Snow Skin or Ping Peh Mooncakes.....

Snow Skin mooncakes are mooncakes that have an outer layer of soft gluey skin that are made from cooked glutinous rice flour called Koh Fun in Chinese. Mix with some icing sugar, shortening  and water it will turn into a snowy white, sweet and soft dough that is delicious to eat it on its own.

Making snow skin mooncake is actually the easiest among all the other types of mooncake as you need not baked the mooncake and it tastes as good as the baked ones. Snow skin mooncake must be refrigerated and only to be served when needed unlike the baked ones that can be kept in an airtight container for longer period.

There are a few variations in making the snow skin mooncakes, but the basic ingredients are  cooked glutinous rice flour and  shortening which can be bought in some grocery shops and baking goods supplier.

Some recipes use condensed milk instead of icing sugar to sweeten the dough. Flavorings and color can be added to enhance the taste according to your preference or to compliment your fillings. For example if your fillings is pandan lotus paste you can add pandan juice or essense to your skin or if your fillings is durian paste lotus you can add durian essence.

Last week I made a small batch of  chilled mooncakes in mini sizes ( in fact I made all my other moonckakes in mini sizes this year much to my delight) as it is easy to pop into the mouth and looks dainty.

For those who cannot get a recipe, I have one here to share....

Snow skin ingredients:- (makes about 24 mini mooncakes or 8 big ones)


230g Koh Fun
80g shortening
360g icing sugar- sifted
230 ml iced water
Coloring  of yr choice
A few drops of essense for flavoring 


Method:


Mix Koh Fun and icing sugar in a bowl. Rub the shortening into the Koh Fun and icing sugar til it resemble breadcrumbs. Add  iced water , coloring and flavoring if used and knead to form a ball of dough. 

Cover dough with  cling wrap and let it rest for 15 mins in the fridge before using. Prepare and weigh fillings proportionately.


Fillings:- about 400g lotus paste or red bean paste.

Weigh the fillings according to the size of your mould first. To do this first get a ball of fillings and press into yr mould and flatten. Take out and weigh that filling. If  that moulded fillings weigh 170g for example, used 70g for skin and 100g for fillings.  For my mini ones I use 20g for skin and 40g for fillings. It is up to your preference whether you like your skin thick or thin. Adjust it proportionately. 

Then place a ball of skin between 2 plastic sheets and roll it into circle. Wrap the skin over each ball of filling and press into the mould.  Place the mooncakes in container and chilled it in fridge until ready to be served.

Durian Jelly Mooncake......

I am just crazy in making mooncakes the past few days as I could not make any in 2010 because my mother in law had pass away end of August that year and according to Chinese custom no baking or any celebration is allowed.

Yesterday I made my third type of mooncake, that is the more popular ones made of jelly called jelly mooncake. The ingredients are simple but more effort and time comsuming in preparing the fillings and moulding it.

Due to popular demand of recipes, I like to share mine here:-



Ingredients for durian paste fillings:-( makes about 22 mini mooncakes like in my pics)

(A)
60 g mashed lotus pastes
200 ml thick coconut milk ( I use one box fr supermarket)
50 ml water
60 g blended durian pulp ( I blend with some coconut milk)
1  1/2 tsp agar agar powder
a pinch of salt

(B)
50 ml UHT milk
1/2 tsp durian essence
few drops of coloring of yr choice

To prepare durian fillings:-

Mix ingredients A together in a saucepan and bring to boil stirring continuously to break the lumps to a smooth paste. When it comes to a boil lower heat  and add ingredient B, stir for a minute til you see it begins to bubble, switch off heat and pour into a 16 inch square tin to cool down and set.

When fillings is set it is ready to be moulded according to the size of your plastic mould. Mine is mini ones so I use a round metal cookie cutter. Place aside the moulded fillings and prepare the jelly skin.

Ingredients for jelly skin:-  make another same amount for the toppings.

450 ml water
60 g sugar
2 pandan knotted
2  1/2 tsp agar agar powder

1 tbsp condensed milk
50 ml thick coconut milk
a few drops of coloring of yr choice


To prepate jelly skin:-


Bring the first four ingredients  to a boil. Lower heat and add in the condensed milk and coconut milk, stirring continuously til mixture start to bubble. turn off heat immediately. Add coloring if necessary and mix well.

Pour about 1/2 cm of jelly skin mixture into jelly moulds. Let it cool til almost 3/4 set, then place a piece of durian filling in the centre of mould.

Top up with jelly skin mixture and let it set completely before chilling in fridge for a further 30 mins. Then it is ready to unmould and keep refrigerated in a container til ready to serve.

Soft and Creamy Durian Mooncake....

Mooncake season is here again. So it is time to make some mooncakes. Mooncakes are no longer confined to the traditional bake ones with lotus pastes and  salted egg yolks. There are so many creations and flavors that have been churn up in the market of mooncake business.

I for one could not be left out experimenting in new flavors with our own Malaysian king of fruits, the ever popular love it or hate it durians. With durian season just ending, I still have some frozen ones in my freezer. So the idea of a durian mooncake pops up when I saw a recipe by Debbie Teoh from Flavors magazine.

It turns out really creamy  and  soft,  melting in your mouth. If you really like durians you would love this mooncake with its soft skin made with fresh pulp too. Here is the recipe to share.

 Durian Fillings: Makes about 12 to 15 mini mooncakes


2 1/2 tbsp green pea flour
2 tbsp custard powder
a pinch of salt
3 tbsp sugar
250ml thick coconut milk
2 egg yolks
200g fresh durian pulp


To prepare fillings:


Place all ingredients in a saucepan and mix. Bring mixture to boil, stirring continuously til mixture binds together. Remove from heat and cool before shaping into 40g balls. Keep refrigerated.

Making the durian fillings.................


 Snow skin ingredients:


150g cooked glutinous rice flour (koh fun)
50g icing sugar
pinch of salt
60g shortening
120g fresh durian pulp
50ml iced water


To prepare snow skin:


Sieve koh fun, icing sugar and salt into a mixing bowl. Work the shortening in with your fingers til mixtures resembles breadcrumbs. Add durian pulp and enough cold water to form a soft and pliable dough. 
Slightly flatten 20g of the dough and press a ball of filling into the centre and wrap the skin around the filling. 


Press into mooncake mould. I bought a plastic one that could mould so easily unlike the traditional wooden ones where I have to knock the sides against a chopping board or table to dislodge it. This plastic ones need only to press and open up to get a nice pattern. 

Pressing the balls into moulds......

Repeat with rest of the skin and fillings, then refrigerate the mooncakes until ready to serve.



Note: For those who would like to make mooncake jelly I have some recipes here and here.