Basic Snowskin Mooncake

Let's face the reality. Most of us are suckers for cute things. I can't remember how many times have I fell into buying beautifully coloured snowskin mooncakes with cute/elaborate imprints at a premium price, either to realize that it's just the common lotus/red bean paste inside or cannot taste the whatever flavours the paste is supposed to be. I had 2 supposedly alcoholic snowskin mooncakes from a 5 stars hotel last year that tastes nothing like alcohol or any flavour at all. It was so bad I couldn't tell one apart from the other! Meh.

I've heard many people say, "How difficult can snowskin mooncakes be? It's just Kou Fen, Icing Sugar, Shortening and water!". True, those are the 4 components to making the "snowskin" dough but it's not easy to get the proportion correct so that the resulting dough is not too stiff, not too sticky nor too oily. Fried rice is just rice with egg, why is it still so difficult to get it right?

I've gotten the following recipe from attending Mr. Richard Goh's Mooncake making class some few weeks ago. Not that the previous recipe I used wasn't good, just that Mr. Goh's recipe yield a softer and smoother dough.

Snowskin Mooncake Dough

Mixture A (Do NOT modify anything in this section especially sugar)

 200g     Confectioner's Sugar (Powdered or Icing Sugar)

 150g     Kou Fien (Fried Glutinous Rice Flour)
 100g     Shortening

Mixture B

 150g     Water, COLD

     4g     Pandan Paste (adjust accordingly to preference)

  Few drops of food colouring

*Can substitute with any other flavours as per desired. 

1. Using a paddle attachment, mix together Mixture A.

2. Add in Mixture B and stops when it becomes a soft dough (about 2 mins). Overbeating will result in a sticky dough. Cover with damp cloth or cling wrap, rest the dough for 10-30mins. Without resting, the dough will also be sticky and breaks easily.

3. Process the dough into required size and wrap around prepared filling. Dust the exterior and mooncake mould with some Kou Fien, press and unmould. Chill in refrigerator (if too hard, thaw slightly to room temperature before consumption).

Thoughts: You can pretty much make any flavour you want with any fillings you like. This season, I made a whole range of different flavoured snowskin to go with the different fillings. Like our all time favourite - Durian snowskin with pure 100% Durian flesh! Yums!

I am such a person that once I've tried a recipe that works, I will not actively seek nor try another recipe. When I want to make a new flavour, I simply substitute, trial and error. Sadly, this recipe is not universally good. Some flavours turn out to be slightly harder or chewier than the others. I suspect it's probably due to the consistency of the cold liquid add, i.e. if using chocolate, the liquid is thicker hence a harder/chewier snowskin.

One major disadvantage home bakers have is the common misconception that it is cheaper to bake at home. Almost always true. It is cheaper most of the time since there's no other overhead other than the ingredient cost. But people tend to forget there's also no economies of scale and we don't get ingredients from suppliers, often we get from retailers just like everyone else or even specialty shops! And contrary to popular beliefs, packaging does not comes cheap, especially not when they are available in packets of 5's or 10's. I'd love to find a cheap source for 8" or 9" cake boxes. Anyone want to hook me up? It'll definitely save me load of time & effort checking out various baking supplies specialty stores periodically and lugging them home.

Anyhow, I hope all home bakers can still somehow find the reason to bake at home and craft our food carefully with love! =)

All blog posts and photos are properties of WhatToBakeToday (unless otherwise stated). Unauthorized use and/or duplication of these contents, whole or part thereof, without express or written permission from this blog's author is strictly prohibited. Excerpts and links may be used, provided that full and clear credit is given to WhatToBakeToday with appropriate and specific direction to the original content.