The Origin of Mooncake

Mooncake is an indispensable delicacy, traditionally eaten during the Chinese Mid-Autumn Festival during the gathering of family and friends.

Mooncake is a bakery product, consist of crust and the fillings. Mooncake crust is commonly made from wheat flour, golden syrup, lye water, and vegetable oil. Wheat flour, irregardless of it’s form, is refined carbohydrate, and contains gluten. One may say the organic, unbleached is healthier, but it is still refined carb and the gluten issue is still present. Golden syrup is also called inverted sugar syrup. It is amber in color. By using golden syrup, they are able to enhance the color of the dough to become a nice brownish crust. The taste profile is greatly enhanced besides the visual appeal, such as being tender and moist, much richer and creamy texture, deep and nice aroma. As good as it sounds, golden syrup only satisfy your taste bud,  it is still “sugar” in disguise, provides empty calories, and has no nutritional value whatsoever. Lye water, an alkaline solution, is used to regulate acidity in the dough making process. The chinese alkaline solution contains potassium carbonate and sodium bicarbonate. The usage of  lye water is able to enhance the dark golden crust color, and similar to golden syrup, lye water is able to enhance the taste and texture of the mooncake. Most of the vegetable oil that are high in polyunsaturated fatty acids, when exposed to the heat at baking temperature, will oxidized and results in harmful “oxidative oils/fats”.

That’s just the crust. Moving on to the fillings. Following are the traditional mooncake fillings: lotus seed paste, sweet bean paste (red beans, mung beans, black means), jujube paste, and five kernels. Irregardless of the types of fillings, a considerable amount of sugar is being used in the recipes either to achieve consistency of paste, or even thicker to hold the inner fillings together.

Introducing HEI Wellness Healthy Mooncake

At HEI Wellness, as we strive to provide as natural and as healthy food products to our loyal customers, coming up with a mooncake that we can sell at HEI Wellness is not easy task. As there are no prior “healthy mooncake” recipes to refer to, we have to begin from scratch, from the selections of all the ingredients, to baking temperature, and storage.

The aim is simple, HEI Wellness mooncake has to be suitable for individual who are on sugar-controlled diet, suffering from allergies, or anyone that wants a healthy mooncake.

Healthy Ingredients in HEI Wellness Healthy Mooncake

Isolated Soy Protein, at 92% protein content, a high quality, non-GMO plant protein that contains all the essential amino acids that our body needs.  Besides, it has a PDCAAS score of 1, the highest score in the test. PDCAAS is a protein evaluation method newly adopted by FAO / WHO, which is based on preschool children’s essential amino acid requirement, taking into consideration digestibility and absorbability.

Sweet potatoes and pumpkins are natural food jam-packed with health benefits. Both are rich in healthy complex carbohydrate, dietary fiber, and micronutrients such as beta-carotene (a powerful antioxidant), other vitamins and minerals.

The mixed berries (black currant, elderberry, chokeberry, cranberry), green tea, and alkaline cocoa, are all natural, real food, not chemical flavouring. They are among the healthiest foods, the berries packed with antioxidants called anthocyanins, are also beneficial for brain health and memory. Green tea, rich in polyphenols and antioxidants, able to protect cells and molecules by reducing  harmful free radical. Alkaline cocoa is rich in flavanols. A study done by Prof. Norman Hollenberg from Harvard Medical School suggests that flavanols from cocoa can reduce the risk of major health problems such as stroke and heart failure.

Carotino oil is red palm oil, rich in beta-carotine, vitamin E, and Co-enzyme Q10. These nutrients are very beneficial for heart health. Besides, as red palm oil contains less polyunsaturated fatty acids compared to the typical vegetable oil, it is more stable to lipid oxidation than vegetable oils under heat.

With careful selections of natural ingredients, HEI Wellness mooncakes are nutritious, low in refine sugar, Gluten-Free, Casein-Free, Flour-Free, Preservative-Free, No-Transfat, No-Hydrogenated fat, Colouring & Flavouring-Free!

HEI Wellness mooncake is very suitable for individuals that are on sugar-controlled diet, such as diabetic, chronic disease sufferers, weight-watchers; gluten/casein intolerance individuals such as coeliac disease sufferers; or any individuals that are health conscious and anti-aging practitioners.

*HEI Wellness mooncake contains soy, nuts, and egg.