Lotus seed paste is made from dried lotus seeds and traditionally considered a luxurious ingredient for mooncakes – especially the traditional baked variety. In recent times, ready made lotus pastes are available from baking supplies stores with a variety of flavours such as chocolate, green tea, pu’er, coffee that use lotus paste as a base. During the mid-autumn season, mooncakes can cost up to $20 per piece, but it’s so easy, economical and healthier to use our Thermomix® make our own as we can adjust the flavours, sweetness to suit our tastebuds and use special ingredients if there are specific dietary concerns. Here’s our tried and tested Thermomix® recipe to make your own Lotus Paste. Try it! You’ll love it.
Lotus seed paste (Recipe courtesy of Ginny Chan)
- 300g lotus seeds (skinless, stemless variety from most supermarkets in Singapore)
- 250g peanut oil
- 280g caster sugar
- 300g water
- 1 tbsp maltose
- 1 tbsp alkaline water
- Additional water for soaking and for boiling
- Boil water using kettle mode.
- Soak lotus seeds with alkaline water and water for 10min
- Rinse the lotus seeds and remove the stem inside the seeds
- Discard the liquid. Place the lotus seeds into the bowl. Blend for a few mins sp 1-8 with 300g of water until a very fine and smooth texture is achieved.
- Add sugar and 150g oil to cook 20min / 120 °C / speed 2.5
- Add 100g of oil and cook for another 20min /120°C /speed 2.5
- At the last 5min of cooking, add the maltose and increase speed to speed 3
- Transfer to an airtight container to store in the fridge or freeze for later use
Tips:
- This recipe uses dried white lotus seeds commonly found in Singaporean supermarkets. These seeds are already processed with skin removed and most stems removed
- After soaking with alkali, the seeds will be significantly softened, each seed should still be visually checked for stem removal
- Drain the seeds very dry and blend until a very smooth texture (see video below) prior to cooking
- Cook until the paste is waxy like in texture, glossy and there is no more residual white liquid/foam around the bowl
- Store in an air tight container with a cling over the paste to prevent moisture gathering and the paste hardening
- Store in the freeze for use later