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.

Tang Yuen 2010.......

Yummilicious Tang Yuen with black sesame fillings..........

Tang Yuen ready to be serve in sugar syrup......

The Tang Yuen floats up when cooked............

I finally made my tang yuen or glutinous rice balls this year after my niece Lena bought a packet of the glutinous rice flour for me. Today, my son H help me knead the dough and fill the balls with peanut and black sesame fillings. It is such a tedious job filling the tiny balls with fillings and its good if there are more helpers but I have only one son who can cook. It is worth all the hard work if you can bite into the soft balls and taste the delicious fillings melting in your mouth. Like to share the recipe here.

Son H wrapping up the dough with black sesame seeds fillings.....

Peanuts fillings: Blend peanuts and rock sugar til fine

200gs peanuts- roasted n skinned

150g rock sugar

Black sesame fillings:

100g black sesame- washed, drained and toasted in pan then blend til fine

50g soft brown sugar

50g butter

Syrup: Bring all ingredients to boil til sugar dissolved

2 litres water

200g rock sugar

4 pandan leaves knotted

Dough:

400g glutinous rice flour

2 tbsp wheatstarch flour(Teen Mien Fen)

200 ml hotwater

200 ml cold water

Put glutinous rice flour in a bowl. Add hot water and stir with a wooden spoon to mix. Then slowly add cold water to knead into a smooth dough. Divide dough into 3 portions to add the desired color. Then pinch off a small portion of dough and roll between palms into rounded balls. Flatten into thin disk and wrap around 1 tsp of filling and roll into a rounded ball. Repeat with the rest of the dough.

To cook the rice balls, boil water in a pot or wok. Drop in glutinous rice balls and cook until rice balls float up. Dish up with a perforated ladle and drop into a bowl of ice cold water for 5 minutes.

Serve it with prepared syrup water. It can be serve hot or cold.

Happy Winter Soltice Festival 2009...

This morning I just realised it is Tang Yuen day again. I have been busy the last few days and I forgot to buy the ingredients to make my tang yuen (glutinous rice flour dumplings). I wanted to make some as I had miss making it last year. So off I went to Tesco and to my disappointment there were no glutinous flour and pandan leaves anymore in the big supermarket. Finally I decided to buy the ready made frozen ones which were just as nice with fillings of red beans, peanuts and my favorite black sesame. All I need is cook some syrup with rock sugar with a few slices of ginger and add in some pandan essence. I grind some glutinous rice and make some colored balls for added color but it is a bit hard.

Cooked glutinous rice dumplings......

Red bean fillings.........

Peanut fillings........

Sesame fillings.............

Dearest Santa........

As I step foot on Sunway Pyramid shopping complex ( my very first outing after weeks of confinement ) few days ago, I could hear the sweet sound of Jingle bells ringing in my ears. I could feel the joy and spirit of Christmas is everywhere. Mostly every shop was decorated with a Christmas tree to welcome this season of love and joy. Eventhough I do not celebrate Christmas I could not help feeling............

Christmas to me is the joy of seeing this brightly lit up Christmas tree....

Christmas to me is time for some fun gathering with families and friends....

Christmas to me is when I can ask Santa for..........

Dearest Santa,..can I have ALL these teddies,.....?

Christmas to me is wishing good tidings for everyone........

Christmas to me is happy holidays like this..............

Christmas to me is dreaming of snowfall and building snowman......

And most of all Christmas to me is wishing my readers here.......

And...............

No Tang Yeun For Me This Year......

Gosh, how fast another year has passby and it just came to my knowledge that today is Winter Soltice festival again. And for the first time in many many years I am not going to make this lovely syrupy colorful glutinous balls for the reason that I am too weak to even make it after 2 straight days of indigestion, vomitting, and diarrhea. To add to that 2 of my family members just recovered from food poisoning, one just days out of hospital. Moreover these glutinous rice balls is not good for the stomach if you have indigestion.So I guess this year I will be a lot younger without the 'tang yuen' as chinese belief after eating tang yuen you will be a year older.

Check out my last year's posting for 'tang yeun' here. As according to Chinese calender this year celebration falls on 21st December compared to last year's 22nd December. I would like to wish all my Chinese buddies here Happy Dong Zhi Festival.

Happy Mooncake Festival.....

As tomorrow is mid autumn festival or mooncake festival for the Chinese I had yet to make any mooncake jelly which I usually do every year. Due to my condo renovation here and rushing round town buying lightings and furnishing keeps me away from the kitchen most of the time. But I still do have some mooncakes given by friends and relatives to have a bite in. These days they come pack in beautiful boxes which could be recycle for other uses........



These are given by MIL .She never fail to buy us a box every year eventhough she is old and frail......




These were bought buy Janet .............

These sugar free ones are from Taiwan at rm6+ per small piece comes in heart shaped boxes.

A lotus paste mooncake with nuts and salted egg yolk....


These cute and tiny ones were given by niece Jocelyn. The fillings are red bean paste with melon seeds.


This expensive jelly mooncake with birdnest was bought by son H at rm 16.90 per piece for his dear mummy. I reprimand him that he should have ask me to make one instead of spending his pocket money on such an expensive item. But anyway it is the thoughts that counts and I am no where in my circumstances to make any this year. See my last year 's creation here.

Sister Karen's Christmas Party..............

I had wanted to post some pics on sis. christmas party.....but am too busy to do so......here they are..... the belated post..........

the expensive bird...... roasted turkey...............

the gingerbread man's house thats looks too nice to cut up......

guests helping themselves to so much goodies................

Sis.Karen carving some turkey meat for her guest....................

Grandma santa.......is coming to town.....Iris favourite shot...

sisters...........and christmas tree..........

some caroling.........