This year’s mooncake selection sees the salted egg yolk craze coming full circle

SINGAPORE — Salted egg yolk has long been part of the perennial confection that is the baked mooncake. It may not have sparked the trendy obsession back then, but the salted egg yolk is certainly enjoying a renewed fervour, finding its way into nearly everything we love to eat, from deep-fried chicken wings to even a rainbow cake.

You could say our love for these sinfully savoury centres has come full circle.

This year, Bakerzin decided to revisit the salted egg custard mooncake with a limited offering of 1,000 boxes of debut interpretation. It received more than 300 orders in the first week of its launch in August, and, to date, has sold approximately 70 per cent of its Egg Custard Mooncakes, shared a spokesperson. “It is a match made in heaven,” he said of its delicious savoury-sweet pairing. “While the demand for salted egg yolk dishes is on the rise, we decided to go a step further by innovating and creating a new dimension to the flavour,” he continued. And unlike the traditional mooncakes, the key ingredient in its baked skin is butter, as opposed to vegetable oil.

Also making its debut this year is The Ritz-Carlton, Millenia Singapore’s Mini Custard Lava with Vanilla mooncake, which incorporates another spirited food trend — the molten centre. It, too, is inspired by the immense popularity of salted egg yolk pastries locally, said Massimo Pasquarelli, the hotel’s executive chef, who observed how the salted egg yolk continues to be a popular ingredient.

He added: “In celebration of the Mid-Autumn Festival this year, we wanted to cater to both Asian and Western palates, which was why we sought to create a custard-based mooncake filling with a tinge of salted egg yolk.” The main ingredients used to make the filling include custard, salted egg yolk and vanilla, which Pasquarelli pointed out come together to create a well-balanced sweet and savoury flavour.

“It took the team about four months of research and development to achieve the texture and flavour Pasquarelli had envisioned. The custard cream filling, he expounded, is liquescent even at room temperature, but guests who prefer their pastries warm, can heat up the mooncake to elicit the smooth, molten texture of the filling. “The heat also intensifies the aroma and flavour of the vanilla.”

UNEXPECTED COMPLEMENTS

This year’s selection of baked mooncakes also boasts some rather inspired flavour pairings. While it is not the first time green tea has starred in the perennial showcase, Peony Jade’s spin boasts a rare combination: A molten heart of green tea with salted egg yolk that oozes, even at room temperature. The pure Japanese matcha Peony Jade uses carries a slight bitter taste, which balances the salted egg yolk’s abundantly flavoursome notes to create a unique blend of distinct flavours.

A local baker who is intimately familiar with innovative ways to showcase the conspicuous rewards of salted egg yolk in a dessert is Old Seng Choong founder Daniel Tay. He was the possibly the first to feature a salted egg yolk paste in his mooncake creations more than 10 years ago, when he was with Bakerzin. Tay decided to make a paste of the egg yolk, blended with a few other secret ingredients, which he could layer with a variety of traditional fillings.

This way, whichever way you slice it, each bite will have a balance showing of ingredients. He and his team had experimented for several months before coming up with a recipe that not only did the egg yolk justice but also complemented the premium white lotus paste it was encased with.

“Now we are able to apply this paste to different mooncakes, such as the Red Bean and Custard Mooncake, with amazing results,” he said. One of seven baked mooncakes that make up Old Seng Choong’s inaugural line-up, this mooncake pairs more conventional fillings such as pine nuts and a custard egg yolk blend with contrasting alternatives such as citrus peel.

“Red bean paste soup is a dessert that you can find in Southern China and I love the idea of having a red bean paste mooncake but with an additional twist — adding tangerine zest to lift the flavour of the paste and add another (flavour) dimension.”

Interestingly, not all of these novel ideas are driven by the hype. In fact, Thye Moh Chan head chef Wilson Tan feels that the renewed interest in salted egg yolk mooncakes comes from a growing understanding of traditional culture.

“With the traditional Teochew ‘piah’, an integral part of the Teochews’ culture and love for pastries, we have retained the signature, authentic taste and recipe from over 70 years ago,” he said, citing delightfully flaky examples such as its bestselling salty tau sar with salted egg yolk, and yuan yang with salted egg yolk mooncakes. The latter reaffirms the sweet-savoury appeal with its combination of spicy pork floss, salted egg yolk and a savoury mung bean paste. Also making a return after a successful debut last year is the limited edition yam with salted egg yolk.

So have your fill, we say, because you never know what new amalgamations the new moon will bring.