Mid Autumn Moon Festival — beauty and the butch

With the boys a bit older, I wanted to incorporate a fun cooking activity to showcase mooncakes for the Mid Autumn Moon Festival. Thankfully, my best friend who just so happens to also be a pastry chef was open to the idea of making mochi mooncakes! We figured that the kids (Kai, Cruz, and her daughter O) would enjoy playing with the mochi dough and stamping the designs while being able to lick their fingers and nibble the ingredients along the way. Edible playdough, fine motor skills & sugar? Who can say no to that!?

There are many online recipes for mochi. Laura decided to steam the mochi dough and section off small portions beforehand - which was so helpful for the short attention spans of toddlers and multitasking moms! For the filling, we decided to do matcha, black sesame, and sweetened red bean paste.

create a station for each mochi master aka: mochi smasher
silpat (silicone) mat
filling ready to go
mini cookie scoop for filling
generous cornstarch on the flat surface- if you think you have enough, add more
pre-portioned mochi dough balls ready to be flattened and filled by chubby fingers
have the kids pick a mochi dough ball
have them smash the dough into a pancake
proceed to lick fingers
help them load the cookie scoop with the filling of their choice and place into the center of the mochi pancake
carefully guide them to close up the mochi pancake into a ball
load up on more cornstarch
gently place into wooden mold OR place into position for the cookie press
whack the wooden mold to release the mochi mooncake OR have kids push down on the cookie press to emboss the design into the mochi skin
enjoy!