10 of the Best Mooncakes To Try This Mid-Autumn Festival

These mooncakes are the ubiquitous golden-brown square or rounded pastries encased in chewy dough and stamped with Chinese characters and intricate designs. The most popular fillings for Cantonese mooncakes include red or green beans, nuts, lotus seeds, or salted egg yolk—symbolic of the golden, round harvest moon. Younger generations often consider this version too dense and unhealthy; modern interpretations play with creative stuffings and lighter, flakier doughs.

Numerous regional mooncake varieties are found throughout China, including Suzhou-style mooncakes, a smaller cousin of the traditional mooncake. It’s made of a butter or lard pastry filled with juicy pork instead of red bean, salted egg yolk, or lotus paste. After cooking in giant cast iron pans, a red dot or simple red design of Chinese calligraphy typically tops it off, followed by a sprinkle of black sesame seeds.

These no-bake mooncakes with an outer layer made of glutinous rice flour have a similar consistency to mochi and offer a lighter alternative to traditional mooncakes. Also known as crystal or ice skin mooncakes, they were created in the 1960s in Hong Kong and are chilled to maintain their shape. And since the skin is naturally snow white, chefs often experiment with vivid shades before stamping snowskin mooncakes with intricate floral or calligraphy designs and filling with things such as custard, fruit, and matcha.

Insider tip: These mooncakes only take a couple of hours to make—perfect for last-minute celebrations.

Pine nuts and walnuts typically fill Northern China’s Beijing-style fan mao mooncakes. The legend is that this delicacy was popular in the Qing Dynasty, especially with Empress Dowager Cixi. To aptly evoke its flaky and thin white crust—stamped with Chinese lettering to finish—she named the mooncake “fan mao,” meaning “falling feather.” Making the 2-layer dough for fan mao is time consuming, but the result is a delicate delight.

The famous Cantonese-style mooncake is popular in China, but Indonesians also enjoy bakpia during the holiday. Also typical in the Philippines, this circular flat mooncake features a simple crust of flour, oil, and sugar. As traditional Chinese fillings used to be challenging to find in Indonesia, resourceful cooks began to use ingredients such as jackfruit, chocolate, cheese, purple yam, mung, and red bean. Interestingly, bakpia is enjoyed and gifted throughout the year, not just during the Mid-Autumn Festival—and it’s also cheaper than the pricier Cantonese mooncake.

This mooncake originated in Momoyama, Japan but can now be found all over Asia. It’s also known as a Japanese mooncake and was created as a healthier alternative to Cantonese mooncakes, using less sugar and fat. The crumbly crust—made from white bean paste and butter instead of flour and peanut oil—is often dyed vibrant shades, including multiple colors and ombre effects, before being stuffed with a contrasting filling.

Insider tip: You’ll find Momoyama skin mooncakes filled with traditional flavors but don’t skip more adventurous flavors such as cheese, rose, and pandan.

Taiwanese-style mooncakes look different from traditional Chinese mooncakes. This circular treat has a pale and flaky croissant-like dough stamped with a red dot or Chinese word to celebrate the holiday. Originating from Fujian, their simple appearance is deceiving, as these mooncakes are tricky to make and their crust actually features two types of dough. Both sweet and savory flavors are popular as fillings, including mung-bean paste, taro, salted egg yolk, and braised meats.

Another no-bake mooncake option is the jelly mooncake. Fruit, agar powder, and coconut milk come together to create the skin, while fruit, flan, or jelly fill the interior. Osmanthus or longan jelly can also make this mooncake’s exterior. These are the easiest and quickest moon cakes to make, as they only need to be set for about an hour to harden the jelly. Plus, they can be kept refrigerated and served cold.

The traditional Cantonese mooncake is common in Vietnam during the Mid-Autumn Festival, but in the Mekong Delta region, you may find the bánh pía instead. This style of mooncake is a Vietnamese and Chinese mashup with a pale, soft exterior that incorporates two types of dough and has both red Chinese and Vietnamese characters on top. The typical fillings apply, but you’ll also find playful ingredients such as durian, sweet watermelon, or jackfruit here.

First popularized by Häagen-Dazs in Hong Kong over twenty years ago, these mooncakes feature a snowskin, chocolate, or white chocolate coating around the filling. Meanwhile, the filling can consist of any ice cream under the sun, and it’s also considered kitschy to recreate the salted egg “moon” out of mango sherbet before surrounding it with another flavor of ice cream.