I love traditional Chinese mooncakes for the holidays. But there’s also a special place in my heart for the trendier, more modern and hip versions that are out there today. Dan Huang Su is a wonderful treat that uses a pastry surrounding to encase sweet fillings. Usually, it’s lotus seed paste or red bean paste along with a nice salted duck egg yolk.
A trendy modern mooncake
The texture of Dan Huang Su is fun with its flaky dough and sticky filling, plus that chewy egg yolk. It’s very buttery, lightly sweet yet salty, and I just love snacking on them (maybe a little too much!). If I’m honest, I like this pastry even more than traditional mooncakes because it’s got all the essence of a mooncake, but it’s much lighter. Mooncakes are really dense. Dan Huang Su is tastier too. Back when I was living in Beijing, my family would always serve Dan Huang Su during the Mid-Autumn Festival instead of the traditional mooncakes. These also make a perfect gift because they’re really pretty and easy to store. You can keep them at room temperature for 4 to 5 days, and in the fridge they’ll last about 2 weeks.
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Making Dan Huang Su is an undertaking that will require a fairly large chunk of time. I suggest making them on the weekend or whenever you have enough downtime to allow for the process. The dough is really easy to put together if you have a stand mixer. It has very common ingredients that you should already have on hand, too, unlike with traditional mooncakes. Pastry dough may sound a bit daunting to make, but I promise this one is very easy to work with. You don’t need to cool it like regular pastry dough, so you’ll save loads of time. One thing you can’t skip, though, is a kitchen scale. You will need precise measurements in order for your Dan Huang Su to come out just right.
Ingredients
Filling options
I always make my own filling though, because it has a fresher taste and is less sweet, giving more balance to the pastries overall. Store-bought red bean paste in particular tends to have more moisture, which can tamper with the dough’s ability to bake properly.
Salty duck egg yolk
The salty duck egg yolk is the highlight of the recipe. You can find the packaged yolks at many Asian market refrigerated sections. They are already pre-cooked and ready to use. Alternatively, you can also buy the uncooked whole salty duck eggs. In this case, you will need to bake them before using them in the pastries. The cooking method is in the recipe footnote.
Dan Huang Su Cooking process
The major feature of Dan Huang Su is the flaky layered crust. To make it, you will need to make a water dough and an oil dough, then roll and fold them repeatedly to create the layers.
Part 1 – prepare the water dough
Part 2 – prepare the oil dough
Part 3 – make the filling
To make the filling, take a scoop of the paste (red bean or lotus seed), flatten it out, then wrap the salty duck egg yolk in the middle.
Part 4 – assemble the pastry dough
Part 5 – prepare the mooncake crust
The pastry dough is super fun and easy to work with.
Part 6 – assemble the mooncake
That’s it! It may sound like a lot of work, but these mooncakes are so fun to make and the result is super rewarding. These pastries are a great variation on the traditional mooncakes and they are super delicious to enjoy year-round. In any event, I hope you’ll give Dan Huang Su a try and put it on your Mid-Autumn Festival menu this year! Want to learn more about Chinese Cooking? Sign up my newsletter to receive the 5-Day Chinese Cooking Crash Course and recipe update! If you give this recipe a try, let us know! Leave a comment, rate it (once you’ve tried it), and take a picture and tag it @omnivorescookbook on Instagram! I’d love to see what you come up with.
Other mooncake related recipes
Snow Skin Mooncake with Custard FillingThe Ultimate Guide to Traditional MooncakeHomemade Golden Syrup (转化糖浆, Invert Sugar Syrup)Kansui (lye water, alkaline solution, 枧水)Homemade Lotus Seed Paste (莲蓉馅)How to Make Red Bean Paste
Lilja Walter is a part of the Omnivore’s Cookbook team and worked closely with Maggie to develop and test this recipe.
