Pumpkin Pie Mooncakes Recipe (2021 Updated Recipe)

My pumpkin pie mooncakes recipe combines two of my favourite things about autumn: the mid-autumn mooncake festival, and pumpkin pie EVERYTHING.

Longtime followers of this blog might remember me making pumpkin pie mooncakes way back in 2015. But the annoying thing about the recipe was that the pastry recipe made enough for nine balls of pastry, while the filling was enough for eight... leaving one ball of pastry left over.

This time, I've finally managed to tweak the recipe so that the pastry matches the eight portions of filling and fits the mini mooncake moulds perfectly. I'll keep the previous post up as it also includes my recipe for sweet lotus paste, and I'll signpost to this new one on it. I also kind of like seeing all the stuff I've done in the past.

You can also see how I made these with my YouTube video:

(Makes eight mini mooncakes).

Ingredients for Filling:

1 tbsp cornflour
50g caster sugar
1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
1/4 tsp ground nutmeg
1/4 tsp ground ginger
200g pumpkin purée (about half a can)
1 egg

Ingredients for Pastry:

150g plain flour
35ml vegetable oil
90ml golden syrup
A sprinkling of extra flour (for dusting)

Egg Wash for Glazing:

1 egg
A splash of milk

Method:

1. Stir the dry ingredients together in a bowl, and then stir in the pumpkin purée and egg until smooth.

2. Scrape the mixture into a small saucepan and cook on a low to medium heat, stirring constantly, until very thick like bean paste.

3. Transfer the mixture into a bowl, cover with clingfilm to stop a skin from forming, and leave to cool completely to room temperature.

4. Once cool, split into eight equal parts and roll into balls with your hands. Set aside on a plate.

5. Make the pastry by stirring all the ingredients (apart from the extra flour) together in a bowl until it forms a smooth dough. Just like with the pumpkin filling, divide into eight parts and roll into balls.

6. Preheat the oven to 180°C and line a baking tray with nonstick baking paper.

7. To make a mooncake, flatten out a ball of pastry into a disc, pinching the edges so they're a bit thinner. Pop a ball of pumpkin filling in the centre of the disc and close the pastry up around it, rolling it back into a ball shape. Sprinkle the extra flour onto your worksurface and roll the filled ball around in it, giving it a tap to shake off the excess flour, Press it into a mini mooncake mould and pop it out onto your tray.

8. Repeat with the rest of the pastry and pumpkin pie filling balls until you have eight mooncakes, and bake for 10 minutes.

9. While the mooncakes are baking, whisk the egg and milk together in a small bowl. Once 10 minutes are up, take the mooncakes out of the oven, brush them lightly with the glaze, and pop back in the oven for a final 10 minutes.

10. Cool the mooncakes completely on a wire rack before placing them in containers (e.g. plastic tubs), sealing them and placing them in the fridge for 1–2 days to create the soft, glossy finish. Let the mooncakes come back up to room temperature before eating.

Enjoy, and have fun.