Dragon Fruit Agar-agar Jelly Mooncake | Agar-agar Recipes | Mid Autumn Festival Mooncake | 火龙果燕菜果冻月饼

These Dragon Fruit Agar-agar Jelly Mooncakes are adapted from the traditional mooncakes, which are traditionally enjoyed during the Mid-Autumn Festival.

Jelly mooncake has become a popular trend – Classic mooncake is baked with pastry skin and filled with lotus paste or red bean paste. Making these classic pastry type mooncakes can be quite time consuming. So in recent years, jelly mooncake has become a popular trend.

Dragon Fruit Jelly taste delicious with a hint of coconut milk – You get the natural sweetness from the dragon fruit and it goes well with coconut milk. The texture of this jelly is tender and slightly springy.

EXPLANATION OF KEY INGREDIENTS

Agar-agar

Agar-agar is extracted from seaweed and is plant-based. It works like gelatin and is often used to make jelly, especially in Asia. Being plant based, it has become very popular amongst vegetarians or vegans as a substitute for gelatin. It is odorless and does not contribute much taste to the jelly, perhaps just a slight hint of fragrance.

Agar-agar comes in powder form or strips. You can substitute agar-agar powder with agar-agar strips if preferred.

Jelly Powder

For this recipe, I added Jelly Powder. Agar-agar texture is more stiff. Jelly powder makes the jelly more springy, clearer and more resilient (i.e. less likely to break easily)

The Instant Jelly Powder is made of Carageenan, Konjac Gum and Sodium Citrate (information provided by Bake With Yen staff). Konjac Gum is derived from Konjac plant. As for Carageenan, according to wikipedia “Carrageenans or carrageenins are a family of natural linear sulfated polysaccharides that are extracted from red edible seaweeds. Carrageenans are widely used in the food industry, for their gelling, thickening, and stabilizing properties.”

Dragon Fruit

Dragon fruits are has a soft texture, taste sweet in the middle part of the fruit and can be slightly sour on the outer part. Although it is mostly sweet, some can have a bland taste.

Tips for sweet dragon fruits:

(1) choose the round shape instead of oval shape

(2) choose bright red colour and not faded red

Basil Seeds

Basil Seeds adds a nice crunchy texture to the jelly. This is optional or you can replace with chia seeds.

IMPORTANT COOKING TIPS

• Agar-agar needs to be added to cold/room temperature liquid so that it does not clump up when cooking.
• Mix the agar-agar powder, jelly powder, caster sugar well before adding into the liquid to avoid clumps forming
• Mix the agar-agar powder, jelly powder, caster sugar and liquid well so that the jelly powder don’t clump up.
• Cook the jelly mixture on low heat and mix often especially at the beginning while cooking so that the jelly powder does not clump up when cooking
• The jelly liquid needs to be cooked to boiling point to activate the gelling properties
• Remove air bubbles from the liquid to get a smooth jelly texture

FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS

What is Agar-agar?

Agar-agar is extracted from seaweed and is plant-based. It works like gelatin and is often used to make jelly, especially in Asia. Being plant based, it has become very popular amongst vegetarians or vegans as a substitute for gelatin. It is odorless and does not contribute much taste to the jelly, perhaps just a slight hint of fragrance.

Agar-agar comes in powder form or strips. You can substitute agar-agar powder with agar-agar strips if preferred.

My jelly texture is too soft/firm, can I change the texture?

Yes, you can. The texture of the jelly is based on the ratio of water/liquid to agar-agar powder. So if you prefer softer texture, reduce the jelly powder or vice versa.

Why does my jelly not set?

Not enough agar-agar powder used. Different brand of jelly powder have different liquid to agar-agar powder ratio. Generally the ratio is 1g powder = 100ml liquid but may differ from brand to brand.

Agar-agar starts to activate its gelling properties when the liquid is heated above 80-90°C. So it is necessary to make sure the liquid is cooked until it is boiling. Then leave to cool to room temperature. It will start to solidify below 40°C.

What is the texture of agar-agar?

Agar-agar texture is more stiff compared to gelatin. Hence it is not so jiggly and springy.

HOW TO STORE ?

Unmould just before serving as the jelly tend to release water after unmoulding. They can be stored in the fridge for 2-3 days. They are enjoyed cold.

Troubleshooting – My jelly did not set, what can I do about it?

Step 1 – If it is your first time trying the recipe there is a test you can do. Before pouring into the mold, just scoop up a small portion of the liquid into a small saucer. Place it into the fridge to set. It should take about less than 5 minutes. Check the texture of the jelly. If you are happy with it, the proceed to pour into the mold. If it did not set, add more jelly powder (before adding the powder, dilute it in some room temperature water first), pour into the existing jelly liquid and heat up the liquid again. Redo the test and once you are happy with the texture, pour into the mould

Vice versa, if you find the texture of the jelly is too stiff/hard, add more water into the existing jelly liquid and heat up the liquid again. Redo the test and once you are happy with the texture, pour into the mould

Step 2 – If you have already poured into the mold and eventually find out that it did not set. Don’t throw it away! You can always fix it. Just simply place the liquid into a pot, add jelly powder, mix well and reheat again. Then repeat the above step 1 to test the jelly.