You do not need to bake these snow skin mooncakes. Once they are assembled, they are ready to eat. Mooncakes are eaten during the 15th day of the 8th month. This is the day we celebrate mid-autumn festival.
What’s the difference between mochi and snow skin?
I don’t really know who invented which first. But I do know, the way it is made is quite different, and the taste, too. But for some reason, many people think they are the same.
If you are looking for an easy way to make mooncake, then snow skin has got to be the way to go. They are so easy to make, it feels like you are cheating. There’s no baking required, no boiling or scalding. Just mix all the ingredients, and then rest the dough.
Mochi is harder to make, and we need to boil glutinous flour with water. It has a much more modern taste to it probably because it tastes Japanese. They are harder to handle and takes too much time for my liking. I’d rather do the snow skin.
I have used these recipes since 1985 to bake mooncakes. As a teenager, I used to teach my friends, relatives, boyfriends’ moms and mother how to bake mooncakes. I also made them to sell, and made the money I needed to pay tuition fees. So to me, mooncakes provides a livelihood.
Have fun making these, like I always do.
This recipe has stayed with me through the darkest moments of my life. When I did not have money to pay my tuition in the university, I made moon cakes to sell.
It is a 35 year-old recipe, still being used to this day.
If you wish to make a mooncake from scratch, you must first invent the universe.
This recipe calls for a few pre-prepared items: cooked glutinuous rice flour, lotus seed paste or azuki (red bean) paste. I will provide these recipes as soon as I get to type them in!
Mochi/Snow skin Mooncakes
Equipment
- Moon cake mold
Ingredients
Snow Skin
- 600 g Icing Sugar
- 225 g Cooked rice or glutinuous rice flour
- 120 g Lard
- 240 ml boiled water or any kind of juice (lightly boiled) for colour and taste
Optional
- A few drops Colouring or flavours if desired
Filings
- 1.4 kg Lotus Paste any flavour (matcha, white, yellow, black sesame, charcoal)
- 200 g Tasted Nuts or seeds (melon seeds, sunflower, cashew, macadamia, almonds, hazelnut) Whatever you like or can find that gives a crunch
Salted Egg Yolk Ingredients
- Salted Egg Yolks As many as you like, for every egg yolk used, deduct 15g of lotus paste
- 5 tbsp Chinese Rice Wine
- 5 tbsp Cooking Oil
Instructions
Cook Egg Yolks
- Combine egg yolks, rice wine and oil.
- Steam at 100C for 20 minutes (not longer or it will turn dry). Remove from heat and set aside.
Making Snow Skin
- Sift the rice flour and the icing sugar and place them in a large mixing bowl.
- Make a well in the middle of the flour and add in the lard, water and the flavouring and mix well.
- Let the dough set for about 20 minutes.
Make moon cakes!
- Depends on how big your mold is, the plastic ones will tell you how many grams of dough they can take, e.g. 80g. If the mold is for 80g of paste, divide the dough to 30g each.
- If marbling, use up to 10g of for vein color, and 20g for main color.
- Divide the lotus paste to 50g each. If you are using salted egg yolks, remove 15g for each egg yolk you use.
- Make sure to cover the unshaped mooncake lightly with flour so that the mold does not get stuck to the mooncake.
- Make into mooncakes by pressing into the mooncake moulds.
