Moon Cakes, not Moon Pies

To go along with our World Cultures studies (and follow our families journey in Asia), we have moved from Mongolia to China. Today we learned about and celebrated the Mid-Autumn Festival, or Moon Festival. (Yes, we are a few days off, but that happens in homeschooling households. Better late than never). The Moon festival is celebrated on the 15th day of the 8th lunar month. This year that date was September 25th, so we are only 4 days behind.
To celebrate we made our own mooncakes. There was a little confusion when we started to cook. B had confused Moon Pies with Moon Cakes. He thought we were making those chocolate covered treats. But in the end, he did try the moon cakes. And although they were not what he expected, I was proud of him for trying something new. And then shared those moon cakes with Aunt Sissy and her family. Here is our moon cake experience:
Recipe we used:
Water Dough
2 c. flour
5 T butter
10 T water
1/4 tsp salt
Flake Dough
1 c. flour
5 T butter

Filling: Sweet Red Bean Pasta (Jam)

Make each dough and divide into 20 balls (20 balls of each dough). Wrap one ball of flake dough inside a ball of water dough. Roll, fold into 3rds, roll, fold into 3rds, roll in to 3 inch circle. Put bean paste in center and fold shut (different shapes are fine). Bake 20 minutes in a 350 degree oven.
Sweet Bean Paste
Our wrapped moon cakes
Store bought moon cakes (lotus filled) - we preferred the ones we made.
Extra moon cakes to share. We shared both our home made and store bought cakes.

We enjoyed our Moon Cake festival celebration! Now I just need to find a reason to celebrate with Moon Pies :)