2 kinds of lotus pastes?

---2 kinds of lotus pastes:---
---Sept 19 is the mid-autumn festival when the moon appears in the sky as full moon.In the moon festival we,ve the moon cake to celebrate. The cake is a kind of cookies with fillings of sugar,fat, sesame, walnut, lotus seeds, the yolk of preserved eggs, ham, dried other precious materials.
The difference between white lotus paste and just lotus paste is the difference t in colour of the lotus seed thick paste puree'.
Although both have the same touch of egg-yolk inside,the white lotus paste costs 155,while the just lotus paste costs 151 and is the more favourite popular styles as you sought after.
This is the answer in English.

2013-08-08 18:05:35 補充：
For the yellow and white lotus pastes are made up of same constituent parts with different in cooking time.For yellow lotus paste, the longer cooking time, the caramelize of a hard sticky burnt coloured flavour formed. For the white lotus paste, the time control best at a light brownish-white colour

Three excerpts from Internet:

1.“蓮蓉有赤蓮蓉和白蓮蓉之分，蓮子的衣本身帶有紅色的，久煮之後顏色會滲入蓮子之中，因此形成赤色，至於白蓮 蓉的做法，是將蓮子稍煮，即將蓮衣脫去，挖空中心部分（蓮心也是較深色的部分），用來做白蓮蓉。以前蓮蓉的色澤比較深，有時師傅甚至會將糖煮焦一點，令顏 色更深，但現在很多人都喜歡白蓮蓉”

2. “黃蓮蓉白蓮蓉之分別
月餅的白蓮蓉和黃蓮蓉都是由蓮子製做, 與所用的糖無關. 分別是:-
白蓮蓉 ~ 用無‘依’蓮子製, 黃蓮蓉 ~ 用有‘依’蓮子製”

3.“現時煮蓮蓉的方法是以猛火炒香砂糖變黃後，再加入蓮蓉，因此炒出來蓮蓉會變深啡色。而白蓮蓉則少了炒砂糖的步驟，便直接將砂糖及蓮蓉一同落鑊炒，因此色澤只會略帶淡黃
此外，蓮蓉還有金銀之分，金蓮蓉即黃蓮蓉，而銀蓮蓉則是白蓮蓉。要煮出上好的白蓮蓉，同樣需要原粒的湘蓮，但須下更多工夫.單是沖洗蓮子就要多洗十來次，將 蓮子衣脫個精光，免留有啡色的痕跡。落鑊罔，也須改以細火慢煮約三小時才成。若貪快以大火來炒，但顏色就變深了.白蓮蓉的顏色與香味都較黃蓮蓉清淡，但質 感同樣柔潤”


To summarize briefly in English:

Lotus seed has a layer of membrane not much unlike peanut except that it clings closely with the seed. In the processing and production of white lotus seed paste, the removal of the membrane (蓮子衣) and germ of lotus (蓮子心) results in pure white lotus seed. This tedious long process involves lots of manual work, such as repeatedly washing the lotus seeds with water several times. Some businesspeople (unscrupulous or not?) use the fast-track procedure by bleaching the lotus seeds with chemicals (hydrogen peroxide or sodium hydroxide). The dried seeds are stewed in water until soft and then mashed into a fine paste. The paste is then watered down to a thin slurry and passed through a sieve and into cheesecloth, with which it is squeezed dry. This produces a fine crumbly paste, which is then mixed with sugar or other sweeteners and often oil to produce a smooth sweet paste. The normal lotus paste (黃蓮蓉) requires one extra procedure by dry cooking the sweetened paste over heat with caramelized sugar and vegetable oil. This produces a lotus paste that is tan in colour. Lotus seed paste is used as a filling for mooncake.

In conclusion, white lotus seed mooncake is more expensive than the other one because of the extra work in removing the membrane of lotus seed. The darker coloured lotus seed paste has a deeper taste (~ sweeter) and also has a higher calorific value. Now the 白蓮蓉月餅 seems to be more popular in Hong Kong.




2013-08-12 02:53:39 補充：
Comment:

Because of health concern, the government has legislated to control the use of chemicals on food products. It remains to be seen whether the companies are willing to put health of the consumers before the profit.

I may use the wrong terminology. 蓮子衣 = membrane, shell or skin ?

黃蓮蓉與白蓮蓉的主要成份是一樣
只是加溫的時間不同：
黃蓮蓉─加溫時間比較長，深色是由於糖被燒焦後之色素，越深焦化程度越高
白蓮蓉─時間要控制得很好，即糖還未出現焦化前停止加溫！