apple (or other fruit) butter. I used strawberry jam. And even if it’s not Chinese New Year or harvest moon time, it’s always a good time for a cookie. Or a biscuit. Or whatever this is!

Difficulty: Easy

Servings: approx. 3 dozen

Prep Time: 20 minutes plus chilling time   Cook Time: 20 minutes  

Ingredients

4 cups all-purpose flour

3/4 cup non-fat dry milk

1 1/4 cups sugar

1 tablespoon baking powder

3 eggs

3/4 cup butter, melted

1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla

jam for filling

Directions

Combine all the ingredients except for the jam and mix well; knead into a dough. (The mixture will be a little dry, but will knead into a ball.) Wrap the dough in plastic and chill in the refrigerator for at least an hour. Form the chilled dough into small balls. Make a hole with your thumb in the center of each ball and fill with about a 1/2 teaspoon of jam. Close back up into a ball. (It’s okay if a little jam peeks out the top.) Bake at 375-degrees on a lightly greased cookie sheet for about 20 minutes or until just lightly browned at the edges.

Categories: Biscuits, Breads, Cookies & Bars, Desserts, Holiday

Submitted by: suzanne-mcminn on March 29, 2011