中秋月饼制作 Making Mooncakes

慈济每年的月饼制做又来了！一个多月里，慈济人将在厨房内努力工作以确保大家都有美味的月饼过中秋。无论慈济的那项活动，师姑一定呼吁大家踊跃请购月饼。所有收益将进入我们的活动基金。

Tzu Chi annual mooncake session is here! For more than a month, volunteers will be hard at work in the kitchen ensuring that we got tasty mooncake for the coming Mid-Autumn Festival. Whatever Tzu Chi events, there will be appeals for mooncake appeals. All proceeds will go into our activities fund.

我一直认为，制做月饼只涉及厨房。真是大错特错，即使只是厨房也已经是大工程了。首先，需要量好面粉，再加入正确分量的麦芽糖和油。其次，慈济人会把面团搓均匀搓软。过后把面团分成小团，每团重量要一致。另一批慈济人接着把馅料包进面团里。这就到了最有趣的部分，师兄们开始把面团放进模子，敲敲打打，把面团打出月饼的形状来。

I always thought that making mooncake just involved the kitchen. How wrong I was. Even if only the kitchen was taken into account, a lot of work was involved. First, the flour has to be measured, with the correct input of sugar and oil. Next, volunteers will be beating the dough till they are all soft and even. This is followed by measuring the correct dough weight for each mooncake. Another set of volunteers will be wrapping the fillings inside the dough. Now come the most interesting part. Male volunteers who are stronger will place the dough into the mould and start hitting them into the correct shape.

现在月饼的形状已清晰可见。月饼表面上会擦上一层油，放进烤炉烘烤，周而复始地取出、擦油和放入。

The mooncake can now be distinctly recognized. They will be covered with layers of oil and placed inside the oven to be baked, taken out again for another layer of oil and back into the oven, in repetitive cycles.

新鲜出炉的月饼被放置在托盘上，送往有冷气的房间冷却，并在隔天包装。以过来人的身份而言，包装并不是件容易的事。因为我们都在处理食物，每位慈济人必须把头发和嘴包起，以及戴上手套和穿上围裙。一只手把月饼放入小纸盘，另一只手把月饼和小纸盘同时放入包装盒子。双手不能互换，以确保包装盒子不会有油渍。每粒月饼的方向一定要一致。此外，每盒中的四粒或两粒月饼必须确保有相同的深度，不能一粒烘得太深另一粒烘得过浅。最后烧焦或变形的月饼必须被淘汰。

The freshly baked mooncakes will be transported in trays to air-conditioned room to be cooled. They will be packed the next day. Packing is not an easy task, because I had first hand experience. As we are all handling food, every volunteer had their hair and mouth covered as well as having to wear gloves and apron. One hand will be handling the mooncake, placing it into its small paper tray. Another hand will be placing the mooncake and its small paper tray into the box. The 2 hands must be interchanged with each other to ensure that there will be no oil stains on the box. All mooncakes must be facing the same direction. Furthermore, we will have to ensure that the 4 or 2 mooncakes in each box are of similar shades of brown. Finally, we have to reject mooncakes that are burnt or deformed.


除了厨房还有哪些地方需要慈济人的参与？已有一组负责把月饼包装。另有一组负责把包装盒子组装好。再一组负责把放包装盒子的纸袋张组装好。大家分工合作，各持其职，以确保慈济的爱心月饼能如期完成。

Where else are our volunteers involved other than the kitchen? There are groups placing the mooncakes into the boxes as mentioned above. There are also the group forming the boxes from paper and another group making the paper bags for putting the boxes. Everybody put in their part to ensure that our mooncakes are presentable.


月饼从来就不是健康食品。但是我们的月饼没有加入防腐剂。因此月饼必须冷藏和只有一个月的保鲜期。

Mooncakes are never considered as healthy food. But our mooncakes have no preservatives. Hence they must be refrigerated and last only a month.


但是最终我们成功地和大家结了一段即美味又体面的月饼缘！

But, the end results are our tasty and presentable mooncakes!