INTRODUCTION

One of the main ingredients for Baked Traditional Mooncake (传统粤式月饼）  is golden syrup. The main reason of using golden syrup is to enhance the colour of the dough such that it is a nice brownish crust  without over baking the moon cake. In addition, it flavours the moon cake crust giving some faint caramelized smell and also slightly sweeten the crust.

Most Chinese food groups are basically using the same recipe of requiring to boil the water for 1.5-2 hours until the syrup is brownish. Sorry for my shallow knowledge, I can’t be convinced that there is such a need to waste gas to boil the syrup to get such a colour and I therefore resort to the western method of preparing golden syrup.. It took only 30 minutes to get the syrup done. In addition, to make the preparation faster, less water was being used.

If you asked me is it the same thing? I would say it is the same as what I have prepared in this illustration is the same as what I have bought in the store last year for the preparation of moon cake.. As per Wikipedia:

“Golden syrup or light treacle is a thick, amber-coloured form of inverted sugar syrup, made in the process of refining sugar cane or sugar beet juice into sugar, or by treatment of a sugar solution with acid. It is used in a variety of baking recipes and desserts. It has an appearance similar to honey and is often used as a substitute where honey is unavailable or prohibitively expensive.”

So besides using in moon cake, what recipe used golden syrup? As explained in the above Wiki definition, golden syrup can be used when honey is not available. In fact, any recipes that called for syrup like maple syrup, it can also be used though the taste may not be the same.

The recipes issued that used golden syrup are listed below: Kek Sarang Semut (2) –Malaysian Beehive Cake or Honeycomb Cake （蜂窝蛋糕）

Tony Roma’s BBQ Baby Ribs Copycat

Gingerbread Man Biscuits

ANZAC biscuits (澳纽燕麦饼干）

Gongzai Mooncake or Doll Mooncake (公仔月饼， 香化饼）

WHAT IS REQUIRED

Servings: About 1 big bottle of golden syrup

• 1 kg of castor sugar
• 500 grams or ml of the water.
• Half a lemon – cut into big pieces

STEPS OF PREPARATION

• Heat up a pot under medium to high heat, add about 100 ml of the castor sugar and 50 ml or grams of water , bring to boil. Let it simmer until the sugar caramelize and turn brownish. It will took about 10 minutes. Meanwhile, heat up the remaining 450 ml or grams of water in another pot , bring to boil.

• When the sugar caramelizes, add the hot boiling water gradually , stir until the sugar dissolves and all the water have added. Add in the remaining 900 grams of sugar.

• Add the lemon slices and bring to boil. Once it starts to boil, reduce to medium heat, Let it simmer for about 30 minutes. To test the doneness of the syrup, take a spoonful of the syrup, put it in a small bowl and let it cool completely under the fan. If the syrup is sticky enough like what is shown in the picture, it is considered done. Store in a sterilized container and the syrup should be able to keep for months to years.

Note:

• The addition of lemon is to prevent to recrystallization of sugar.

• If the syrup is too thick, add some water and boil again.

• When the syrup is hot, the viscosity is very high. However, when it cooled down, it will become very sticky. While handling syrup, be careful not to let the syrup touched your hands.

CONCLUSION

Last year, some overseas members are complaining not able to get hold of golden syrup. Even local bakery shop runs out of stock. In addition, it was sold at quite a high premium. Usually in the preparation of this type of syrup that can be kept for a long time, one will prepare 2-3 kilogram of castor sugar. It was then repackage and give it to friends.. May be you can consider doing this way too.. lastly, just to highlight that most recipes called for the use of honey can be substituted with golden syrup though the taste may slightly be different.

Hope you like the post today. Cheers and have a nice day.

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