How-to-Marinate Egg Yolks for Mooncake

It's my first attempt learning how to handle salted egg yolks. I'm silly enough to say this *laugh if you want to, I know I'm not the only one on Earth not knowing this*

"how to get the yolk out from a raw egg?" 

I didn't know that the egg yolks are already hardened when they are in the egg shell. So, basically what you need to do is just crack the egg and get the yolk out. = = " Forgive me for my lack-of-knowledge towards salted eggs. I only know how to eat the hard boiled salted egg.

This is a short quick post on how to handle egg yolks for mooncake making.

How-to-Marinate Egg Yolks for Mooncake 

Method referred from Samantha Needs Vacation 

Forgive the middle "burst" egg yolk.

I don't want to waste it. 

INGREDIENTS 

• Cooking wine (Shao Xing Wine and DIY raisin wine for example) 

Rum can be used but don't put too much - the taste and smell are too strong 

• Sesame oil 
• Salted eggs 

Take only the egg yolks. Egg whites can be used to cook dishes like steam egg with minced meat. 

STEPS

1. Clean the salted eggs from the dirty black sand with water. 
2. Get the egg yolk out from the egg shell and place egg white in another bowl. Don't mix.
3. Wash the egg yolks with clean water. 
4. Wipe dry the egg yolks with kitchen paper (to avoid the egg yolks from rotting quickly).  
5. Drizzle cooking wine and sesame oil on top of the egg yolks. 
6. Put on the lid on the container and chill it overnight before using it to make mooncake (don't keep them marinated more than 3 days). 
7. In the mid of marinating, flip over the egg yolks once to ensure the entire egg yolk is marinated well. 
8. Use a kitchen paper to wipe off the excess marinated sauce. 
9. Bake on greased surface/mat. 
10. If you're making small mooncake - you need to pre-bake the egg yolks at approximately 120 degree Celius for 5 - 7 minutes. (I used my bread toaster; so I baked it on and off as the heating bar is too near to the tray). 
11. If you're making huge mooncake, you don't need to pre-bake as the filing is hot enough to heat the egg yolk until it is fully cooked. 

REMINDERS

• Do not over bake the egg yolks otherwise they will turn hard and cooked (well, just like hard boiled slated egg yolk). You'll still bake it again with the mooncake skin and filing. Therefore, don't overbake the egg yolk for the best taste. 
• Do not bake the egg yolks at a high temperature otherwise the oil will leak out from the egg yolk. That's seriously not what you want - they are expensive to waste.
• You can use the excess marinated sauce in marinating other meat or dishes. Don't waste. 
• I usually slice the egg yolk into half when it is cooled for a while after baked. 

While marinating - 

I think I put too much. 

Chinese Version 

蛋黄处理方式——

买回来的咸蛋，用水洗掉黑黑的东西。然后，拨开来，只取蛋黄，蛋白可做菜（蒸肉+蛋）。 蛋黄用清水洗干净后，用厨房纸巾抹干（以防快发霉）。 抹干了的蛋黄，放在一个容器内，用绍兴酒+麻油淋在蛋黄上。装进冰箱冷藏过夜（听说最长时间是3天；不要超过。腌制隔夜，第二天就可以拿来用了。但是这次，我很忙。所以，腌制了1天多）。 腌制期间，需要翻蛋黄，然上下层，整粒蛋黄都有沾到腌料。

要用的时候，拿厨房纸巾抹干剩余的腌料。多余的腌料（能做菜肴加料/腌制肉/什么都好吧，反正就是精华）。 放在烤布（不粘的烤盘/烤纸），烤大约120度5-6分钟。切忌，不要烤过头。也不要烤到出油。

经过本人的个人经验，我认为，是温度过高的时候，就会烤到出油。然后烤太久，就会变得熟硬的蛋黄，再拿来做月饼就不太理想，因为还会再被“烤”多一次，蛋黄因此会变得很硬了。

温度与时间只是供参考。我没有用烤炉。可是我用了我家的MINI面包烤箱（BREAD TOASTER）。因为靠近热棒，所以我都是烤一下，关火一下；烤一下，关火一下，给它焖着，烤着。大家请记得留意自己烤的蛋黄，不要烤坏了，浪费心痛就惨了。不便宜啊——————

个人经历来说，烤好了的蛋黄，我没有马上切半。我会等它冷了一会儿，再切。因为，理由是什么，我只是想要让风给吹蛋黄干一点，呵呵，不懂有没有根据。

之后呢，如果好奇为什么要腌制蛋黄——因为有些人都不腌制——理由是因为蛋黄带有蛋腥臭味——本人觉得还是腌制比较好。虽然有些人认为没差。

原谱是说，如果做大粒的月饼，就不必预先烤蛋黄。内陷会焖熟蛋黄。如果做小粒的，就要烤。