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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.
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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.
wow! I love your mooncakes a lot!
When you say shortening, it can be anything, right? Vegetable shortening or Crisco will work just as well, right?
Hi Mintea. I may not know how to make snow skin, but I do know the answer to your question. In most recipes, any kind of fat can be used. Shortening, lard, butter, margarine, are basically all interchangeable. I would recommend Crisco because my mom always said it was the best and I have always used it. I have also seen other moon cake recipes that called for Crisco. Hope you have better luck than me. =)
Thanks Laura. Mintea, vegetable or Crisco are great for this recipe. No butter, lard or margarine though, as the flavour may be too strong for the mooncakes.
:( I just tried to make these and something went terribly wrong with my dough. It’s more like cake batter. I tried adding a little more flour and sugar and it still isn’t thick enough. The only thing I can think of is that I didn’t convert the measurements correctly. Can you tell me what the correct grams-to-cups conversion is? I will have to try to find something I can make with moon skin batter I guess. Maybe I can bake it? Or fry it? LOL How about deep fried moon cakes?
Hi Laura, for baked mooncakes you can refer to this recipe: https://noobcook.com/traditional-baked-mooncakes/
I used a digital weighing scale as it is most precise. The US and UK cup measurement differs. You can refer to http://allrecipes.com/howto/recipe-conversion-basics/ & http://allrecipes.com/HowTo/Cup-to-Gram-Conversions/Detail.aspx for the conversions
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Hi Noobcook
I’ve tried your recipe and the mooncake taste great! But I have a query. When I leave it in an container in the fridge, I noticed that the mooncake skin starts to show crack lines. May you advise why? Thanks..
Reduce the flour used when moulding the mooncake to see if this helps. Also, the fridge where the containers are placed may be a little too cold, try a different spot or container.
Hi !
I tried making the snowskin but it turned out to be very soft and sticky. Was it too much shortening or too much water?
If you had followed the proportions to a T, add appropriate amount of kaofen to each portion of dough, a little at a time, and knead until it is no longer sticky.
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Hi, i would like to know where can buy the mooncake skin pastel coloring ? Or any coloring can be use for mooncake skin?