What's
New
Snowskin Mooncakes
With about 2 weeks away to the mid-autumn festival (中秋节), this is now the perfect time to make your own mooncakes. Snowskin mooncakes (冰皮月饼) are my favourite over the baked mooncakes, and they are also easier to make – there is no baking involved, and all you have to do is to make the moon cake skin and wrap them around the (ready made!) lotus filling. They are also very pretty to look at especially if you make all kinds of colours.
See Also:
My family love these cute mini snowskin mooncakes, and we have been enjoying them for breakfast or tea break the past few days.
Here are some of the ingredients and tools you will need to make moon cakes.
(A) ready made mooncake filling (lotus paste).
(B) kaofen (fried/cooked glutinous rice flour)
(C) shortening
(D) mini mooncake moulds.You can get them from Phoon Huat (PH) or Kwong Cheong Thye (KCT); KCT carries filling paste in minimum 500 grams pack (more information on my instagram) so it is my preferred place to buy, while PH sells in minimum 1kg pack.
In a large bowl, measure and add sifted kaofen and icing sugar. Rub shortening into the flour mixture with your fingertips.
Add iced water and combine with a spatula until a soft dough is formed.
Divide the dough depending on the number of different colours you intend to make. Add food colouring, a few drops at a time, to each portion and knead until the colour is well distributed. You can add a few drops of ice water to help the colour to distribute evenly, if required.
Note: I divided my dough into five equal portions. The original colour of the dough is white. I am using red dye for pink, pandan paste for green, yellow and red + yellow for orange.
Divide dough into 15 grams pieces.
Tip: If there are odd leftover dough left, combine and weigh them into 15 grams pieces to make multi-colour snowskin mooncakes.
Divide the filling paste into 25 grams pieces. If desired, add 1 tsp of melon seeds to each serving of filling paste. Shape each dough into a ball. Make the same number of filling balls accordingly to the number of 15 grams mooncake dough you have.
Add appropriate amount of kaofen to each portion of dough, a little at a time, and knead until it is no longer sticky. Do not over-knead. Flatten the dough to a small circle either by hand or a rolling pin.
Place the lotus paste ball in the center of the mooncake skin. Hold the skin in one palm, use your other hand to to close the skin over the lotus paste. When this is done, shape mooncake into a ball by gently rolling it in both palms. Remember to dust your work surface, hands and rolling pin with flour to prevent sticking.
Dust the mooncake ball in flour. Press it firmly into the mooncake mould. Turn the mould over and give it a few taps to loosen the mooncake. Repeat until the dough is used up.
Store snowskin mooncakes in airtight containers and chill in fridge. Serve cold.
Hi, is it a must to use shortening? Can I substitute it to something else?
Some recipes substitute shortening with olive oil, but I have not tried it myself so I can’t say for sure if the substitution will work.
The multi-colored ones are interesting. :) Still all the colors are of pretty pastel shades/hue. Nice
Oh! These are so cute, I love the pastel colors…I love the tutorial!
Hope you are having a great week :D
Hi Wiffy,
Where to get the kaofen, ready lotus paste and shortening? What is shortening?
shortening: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shortening
Refer to the step by step photo on page 1. The first para lists the places to get the ingredients in SG.
Hi wiffy,
The food colourings will determine the snow skin taste? For example, I want to make a pandan one, so if I go phoon huat, which colouring should I buy?
no the colour of skin have no taste to me. If you want pandan taste, you need to buy pandan filling.
Thks Wiffy! By the way, how much icing sugar do you use?
The recipe on page two lists the ingredients and measurements, do check it out.
Thanks for sharing! Qn: Store up to a week before consuming or must consume within a week?
consume within a week.
Hi Wiffy,
I have forgotten to buy kaofen. Can I replace it with some other flour or do away with it? Thanks.
I meant I already bought the snow skin premix , do I still need kaofen or some other flour to dust the pin , working top, dough?
are you using my recipe? If using snow skin premix, just follow the instructions on the packaging.
What lovely mooncakes! The ones I have tried in the past were not so vibrant!
Nice and soft snow skin, just like those sold outside. I can eat more of these at one go than the baked ones.