Put the warm water in a small bowl, and add in the instant yeast and a pinch of sugar. Give it a quick stir and leave it for 5 minutes to bubble and activate. In a stand mixer with a paddle attachment, combine the flour, caster sugar, salt, eggs, milk, and the activated yeast and water. Mix this on medium speed for 8-10 minutes, occasionally scraping the dough off the sides of the bowl. Add in the soft butter and mix for a further 5 minutes. The dough will be pretty sticky, which is a good thing! But if large chunks of dough still sticks to the sides, you can add in a tablespoon or two of flour to make handling the dough easier.

Cover the mixer bowl with a cloth or plastic wrap, and leave it to proof until it doubles in size. (This takes around 1 hour in a temperate country like Malaysia, but might take closer to 90 minutes in cooler climates.) After it proofs, punch down the dough (or mix it in the mixer on medium speed for 10 seconds), and transfer it to a well-floured bowl or container. Cover with a cloth to proof for 60-90 minutes, until it doubles in size, or if not making immediately, keep it in the refrigerator overnight for up to 18 hours.

When you’re ready, divide the dough into 12 pieces (I made them 50g each), dust them with a little flour and shape them into balls. Then, place them onto a lined baking sheet, cover with a cloth, and let it proof until it doubles in size, which should take 60-90 minutes.

While waiting for the doughnuts to proof, start on the fillings! To make the lotus paste filling, beat the lotus paste in a mixer with the paddle attachment until smooth. Then add in the milk and mix for a further 1-2 minutes. The filling should have a loose, peanut-butter like consistency. You can add more milk if it is still a little stiff. When it comes to consistency, transfer it into a piping bag. (A sturdy plastic bag will do fine if you don’t have a piping bag.)

For the salted egg sauce, steam the salted egg yolks for 15 minutes, then remove it from the steamer, mash it up with a fork, and transfer it to a saucepan. Add the butter to the saucepan, and heat on medium heat until the egg yolk combines with the butter and it starts to boil. Let it bubble for 1 minute, and then add in the cream, sugar, and salt. Bring this to a boil, then remove from the heat. If you want a super smooth sauce, pass it through a sieve. Place this in a piping bag.

When the dough is ready, prepare a pot of oil at least 4 inches deep and heat it up to 180°C. Gently pick up each piece of dough and slide it into the oil. The doughnut fries best when it has plenty of space to move around; So don’t overcrowd the pot. (I could fit a maximum of 3 in my wok.) Fry the doughnut for 1 minute, then flip it and fry for a further 1 minute, or until both sides are nice and brown. Remove it from the oil and leave it on a wire rack to cool for 5 minutes.

Using a piping tip or a skewer, poke a hole, roughly 5mm wide, into the side of the doughnut. Then pipe in the salted egg yolk sauce, and then pipe in the lotus paste.

Eat moon doughnuts while contemplating how apt this would’ve been so apt for Mooncake Festival two weeks ago. Ah well, there’s always next year!