Five-Nut Mooncakes

Day 164: "We interrupt our regularly scheduled 'Walk With the Naturalist' programming to bring you this feature on Five-Nut Mooncakes." As opposed to snowskin mooncakes which are a relatively recent development in Asian cuisine, baked mooncakes are the more traditional expression of the pastry. Often filled with sweetened red-bean paste or salted duck egg, there are other fillings which might have greater appeal to the uneducated Western palate. For my first experiment in making them, I have used a "five-nut" or "five-kernel" mix of walnuts, cashews, sunflower seeds, pumpkin seeds, and a combination of black and white sesame seeds in equal proportions. The filling is sweet and slightly salty, and can be altered to a savoury version with the addition of Sichuan or white pepper as desired. I used honey to sweeten the skins (some recipes call for invert sugar). Other than sneaking pinches of raw filling and raw dough, I have not done a taste-test because the cakes must age for several days in the refrigerator to soften the skins, but these promise to be utterly scrumptious and because they are long on high-protein nuts, could be almost a meal in themselves.